Weekend Movie Viewing

So what did I watch over the weekend? Akeelah and the Bee and High School Fantasy! Don't laugh. Wow, they were innocent and sweet and fun. I had totally forgotten I had this incredibly cheesy side of me that loved stuff like this.

Akeelah is about a smart black elementary school kid with a hispanic kinda boyfriend (but they're kids so it's very sweet and innocent) and a tough semi-bitter worried mom. Akeelah has a gift for spelling but she's in Crenshaw -- the hood-- and well, yadda yadda. The thing is predictable as heck but nonetheless very nice and fits into the sports/underdog/my hometown believes in me kinda flick. The formula kinda got to me sometimes but on the whole i loved it.

I've noticed this with a lot of "feel good" movies made by minorities in the US... cringeworthy scenes of nobility that...well, it makes a cold-hearted person like moi-meme kinda want to scream. I mean, honestly Mom Angela Bassett was so typical of the angry black woman who didn't achieve (because she was afraid of doing well ??????) but who wanted her daughter to do better (and to not be afraid of people hoping in her) that I thought, "Come on! I do NOT know anyone like this. I do NOT personally know any kid or smart should've-been people who was so afraid of success they gave up." But this kind of person exists in tons of movies and we are all supposed to nod our head understandingly. ::shaking head:: Ah come on! Then when we found out one of the local thugs had written a poem as a kid.... Ah come on! And the in despair mentor whose child had died and so was living on numbly..... Honestly, honestly??? Nah, that mentor was too kind and easygoing. (Hey, I'm a kind easygoing mentor. But the incredibly-educated mentor professorial types I've met???? Generally a bit elitist.) And yet, I liked this flick. So, am I cynical? But why did I watch the flick?

Then there was High School Fantasy! I watched this because honestly Scifi channel has been repeating itself way too often. One would think the channel had money to buy more flicks. Or would schedule themselves better. In this one, jock hottie and geekie hottie-ess join together to sing with evil villainess teenaged brother and sisters fighting them. So sweet, this flick. And my fave song was Status Quo. I think I watched this also because I have seen so many parodies of that status quo dance scene that I figured I should just go ahead and watch the thing. Way neat.