Rating: 
Summary: "Honey" is a good dance movie, but it should have been great
Review: It seems that about once each decade there is a dance movie that captures the popular imagination, an "Honey" is definitely an attempt to be in the mold of "Saturday Night Fever," "Flashdance," and "Dirty Dancing." Unfortunately while "Honey" is entertaining, and has some minor moments with regards to the dancing, it is not going to end up being in the league of those contemporary classics. Still, from the dancing perspective, "Honey" does come out ahead of "Save the Last Dance," but that is because Jessica Alba does more of the actual dancing than Julia Styles. However, she does not do enough of it and the routines are not as exciting as they should be.The story is rather incidental, because it is just an excuse to have people legitimately dancing as opposed to the musical tradition where people suddenly break into song and dance. Honey Daniels (Alba) wants to be a dancer. She works at a record store by dance and tends bar at a club at night, and when she goes off shift she struts her stuff on the dance floor. Honey also finds time to teach hip-hop dance classes at the local center. A toadie working for big name video director Michael Ellis (David Moscow) records her on the dance floor and he brings her in to save the day on a video shoot. The next thing we know Honey is not just dancing, she's doing choreography. Her big dream is not to be the next Paula Abdul, but to open up a real dance studio for the kids in the hood. Ellis derails Honey's plains, but the girl has got spunk, and, as everybody who has seen the ads for this movie knows, a pretty impressive guardian angel. The problem with the story is the director character of Michael Ellis. His idea of directing is a joke and I find it hard to believe that he is fooling every single one of these artists, except for the fact the story got written that way. But none of that would have mattered if the dancing had been presented a lot better. The character of Honey has lots of minor interpersonal problems that provide some breadth but not true depth of character, such as getting successful while staying tight with her best girl Gina (Joy Bryant), putting up with all the negative vibes from her mother (Lonette McKee), hooking up with Chaz (Mekhi Phifer) the barber, and keeping an eye out for brothers Benny (Lil' Romeo) and Raymond (Zachary Williams), who are a couple of at risk kids in the neighborhood. For those who showed up to see what Jessica Alba is like without the barcode they will see some strong similarities with Max from "Dark Angel" in that Alba's best moments are when she is acting the big sister. Whether dealing with escapees from Manticore or the kids in the hood, she connects with them. Her best scenes are with the kids and her dance class. The fault with this movie is not with the cast or even with the writers, the latter being excused because if you want to make a good dance movie the story is not as important as the actual dancing, so you if you want to go back and pull out the Andy and Judy bit about the kids putting on a show, that is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem with "Honey" is that the dancing is not as great as it should be. Honey is involved in a bunch of music videos, all of which involve real hip hop stars including Tweet, Ginuwine, Shawn Desman, Jadakiss & Sheek, Rodney Jerkins, and Silkk. But the presentation of the dancing almost always is less than inspiring. The initial scenes of Honey in the club set up things nicely, but director Bille Woodruff, a popular video director, must have really been aware that this was a big screen motion picture because there are only bits and pieces of flair for most of the movie. The fault is not with the choreography of Luther A. Brown and Laurie Ann Gibson, but with the way Woodruff is presenting things. We never seem to be getting an entire dance routine, just bits and pieces. The best set piece is probably the one with Ginuwine and the kids, but all we get is part of a rehearsal and the camera angles and cuts do little to enhance our enjoyment of the routine. Another part of the problem is that halfway through the film, Alba pretty much stops dancing as she turns into a choreographer. A great dance movie is predicated on the star doing the dancing, whether we are talking Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly or John Travolta and Patrick Swayze. Jennifer Beals can fool us with a body double, but that is not going to work twice, as Julia Stiles discovered. The proof of the pudding here is in the final credits, where we get to see a complete music video ("directed" by "Honey Daniels") and we are all sitting in the theater saying, "Yeah, we wanted to see more stuff like that!" A lot of people are going to enjoy this film, but most of those people are going to know that this could have been a lot better and that the fault here is not that of Alba but of Woodruff. How ironic that the credits for this film show us how what had been good could have been great.
Rating:
Summary: It's been done and done and done, but so what?
Review: I was told, many years ago, that if one did not have anything nice to say, one should say nothing at all. Can anyone imagine that rule being followed on Amazon? The board would be empty, pretty much. The problems with "honey" stick out like very sore thumbs, one can see every blemish during the previews, even on the poster. It seems the pretty young idealist from New York, I think it's New York, the film credits say Canada, a really urban Canada perhaps, teaches hip hop at "The Center", you know, one of those lovable, grimy city dwellings that cater to talented, racially diverse groups of young people who just gotta dance. Good thing too, because if ya don't dance in "The hood" ya gonna get "dusted" or Smoked" or whatever. There is only one way out kids, sing, dance and dance some more, if you are very lucky the local idealist hottie will be teaching the "Moves". The hottie in question is, debatably, the hottest hottie in all of Hottietown ( I don't know if this is Hottietown USA or Canada, it really doesn't matter). Jessica Alba is best known as the Sci Fi Hottie on "Dark Angel", I never saw the show, but I certainly saw Ms. Alba in the magazine ads and the "Got Milk" ads. Damn she's hot. Really hot. But this is the movies and so on we go with the endless roll call of Hollywood clichés, got a paper and pencil?, let's have the roll call. 1. Drop dead beautiful idealistic young hottie (I know that's redundant and I don't care)
2. Group of adorable scamps who are going to wind up in jail or the NBA of they don't get there big break dancing, singing, whatever.
3. Evil rich guy who wants to A. Tear down the beloved building where the crucial practice take place. B, seduce and destroy innocent hottie for his own nefarious purposes. C. Seduce and destroy adorable scamps recruiting them to a life of crime and bad dance numbers.
4. Colorful local characters with hearts of gold, sassy girlfriends, lovable barber and numerous characters recycled from "The Jefferson's" and "That's My Mamma" (yes I am that old, and who asked you anyway?)
5. Cliffhanger scenario where all will be lost if some large amounts of money are not raised just in time.
6. And of course the evil "other dancer" who seems ready to take Honey's spot when Honey refuses to do the casting couch hustle with the evil rich guy.
They used every toy in the box. Albas mother, a retired hottie, has noble ideas for her daughter, but is clueless as can be, at one point she actually says "You are 22 years old...you don't know what you want", to there credit, no one in the cast burst out laughing, the same cannot be said for the audience. As the time is running out and the noble Alba is faced with certain ruin if she can't come up with the cash, she is forced to resort to desperate means to raise the funds. I promise I won't give away the ending. Let's just say that it involves lots of adorable scamps handing out leaflets with the word "Benefit" on them, and the noble barber comes across with a place to perform (there were no barns available I guess), oh yeah and what movie like this would be complete without the established "big Star" coming to the rescue at the end. Anyone old enough to remember the Brady Bunch TV show will know that like Davey Jones, of the monkees fame, another celebrity with a big heart and a big name will suddenly;y materialize and save the day. Missy Eliot steals every scene she's in, she is easily the best part of this film, telling the evil dancer to "call MC Hammer and tell him you been stealing his moves" Ha Ha Ha, that never gets old. She could have said "Vanilla Ice" too, that would have been better, I think. But like in days of yore the lovable, energetic cast give it all they've got. They do handsprings and twirl around a lot and dance there little hearts out, gee I wonder if, in the end, Honey will triumph, and the new center will stay and "lil Romeo will see that the "home boys" he thought "had his back" were really just "wack" after all and will there be a lotta dancin and smilin during the end credits? I promised I wouldn't give away the ending and I won't. It would be easy to be critical of this film for the very same reason it should be praised. Given a choice I prefer that the glass be half full then empty. Even if we have seen this cornball story told a hundred times, there is always a generation of PG13 young people who will want to know that you don't have to sleep with someone to get ahead (it doesn't hurt to wear tiny tank tops that look like they were painted on though)that crime really does not pay, that people can overcome adversity (as long as they look really really hot and can dance). So what if we've seen it, perhaps some other people haven't, this will never go out of style and perhaps it never should.
Rating: 
Summary: Arrogant DVD production
Review: Every menu option comes with a long intro. You can't skip the previews. It's ridiculous. Don't encourage such arrogance by buying it. (Sorry, Jessica -- I'm a huge fan.)
Rating:
Summary: I loved Honey!!!
Review: Honey is an underrated, enjoyable little film about a wannabe dancer trying to make it big. It's considered by some to be the Flashdance of our generation, but I feel this film succeeds on many levels which Flashdance couldn't, taking the viewer deep into the heart, soul, and trials and tribulations of the heroine. I'd compare it more to Fame. Others compared it to the horrendous Mariah Carey bomb, Glitter, even though this film is far superior and executed quite nicely. All in all, the plot has been done countless times before and is chock full of cliche after cliche after cliche, but Jessica Alba's bright presence, great dance numbers, fun cameos, and (gasp!) some pretty good dialogue, make this way above average for the genre. I recommend Honey instead of the movies it ripped off because while those movies might entertain, at least Honey has heart. It's a fabulously fun time.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly More
Review: I popped Honey into my DVD player expecting a good hiphop dance movie- something similar to Save the Last Dance (although now after having seen both movies, these films cannot be fairly compared). What I got was a great storyline, a very talented supporting cast, great dancing- and a little something more. Alba brings a sensitivity and a depth to the character Honey, a sense that she's chasing after her life's dream, she just doesn't know what it is. While most dance movies focus on the main character and their obsession with dancing, this movie split that view two ways- into dancing, of course, but also into Honey's relationships and her passions outside of the hiphop club realm- which includes teaching a dance class at the Center her mom runs, a safe place for kids in the hood who want to get off the streets. The movie has an excellent message and is very well acted. The supporting cast- including a lot of kids (!)- is awesome, and Alba makes Honey a deep character that we grow to love and support. While the writers could have done more with the story and certain characters (such as Mekhi Phifer's), it was still very entertaining and suprisingly real and heartfelt. The star-studded hiphop cameos are great to watch, as are the numerous special features on the DVD, including the full-length music videos of the songs and videos shot in the film, a hiphop dance class, and great deleted scenes, blooper reals, and behind the scenes stuff. Great DVD, worth the money, you'll definitely be entertained.
Rating:
Summary: A Train Wreck On Film
Review: I can't believe anyone would give this movie five stars. This was one of the most boring, under-acted films I have seen in quite a while. I can't even believe this movie made it to theaters or DVD. At no point in this film did anything seem even remotely REAL. When Honey (Jessica Alba) leaves the CLUB out a side door and happens upon some neighborHOOD kids breakdancing in the alley I actually laughed outloud. A few minutes into the "conversatin'", between Honey and the home-boys a couple of WHITE cops ask the street crew to move. PLEEEEEEASE, this is so corny it's pathetic. Maybe it's because I'm not into Hip-Hop that I felt this movie fell way short of a any mark one might shoot for. It was just too calm, simplistic, and prejudice for me. The drug dealer who confronts Honey on the street outside her apartment was like a "G" rated cartoon character - he was so nice. Like I said, maybe I just don't get the whole Hip-Hop "thang", but whatever, it works for some. Fans of this movie may be upset with me, but I always call it as I see it. Save your money...I suggest buying Flashdance, it was doen much better, and is a LOT more believable. See ya next time: www.therunnninggirl.com
Rating: 
Summary: 90 minutes you'll want back
Review: I'm always a bit wary of Amazon reviews because I've gotten some bad ones in the past. This one tops them all in the "what were you thinking" category. The fact that this movie has a 4 star rating all but makes it impossible to trust the masses. This movie is so painfully, painfully, awful. I feel sorry for anyone who subjected themselves, as I did, to this joke. If I can sway one person from going through the same torture I did maybe it will be worth taking the time to write this. This is the 1st review I've ever written, and I wouldn't normally take the time. In this case however, I have to make an exception and warn you about the danger of this thing, whatever you want to call it. Sure Jessica is gorgeous, and if you must rent this to look at her, just stare at the cover for awhile. DON'T WATCH THE MOVIE INSIDE THE CASE!!!! There... I've done my part. You have been thus warned. What you choose to do from here I cannot be held responsible for. Good luck.
Rating:
Summary: "Honey" is a good dance movie, but it should have been great
Review: It seems that about once each decade there is a dance movie that captures the popular imagination, an "Honey" is definitely an attempt to be in the mold of "Saturday Night Fever," "Flashdance," and "Dirty Dancing." Unfortunately while "Honey" is entertaining, and has some minor moments with regards to the dancing, it is not going to end up being in the league of those contemporary classics. Still, from the dancing perspective, "Honey" does come out ahead of "Save the Last Dance," but that is because Jessica Alba does more of the actual dancing than Julia Styles. However, she does not do enough of it and the routines are not as exciting as they should be. The story is rather incidental, because it is just an excuse to have people legitimately dancing as opposed to the musical tradition where people suddenly break into song and dance. Honey Daniels (Alba) wants to be a dancer. She works at a record store by dance and tends bar at a club at night, and when she goes off shift she struts her stuff on the dance floor. Honey also finds time to teach hip-hop dance classes at the local center. A toadie working for big name video director Michael Ellis (David Moscow) records her on the dance floor and he brings her in to save the day on a video shoot. The next thing we know Honey is not just dancing, she's doing choreography. Her big dream is not to be the next Paula Abdul, but to open up a real dance studio for the kids in the hood. Ellis derails Honey's plains, but the girl has got spunk, and, as everybody who has seen the ads for this movie knows, a pretty impressive guardian angel. The problem with the story is the director character of Michael Ellis. His idea of directing is a joke and I find it hard to believe that he is fooling every single one of these artists, except for the fact the story got written that way. But none of that would have mattered if the dancing had been presented a lot better. The character of Honey has lots of minor interpersonal problems that provide some breadth but not true depth of character, such as getting successful while staying tight with her best girl Gina (Joy Bryant), putting up with all the negative vibes from her mother (Lonette McKee), hooking up with Chaz (Mekhi Phifer) the barber, and keeping an eye out for brothers Benny (Lil' Romeo) and Raymond (Zachary Williams), who are a couple of at risk kids in the neighborhood. For those who showed up to see what Jessica Alba is like without the barcode they will see some strong similarities with Max from "Dark Angel" in that Alba's best moments are when she is acting the big sister. Whether dealing with escapees from Manticore or the kids in the hood, she connects with them. Her best scenes are with the kids and her dance class. The fault with this movie is not with the cast or even with the writers, the latter being excused because if you want to make a good dance movie the story is not as important as the actual dancing, so you if you want to go back and pull out the Andy and Judy bit about the kids putting on a show, that is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem with "Honey" is that the dancing is not as great as it should be. Honey is involved in a bunch of music videos, all of which involve real hip hop stars including Tweet, Ginuwine, Shawn Desman, Jadakiss & Sheek, Rodney Jerkins, and Silkk. But the presentation of the dancing almost always is less than inspiring. The initial scenes of Honey in the club set up things nicely, but director Bille Woodruff, a popular video director, must have really been aware that this was a big screen motion picture because there are only bits and pieces of flair for most of the movie. The fault is not with the choreography of Luther A. Brown and Laurie Ann Gibson, but with the way Woodruff is presenting things. We never seem to be getting an entire dance routine, just bits and pieces. The best set piece is probably the one with Ginuwine and the kids, but all we get is part of a rehearsal and the camera angles and cuts do little to enhance our enjoyment of the routine. Another part of the problem is that halfway through the film, Alba pretty much stops dancing as she turns into a choreographer. A great dance movie is predicated on the star doing the dancing, whether we are talking Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly or John Travolta and Patrick Swayze. Jennifer Beals can fool us with a body double, but that is not going to work twice, as Julia Stiles discovered. The proof of the pudding here is in the final credits, where we get to see a complete music video ("directed" by "Honey Daniels") and we are all sitting in the theater saying, "Yeah, we wanted to see more stuff like that!" A lot of people are going to enjoy this film, but most of those people are going to know that this could have been a lot better and that the fault here is not that of Alba but of Woodruff. How ironic that the credits for this film show us how what had been good could have been great.
Rating:
Summary: Jessica Alba isn't pretty enough to pull this of!!!
Review: Jessica Alba plays Honey, a sweet and sunny girl who teaches hip-hop to kids at the community center even though her mother tells her that she should be pursuing a career in ballet. Honey is spotted by a director of music videos (David Moscow), and before you can say "That flava's hot!" she is lead dancer and choreographer. She is just about to achieve her dream of putting her students into a video starring Ginuwine when it turns out that the video director is interested in more than her dance skills. She turns him down and he fires her. Even worse, he fires the kids and makes her tell them. She doesn't mind losing the job except that she does not know how she will get the money to buy that building she wants to turn into a dance studio so that she can give kids an alternative to thug life. How can she raise the money? Hey, let's put on a show! Alba has a lovely smile and Joy Fisher (Antwone Fisher) adds some verve to the sassy best friend role. Hip-hop fans will enjoy seeing favorite performers like Tweet, L'il Romeo, and Missy Elliot. And the movie is very short, less than 90 minutes. This is the good news. The bad news is that it is just dumb, way past cheesy-but-fun into the realm of "From Justin to Kelly"-level you-must-be-kidding. Its efforts to be hip make it as instantly out of date as if the characters used words like "groovy" and "out of sight." When Honey is under pressure to improve her choreography for one video, she gives the dancers a (presumably very expensive) break and goes for a pensive walk, where she draws inspiration from the moves of kids playing basketball and jumping rope. I'm not kidding. It wouldn't be so terrible that the plot, dialogue, and performances were so poor if the movie's reason for being -- the music and dance numbers -- had more energy and style. Worst of all, the movie fails to take advantage of the talents of performers like the glorious Lonette McKee (Jungle Fever) and Mekhai Phifer, who pretty much stand around looking embarrassed.
Rating: 
Summary: gr8 movie
Review: this is a gr8 movie 4 a female teen age group. theres good music (hiphop mostly), hot guys, good dance routines n a good story line. this is tha kinda film that makes u jus wana get up n dance! its similar 2 save the last dance, which is anuva 1 of my faves...i jus cant chose between tha 2 now :S so wot if its original? its a wkd movie! luv jenn xx
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