Plot: What’s it about?
Honey Daniels (Jessica Alba) is a gorgeous young woman, with the talent to dance like no one could believe. She can bust out moves until the break of dawn, but not just the latest crazes, as she can do her own dances. So she can design intricate dance moves as well, making her an all around talent that deserves attention. But Honey is not a professional dancer or choreographer, instead she labors at a record store. Her daytime job isn’t often enough to make ends meet, so she works nights as a bartender. This allows her to earn additional cash, plus have some social interaction and stay up on all the newest dances. When she isn’t at work, she spends time at a local community center, where she gets to indulge her dance desires. Honey teaches dance at the center, which means she can help others and keep herself up to snuff. The position isn’t a glamorous one, but she has a blast and it soon opens up a door for her. A talent scout sees her in action and sends the tape to Michael (David Moscow), a famous music video director. He likes what he sees and offers her an audition, which she nails and then some. Her performance leads to being name choreographer on his new music video, which puts her in high demand. But when she is swept into this new world, will she abandon her old world?
I could tell from the trailers that Honey was going to be a bad movie, an exercise in cliches, thin characters, and predictable turns. But I also knew that I would have to go see Honey, as the star was the incredible Jessica Alba. Her abs alone warrant a feature length motion picture, let alone the rest of her feminine splendor. Her brain must be a little off balance at times though, as she often chooses terrible projects to work on. Honey is as lame a movie as you can want, filled with retread situations and predictable moments. The movie is pure formula from start to finish, without even a remote attempt to go in new directions. The producers seem to have lined up a big name star in Alba, tossed in a couple other known talents, then just put the entire movie on autopilot. Alba is as hot as ever and makes Honey tolerable at times, but even her stunning body isn’t enough to keep this clunker alive. Her costars, such as Missy Elliott and Lil Romeo prove to be little more than names to slap on the promotional material. But as bad as Honey is, it does have some sweetness in there and of course, Alba is always fun to watch. I’d still have a hard time telling anyone to watch Honey, unless they were diehard Alba addicts. But if you have to own all things Alba, Universal’s release of Honey is a more than solid treatment.
The sole reason I wanted to see this movie was star Jessica Alba, who is laser hot, but picks the worst projects. In other words, I knew this would be a bad movie in advance, but I wanted to see Jessica’s moves. I am sure she would prefer to be known as an actress first and a hottie second, but let’s be honest, that will never happen. At least not while she gets involved in miserable projects like this one. As hot as she is, even she can’t survive too many more movies this bad, not without taking off some clothes. But Alba doesn’t seem to realize how bad this material is, or she just feels like she has to be good, even if the movie sucks. In any case, her performance is better than the movie deserves, but she’s still a little off. I loved Alba in Dark Angel, the doomed television series that turned her into a sensation. The show was thin, at best, but her presence made it more fun to watch. In this film, her presence adds some wonderful eye candy, but Alba seems to get lost in the terrible writing, so she isn’t in top form here. Other films with Alba include Never Been Kissed, Idle Hands, Paranoid, and Camp Nowhere. The cast also includes Mekhi Phifer (High School High, 8 Mile), David Moscow (Riding in Cars with Boys, I’ll Be Home for Christmas), and Joy Bryant (Carmen: A Hip Hopera, Antwone Fisher).
Video: How does it look?
Honey is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The image looks excellent and as per the visual design, is very slick and impressive. The print used shows minimal grain, debris, and other flaws, so the other elements can come through in fine form. The colors stream across the screen in bold hues, while flesh tones remain natural and never problematic. I was just as impressed by the contrast, which allows for a high level of detail and rich, well defined black levels throughout. All in all, this one almost hits the highest of peaks, but a few minor issues keep it down, though it is still an awesome visual presentation.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio track here is about what I expected, given that this is a movie about hip-hop dance. Although a Dolby Digital 5.1 track is found here, the material is driven by dialogue and low impact audio, so don’t expect a whirlwind of powerful audio elements here. The surrounds are visited to enhance the musical soundtrack, but aside from that, only a handful or so of scenes make use of the rear channels. This seems to satisfy the material however, as it never suffers and the front speakers handle the load rather well. The dialogue is crisp as can be and is never hard to understand, no problems whatsoever. This disc also includes French and Spanish language tracks, as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Jessica Alba provides her insights in an audio commentary, with additional comments by director Bille Woodruff. The session is brisk, with no real in depth information imparted, but of course, my ears are always open to Alba’s thoughts. This disc also includes a brief behind the scenes featurette, three music videos, a look behind the scenes of Blaque’s music video, and a reel of deleted & extended scenes.
