Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Honey Blu-ray Movie Review

Happy feet, dizzy hips

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf April 19, 2012

Watching “Honey” today feels like stepping into a time machine, whisking viewers back to 2003, when CD sales were king, the average music fan knew who Jadakiss and Ginuwine were, and Jessica Alba was a fresh-faced actress working overtime to make a big screen impression in her first starring role. It was also an era when a young singer named Tweet had nothing to do with Twitter. Times have changed radically since the release of “Honey,” with its simplified let’s-do-it-for-the-kids exuberance and hip-hop worship, and while there’s a campy jolt to the feature these days, actual cinematic quality remains largely absent from the dance melodrama. As earnest as the movie is, it’s painfully overcooked and habitually corny, trying to capture the zeitgeist without much in the way of invention emerging from the script. It’s a colorful picture, terribly eager to entertain, yet it’s all so incredibly pedestrian, relying on crummy formula that felt outdated in the 1960s, back when Frankie and Annette were trying to save the world one hip thrust and blinding smile at a time.

Honey Daniels (Jessica Alba) is a young hip-hop dancer who dreams of making it in the world of music videos, but remains stuck working two jobs and teaching dance moves to easily distracted youth (Lil’ Romeo) at the local community center. Honey is blessed to have the support of her friends (including Joy Bryant) and family (including Lonette McKee), and her neighborhood pride is unmatched, but her talents are too big to ignore, leaving her unsatisfied. When a powerful video director who’s definitely not modeled on Brett Ratner in any shape or form (David Moscow, perhaps best known as young Tom Hanks from “Big”) catches Honey’s fluid moves at a club, he immediately wants to hire her for his next video, starting Honey’s climb up the ladder to be a famous, respected choreographer, thrilling loved ones. As her career ascends, Honey begins to neglect her once perfectly predicable life and community, which brings her to a difficult crossroads where she must decide between the glamorous hip-hip existence she’s always wanted or the home life she’s built from scratch, hoping to maintain her influence with plans to build a community center of her own.

“Honey” has a sincerity that’s hard to ignore, but surprisingly easy to dislike. This hip-hop drama set in the illustrious world of music video dancing is one stuffed bird, taking on numerous subplots to justify itself, pretending the feature carries some larger importance other than to display Alba’s glistening abs and moist lips. The screenplay has it all, including thugged-out urban plight, lecherous and rich white men (is there any other kind?), and messages galore on domestic abuse, parental abandonment, and the importance of dreams. However, nothing, outside of those abs, can disguise the fact that “Honey” is basically an updated version of “Breakin’ 2: Electric Booglaoo,” with Alba stepping into the Lucinda Dickey role and juvenile rapper Lil’ Romeo snagging the Shabba-Do lines. The sad thing is, the film never acknowledges its own mechanical nature. Instead, the picture chooses to ride out its excruciating collection of clichés, caricatures, and plot holes to the wheezing grand finale, trusting nobody will notice the formulaic nonsense as long as Alba wears tight clothes and bass-shellacked music is continually pumped out. It’s hard to observe anything but the absolute lack of inspiration in “Honey.”

The director, Billie Woodruff, is a veteran music video manufacturer making his big screen debut here. Unfortunately, Woodruff comes to “Honey” armed with only his MTV-esque instincts, leaving the viewer with an inescapable parade of low angles and distorted lenses that fail to serve the story. There are a lot of cinematic cosmetics and flashing lights in “Honey” to help distract from the plot -- the filmmaker continually pushes colors over content. Nevertheless, even with the sharp looking cast and parade of hip-hop cameos (Missy Elliot pops up as a major fan of Honey’s work), Woodruff can’t hide the fact that his lead character is made out to be nothing short of a saint. Though brightly played by a beaming Alba, Honey Daniels is about as cheery and insatiably generous as a fictional character can get. She’s a shimmering angel who saves the local youth from a life of crime with her dancing, tries to purchase a community center where the kids can seek shelter, and, though living in a fairly economically distressed part of town, never wears the same outfit twice. Alba does what she can with the role, but her Ebonics-heavy performance fits her awkwardly, leaving nothing but uncontrollable snickering when she has to spit out terms like “bling.”

Moments of dance are interspersed carefully throughout the film, but are never introduced fast enough to interrupt tedious asides like Honey’s romantic relationship with a local barber (a bored stiff Mekhi Phifer) or her eroding association with her high-maintenance friends. The dance sequences are winning, mostly because Woodruff finally finds himself fully in his element, with his music video instincts kicking in hard. Alba proves herself quite capable of shaking her moneymaker with the rest of the pros, and these sequences are the only pulse in the crayola-smeared script. Sadly, the unspoken subtext of the feature, in which Honey’s very profession is probably one of the more unexciting and played-out elements in the world of hip-hop, is never addressed.

Honey Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Despite its clumsy dramatics, "Honey" is a vivid motion picture. The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation maintains the colorful appeal of the film, with dominant hues emerging from wild costuming and intricate lighting, hitting the viewer with bold reds and blues, while urban exteriors expose darker greens and browns. The palette is always comfortable and expressive, extending to skintones, which sustain an acceptable sense of life. Grain is subtle, flavoring the image. Fine detail is quite healthy, revealing textures on faces, while interiors successfully display Honey's contrasting worlds of neighborhood decay and music video decadence, with deep, satisfactory backgrounds contributing additional dancer activity to study. There are minor instances of crush during club adventures with difficult lighting, but blacks are largely controlled. The print is mostly clean, with only a few noticeable imperfections.

Honey Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix is dealing with an onslaught of bass-heavy hip-hop soundtrack selections, most worked into the storyline, rendering "Honey" quite alert with low-end activity and a fullness of frontal force. It's a crisp, clean track, keeping in step with the musical events onscreen, while dramatics are preserved with solid dialogue exchanges, losing nothing to overwhelming club interiors and busy street life. Surrounds wake up on occasion, filling out crowd sequences, but it's not as active as hoped, lacking a real sense of pinpoint dimension to bring music video sequences to life. Scoring is less pronounced but remains understood. The BD carries an expected bounce and performance life, providing the film with its intended groove, lacking an extra punch of circular intensity to truly enliven the proceedings.

Honey Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the DVD boasted a commentary track, outtakes, making-of featurettes, and music videos, they've all been removed for the Blu-ray release. Not even a measly Theatrical Trailer remains.

Honey Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Honey" wants to inspire, entertain, and bring the masses to boogie, but it's clueless on how to tell a simple story. A director with a little more experience with actors and actual scripted scenes should've been the major concern for the production, not the multitude of ways to wet down Jessica Alba.