In my “Good Buy, Bad Sell” news… 2006’s highly underrated kid flick, AKEELAH AND THE BEE (LionsGate, $29) drops on DVD on Aug 29.
Now in case you missed it—as most of the country did—Akeelah is a bright young Black daughter (Keke Palmer) of single mom (former Oscar nom Angela Bassett) with an incredible capacity for spelling. She’s a really smart kid who (like most youngsters) is a little awkward, lacks some confidence and isn’t too sure what the point/purpose is of being smart. So sometimes she dumbs it down just to fit in. It takes a teacher, Laurence Fishburne, to show her the light embrace her brains and push her to do her best which leads, to well, you know... [Insert Big Uplifting Finale here!]
Think Rocky meets Search for Bobby Fisher. Akeelah was a hot little movie. Too bad we all slept on it—which is precisely what makes it a “Good Buy Bad Sell” is the marketing.
Sure, Starbucks showed love—they helped finance it and carried it in their stores. Good for them. Problem is Starbucks’ crowd ain’t the audience for this movie.
This is a movie for kids: inner city kids who feel pressured to dumb it down to double their dollars and for mass acceptance… girls who want a movie with a smart funny strong characters—both boys and girls… families who wanna see good uplifting flick about all kinds of kids beating odds with their brains…
So what does Hollywood do? They market the movie to mostly young white liberal coffee chuggers.
Real smart.
Hey, did anybody ever consider touring a high school or a grade school with this flick? How ‘bout a black church? Tyler Perry ain’t the only one eatin’ off of that angle. GospelFest brings 150, 000 a year, why not do a cheap $3 pre-screening there to build some buzz. They coulda done a school bus tour… get some of the cast and do some back-to-school stuff for Akeelah.
But no. We get standard press junkets, appearances on FOX, CNN and EXTRA with a bunch of hand-wringing about how there should be more movies with black actors in ‘em…
Whatever.
Alright... Of course there should be more flicks—good one that is. Why the Wayans fam have careers, I'm still not quite sure. But that's another entry. At least they're working hard and paying taxes. Anyway... If you’re too stupid to promote movies for black audiences to black audiences, and actually think the consciousness of mainstream America is gonna pack the house, then you probably deserve what you get. Which in this case is a movie going to DVD less that 5 months after opening in the theaters.
I wonder was that part of the plan? Not conspiracy theorizing per se, but more of the we-just-dont-want-to-waste-our-marketing-efforts/dollars-on-a-flick-that-might-not-break-$30-mill-at-best when we've got potential blockbusters to worry about thinking...
Anyway, Akeelah drops Aug 29th, so anyone who cares should grab a copy. I will.
Title: Akeelah and The Bee
Director: Doug Atchison
Starring: Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett
Year: 2006
