Plot
Honey is a sexy, tough music video choreographer who shakes up her life after her mentor gives her an ultimatum: sleep with him or be blacklisted within their industry.
Release Year: 2003
Rating: 4.7/10 (18,379 voted)
Critic's Score: 37/100
Director:
Bille Woodruff
Stars: Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer, Romeo
Storyline Honey Danels is a 22-year-old, sexy, tough-minded, part-black, part-Latina hip-hop dancer in New York's East Harlem who dreams of making it big as a music video choreographer. She teaches hip-hop dancing at a local youth center and encourages the local kids to attend to keep them off the streets and out of trouble. When luck shines on Honey in the form of a famous music video director, named Michael, who casts her in one music video, she's encouraged to make the transition from dancer to choreographer. But Honey's sudden success comes with a price when Michael refuses to take "no" for an answer to his sexual advances and then tries to sabotage her career by blackballing her out of the business.
Writers: Alonzo Brown, Kim Watson
Cast: Jessica Alba
-
Honey Daniels
Mekhi Phifer
-
Chaz
Romeo
-
Benny
(as Lil' Romeo)
Joy Bryant
-
Gina
David Moscow
-
Michael Ellis
Lonette McKee
-
Mrs. Daniels
Zachary Williams
-
Raymond
(as Zachary Isaiah Williams)
Christian Monzon
-
Bar Customer
Al Shearer
-
Bar Customer
Jull Weber
-
Joey
Laurieann Gibson
-
Katrina
(as Laurie Ann Gibson)
O'Neal McNight
-
Katrina's Friend
Kevin Duhaney
-
Otis
William Omar Tobar
-
Beat Boxer
Ivan 'Flipz' Velez
-
Street Dancer
Filming Locations: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $25,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $12,856,040
(USA)
(7 December 2003)
(1942 Screens)
Gross: $30,222,640
(USA)
(16 February 2004)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Honey's dog is played by Jessica Alba's own dog, Sid.
Goofs:
Continuity:
When Honey's dancers set up the benefit performance sign, it has a black background with white writing, but on the night of the benefit performance, it has pink writing instead.
Quotes: Honey:
It was everything I always wanted. But when I had got it, it felt like nothing, less than nothing.
User Review
It would have been impossible for this or any movie to be as sweet as Jessica Alba, but that doesn't keep it from trying.
Rating:
Any comparisons between "Honey" and "Glitter" are probably due to both
movies having script-work by Kate Lanier (who, funnily enough, isn't listed
on the completed movie)... and, of course, to their having slightly similar
plots. Except that "Glitter" is likely to be more of a black mark on Mariah
Carey's book than "Honey" is on Jessica Alba's.
This movie about a kind-hearted young woman in New York who uses dancing to
help the people in her neighbourhood (the people that she meets when she's
walking down the street... sorry, couldn't resist) and who's plucked from a
nightclub to become the Paula Abdul of the 21st century - she even has a
little mole on her face - is aptly named; it's as sweet-natured as its title
character and has little if any benefit on your system, except to slip down
nice and easy and leave not very much behind. It's filled with all the
realism you'd expect from the producer of "Legally Blonde" and "Josie and
the Pussycats," but it's not quite as much fun as either. Part of it is a
personal thing (the Rodney Jerkins-executive produced music that permeates
the movie isn't my thing, rhythmic though it is), but the thin,
originality-challenged scripting and silly dialogue are more of a problem;
when our bartender-by-night/dance-teacher-by-day heroine tells a kid "Your
flava's hot" it's a little embarrassing, although in fairness "Honey"'s
street talk doesn't make you wince as much as some other examples of this
kind of thing.
To be honest, the movie pretty much goes in one ear and out the other;
there's not a single truly dramatic moment, with the setbacks coming on cue
(when Li'l Romeo's character gets arrested it, and many other moments in the
movie, plays like a less-than-brilliant After School Special) and the
characters are right out of Cliches Central, from the almost saintly title
character to the sexually predatory rival dancer. (And note to the
filmmakers: as anyone who's ever watched MTV, VH-1 et al will confirm, music
videos don't credit the choreographer on screen... regardless of what the
one that plays next to the movie's end credits might say.)
But it's impossible to really hate "Honey"; the movie's too harmless and
good-tempered for anyone to get into a hissyfit over its drawbacks, and
though the R&B-flavoured cameos mean a lot of people who see this movie will
probably be going "Who's this Tweet person?" Missy Elliott is genuinely
funny in her very brief scenes. The dancing's also good, which is one of the
main reasons to go and see movies like this; and though it doesn't actually
seem to have anything like a narrative drive (it just seems to end instead
of climax), there have been worse movies from music video directors, e.g.
almost anything directed by Russell Mulcahy.
Oh yes, Jessica. She doesn't quite seem like the streetwise type, but she
isn't supposed to be; she looks the part and comes off reasonably well, as
well as having the edge over Jennifer Beals in "Flashdance" in that she
actually does most of her own dancing. This isn't really the best vehicle
for her, to be honest, but Jessica's an undeniable charmer on screen, and
far too sexy for this or anything she's been in (with the arguable exception
of "Paranoid") to be an unbearable experience. All she has to do is improve
her choice of scripts...
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