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xsBusiness - Spellbound
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List Price: $14.94
Our Price: $5.66
Your Save: $ 9.28 ( 62% )
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Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Angela Arenivar, Ubaldo Arenivar, Jorge Arenivar, Mr. Scott McGarraugh, Mrs. Lindy McGarraugh
Directed By: Jeffrey Blitz
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781404947597
Format: Dolby
ISBN: 1404947590
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Release Date: 2004-04-06
Running Time: 97
Studio: Sony Pictures
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: You will be spellbound
Comment: I am a big fan of documentaries and I just love this one. I show it every year to my high school freshmen just before the Scripps National Bee. They moan and groan at first. (It is, after all, a documentary.) But by the end they have particular favorites--and we are all on the edge of our seats watching the final competition. Good stuff!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: fun, engaging, and inspiring
Comment: I love good documentaries, so I thought this might be a fun one to see, and it was even better than I expected. At times the kids it followed were the source of a lot of humor, at other times I found myself becoming really drawn into the drama of this great competition, and I was never bored throughout the whole movie. I especially liked how it followed several kids from different backgrounds. You really get a feel for the great diversity because of that approach.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Kids with awesome work ethic
Comment: I really enjoyed this movie primarily due to seeing how hard the kids worked to achieve their goals. Yes, the parents were highly involved, one in particular a bit too much, but the kids were highly self motivated and it showed in their work ethic and dedication.
There was a comment earlier about how a poor student could never win the Bee. And I will admit, it was eye opening to see what some of the more affluent parents put into training their kids (language tutors, spelling tutors). I still thought the fact that Ashley White and Angela from TX made this as far as they did showed poor kids could have a chance of winning. I thought they did great. I was really, really upset learning what happened to Ashley White as she moved to high school. Another teen parent, it made me more incensed at her mother. I really disliked her throughout the movie. She had no clue the opportunity this Bee was for her daughter, a great networking opportunity to help match her daughter up with mentor to get her out of the typical SE DC mentality. All she seemed to care about was the $10,000. Just a sorry excuse for a mother.
As you can see the movie really draws you into the kids lives. Definitely a great movie to own!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Spell bound
Comment: It is amazing! One of the best documentaries I ve seen in a long time. It is funny and entertaining. Geeky but definitely has a sense of humour!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Spellbound
Comment: The crowd-pleasing quality of "Spellbound" comes from the likeability of the eight kids featured, and the laudable values of self-discipline and self-improvement reflected in the parents' encouragement and coaching of their gifted progeny. Part of the fun, too, is trying to guess which of these word wizards--a boy from rural Missouri, an African-American girl from Washington D.C., a precocious child of privilege from suburban Connecticut--will triumph, but visibly agonized, socially awkward Harry Altman, from New Jersey, is the film's de facto icon. "Spellbound" will jangle your nerves and charm your socks off.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Who would have thought that a documentary about spelling-bee contestants could be as suspenseful as a Hitchcock thriller? Spellbound, which follows eight kids from their early victories in regional spelling bees to the national competition in Washington, D.C., is an out-and-out nail-biter. Each of the kids--who range from a quietly driven African American girl from a run-down D.C. neighborhood, to a genial Connecticut girl who talks about bringing her au pair to a previous competition, to an almost zombie-like boy whose immigrant father has paid 1,000 people back in India to pray for the boy's success--gets captured so vividly that you can't help but get emotionally immersed in their brave, nerve-wracking struggle to spell slippery, treacherous words. Along the way, Spellbound contrasts the crazily different populations that make up the U.S. and shows how this facet of intelligence truly makes everyone equal on the podium. A riveting, wrenching, must-see movie. --Bret Fetzer
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