Honey
 

Box Office Info:
Cast:
Jessica Alba (as Honey Daniels)
Lil' Romeo (as Benny)
Mekhi Phifer (as Chaz)
David Moscow (as Michael)
Zachary Williams (as Raymond)
Joy Bryant (as Gina)
Jay-Z (as As Himself)
Tweet (as As Herself)


Directed By: Bille Woodruff
Written By: Alonzo Brown & Kim Watson
Produced By: Universal Pictures


Release Date (US): December 5, 2003

http://www.cinemasavvy.com/h/images/honey.jpg


Summary:
This is the story of Honey (Alba), a tough sexy dancer from the inner city, who becomes a successful music video choreographer, a career which is threatened when her mentor makes her either sleep with him... or get blacklisted within the industry. She ultimately decides to pursue her lifelong dream of opening her own dance studio for inner-city youths. Lil' Romeo plays a young dancer who has to choose between pursuing a career as a dancer and the quick money of street drug sales; Phifer plays Honey's romantic interest.



I think I'll wait for the DVD

Yeah, me too.

I seen the previews, it looks alright but it reminds me of that one movie Save the Last Dance (I think that's The name of it).

Does anyone know if the following people are African-Americans?

Directed By: Bille Woodruff
Written By: Alonzo Brown & Kim Watson


If so, I might catch it the theater on opening weekend so we can keep more Blacks behind the camera.

I heard about this a little while ago & reading the description now I think I'll wait for the DVD also:rolleyes:

This really pisses me off.

I have a sands who is a writer. MTV is currently trying to get her to re-adapt a story she had written that was basically a drumlime-type story but with BGLOs. They said it looked like she was writing a movie for her and her "friends" and that no one would see it except "us."

Mind you some white guy is simultaneously shopping a story about a white guy who is "pledging" a BGLO. Ugh...

They said that the sistah in the move should have some shite friends, maybe a white roommate, perhaps the main character could be white and that the Black female could just be the white girls friend who happens to be in a Black Sorority. Mind you they said they wanted a movie that showcased stepping, and all that Black sororities are about. Her focus was basically community service (of course) and the way that influences the art of stepping and some other artsy-fartsy relation to that and sisterhood and etc., etc. (she's real artsy-fartsy).

My point is, how is the white chick (read: not Black) going to star in a move in which the entire cast is Black?

I am sick and tired of these movie execs acting like our story isn't worthy. Our story wouldn't make money. Our story has to have white folks in it or it's not real. Why can't our story just be our story, without the usual over-romanced storyline (Brown Sugar, etc.) While I am thankful for the positive portrayal that is offeered in these flicks...What's worse is when you have Black writers telling our story then it's not good enough, but when white folks do...or if it has enough white folks in it...then it's okay.

Could there not have beena sistah playing the lead role in this movie?

Sorry, I saw the trailer for the movie last night and almost barfed on myself. Jessica Alba, give me a fu__ing break...she's the friggin' new flavor and "they" are trying to blow her up. Period point blank. Good for her...otherwise, boo...just BOOOOOO!!!!!

Bille Woodruff is Black as is ALonzo Brown...I am unsure about Kim Watson. I bet you a miliion dollars (I am mad I said that) that the lead was a Black girl...I bet!!!

We are in a bind here because based on the ethnicity of the writers and director, and it's his directorial debut, one wants to support, but it's not okay white people...it's not.

I was thinking the SAME thing..... Save the Last Dance, the 2003 version.

I'll wait for the DVD or for it to come on cable.

If you saw Jessica Alba on Punk'd, that guy that was with her that looks like Tevin Campbell is Billie Woodruff. I was starting to wonder if they were an item because every premiere she went to, she had him as her date.

:eek: What?
I sensed a little *you know* from him (insert Fred Sanford hand gesture here) . :confused:

That wouldnot be surprising.

Besides, wasn't she engaged to that guy from her show Dark Angel??? HE was a cutie.

Billie Woodruff definitely has on a DIRTY SHIRT!!! ;)

The preview reminded me more of a modern day Flashdance than anything. I wasn't planning on spending money on it.

Uh. . . I think I'll just wait for y'all to come back and tell me about it. . .

Yeah they can tell me all about it while I am watching the LOTR: TT Special edition DVD, lol.

I think I'll just wait for it to come on Black Starz late one night

won't watch this one - will watch another
 

I am not going to be watching Honey since I don't like Mehki Phifer, but I will be watching the remark of Can't Buy Me Love called Love Don't Cost A Thing with Nick Cannon, Steve Harvey and Christina Milian. I enjoy watching Nick Cannon and I am going to be at the movies with every other teenie bopper in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

click here for the movie's website

click here for a story about preproduction on the movie

I saw that last night. :o

Girlllll, I might haveta visit the bootleg man. :o

Tell Steve he ain't John Witherspoon. :rolleyes:

I have to side with the majority and wait for the video.

I love to dance and dancing is all in my blood but this does remind me alot of Save the Last Dance. I mean I could just watch that and insert some hip hop stars and it will be Honey. BUt they are really blowing this movie up like it has an original concept.......OHHHHH BTW, did anyone hear about the guys that are suing the wroters and producers of Drumline proclaiming that Dallas Austin stole his idea after he told him the storyline.

It doesn't surprise me that someone is suing, but it really wouldn't surprise me if Dallas did actually hold onto the story he heard from someone else. He is something else here in Atlanta and though there is no doubt that he is talented, he also has a reputation of doing things that don't require the most morals in the world.

I like dance movies too, but I don't see myself doing the Honey thing.

I didn't know that Dallas had a bad reputation in Atlanta. I thought everyone held him in high regards.

I have to agree that I won't be supporting this movie. It really pisses me off that they blow up all these non-black girls for things that "we" have been doing for years. There are hundreds of black girls on the grind that can dance. Black women have been having big butts and major body for years. J. Lo steps out of the shadows and suddenly, it's popular to be shapely. The list goes on. How are you gonna make a hip-hop style movie with a majority black cast, but the star has to be a white girl? Yet, I will disgress before my blood pressure goes up...

I will save my dollars and support real movies, not cheap ploys to make money off our people. They know that Missy, Mekhi, Lil Romeo, and all "our" other big name stars that they have in the film will draw a crowd, but guess who will make all the cash and get the recognition?

Is this director the video director Billie Woodruff?

LOL. Sistagreek, I use that saying ALL THE TIME!!!!!! Borrowed it from Adele Givens. I agree, his shirt is definately dirty!!!

Yeah. The former BET intern/worker.

The chick who plays in Honey seems like she could play Winter in "The Coldest Winter..."

As luck would have it, I have FREE passes for BOTH of these movies. One for Friday, one for Monday! So I'm going to check them out because it's free. I would not have paid for them!

Jessica Alba is actually Hispanic but I agree. Sometimes I think why not have a black girl? But you have to realize that is how they sell the movie to mainstream America. If there is a black male lead and a black female lead, then it becomes (gasp) a 'black movie' and they don't want that. I never saw 'Save the Last Dance' for the same reason.

You don't have a Black girl character with a Black boy character because the people making the movies are thinking Where's the intrigue? Where's the conflict? They always have to beat us over the head with some kind of racial commentary to legitimize the ridiculous story that they are trying to tell. In addition, they was do reach out to a market that is touched by one or the other. Supposedly, "white" people will be drawn to Jessica Alba going the hip hop route as opposed to the ballet route and Black people will be drawn to Mehki Phifer/Missy/Farnsworth Bentley/Lil Romeo/etc. respecting and accepting her as one of their own. It's been done . . . and I am not a Mehki fan . . . isn't he the one from The Boy Is Mine video??

That would be him.

I didnt see Save the last Dance for the same reason, but I finally saw it on HBO last year, and it was pretty good. I forget dude's name but he is FINE. lol

I saw the commercial (On BET, no less) for Love Dont Cost a Thing. hmmmm...I'll have to see it b/c Christina Milian is from here (Waldorf, MD to be exact). Gotta support local talent.

I won't be seeing Honey b/c Mekhi Phifer b/c he's a super BUSTER.
:mad:

Dang, did I really say "they was do"? I meant they want to . . .

I looked on the internet to find out more about this Mehki Phifer -- a buster indeed. I hate to say this, but I was getting him confused with Omar Epps. I was like is he the one from LOVE AND BASKETBALL? -- not so much . . . is he the one from THE WOOD? -- shucks, not so much . . . is he the one from that En Vogue video from the SET IT OFF soundtrack? -- that's the one.

What's it gonna be
Cuz I can't pretend?
Are we gonna be
More than friends?
Hold me tight and don't let goooooo,
Don't let goooooo . . .

My thoughts, exactly...

Also Mekhi was in Soul Food as Lem, Clockers and 8 Mile..he's juicy to me :)

He is forever playing the thug, hoodrat, gangsta, heathen, jailbird role . . . and now he is the rapper/dancer/video guy in love with the ballerina-gone-video-shake-dancer girl . . . I vote no to this one.

That's where I get it from as well. LOL

"Honey" Reviewed
 

Friday, Dec 5, 2003, 11:32 am EST

"Honey" Reviewed
NY Post

-----------------------------

HONEY

The hip-hop "Glitter."

Rated PG-13 (language). Running time: 96 minutes. At the Chelsea, the Kips Bay, the Union Square, others.

THERE is nothing mean-spirited about "Honey," a star vehicle for Jessica Alba that draws heavily on "Flashdance," "Fame" and those trend-exploiting dance movies of the mid-`80s.

And for fans of the toned female midriff, it may feature more undulating tummies than any film ever made, outside of training films for belly dancers.

Indeed, it sometimes seems as if the filmmakers, led by director Bille Woodruff, visualized Alba`s own peculiarly long torso (which looks like it has been twisted into a strangely snaky shape by some radical new Hollywood workout) as the centerpiece of the movie, and that storyline, character, etc., were mere afterthoughts.

Because "Honey" lacks even a trace of imagination.

Its by-the-numbers plot is depressingly familiar, and each line of dialogue is so predictable that the script (credited to Alonzo Brown and Kim Watson) could have been generated by a computer.

And its pretty young star - though perfectly credible and charming in suburban-set teen flicks like "Idle Hands" and "Never Been Kissed" - is all but impossible to believe as a Harlem "hoodrat."

Her J.Lo-esque character is given a mixed race mother (Lonette Mckee) to explain her pale complexion, but Alba`s occasional attempts at the "yo" accents and dialect used by all her ghetto friends and neighbors are so unconvincing, you wonder why the producers didn`t just cast Sarah Michelle Gellar or Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Honey (Alba) is a young dancer and choreographer whose dream is to become a dancer in music videos, but she`s devoted to teaching dance to underprivileged kids in her neighborhood recreation center.

One night, while dancing in a club with her pal Gina ("Antwone Fisher`s" beautiful Joy Bryant) she`s spotted by video directorMichael (David Moscow).

He instantly recognizes the freshness and supposed street-authenticity of her moves and hires her as a dancer on his new video. Naturally, within minutes of turning up on set she`s been promoted to choreographer.

And as soon the video comes out she becomes a star, choreographing more dances for top hip-hop talent and turning up at tacky glamorous parties on Michael`s arm.

Unfortunately, it means she has no time to hang out with her old friends in the `hood, date nice barber Chaz (Mekhi Phifer) or teach cute kids like Benny (Lil` Romeo) and Raymond (Zachary Isaiah Williams) who then start to fall in with a bad crowd.

It takes a little longer than you might expect for Michael to finally show his sleazy side, make a crude move on her, and then do his best to unmake her new career after she refuses him.

But the third act in which she returns to the `hood, discovers that her old dance studio has closed down, and organizes a benefit to raise money for a new one has a kind of perfunctory, let`s-hurry-this-along quality.

There`s an entertaining cameo by Missy Elliott as herself, but the talents of Phifer, a fine actor in films like "Clockers" and "8 Mile" are simply wasted.

NY Post

Yeah, I agree with you--that really SUCKS! :mad: And as soon as I saw the trailer, I thought :
1.) This movie looks like a bunch of others I've seen before (ie. Save the Last Dance, Flashdance, etc.).
2.) WHY oh WHYYYYY did the lead character have to be Jessica Alba, a Latina? Don't get me wrong, Latinas are my peeps, but this is--other than Jessica--a "Black" movie with an all-Black cast.

So, what was the reason of putting her in the spotlight? I think it was b/c of the fact that someone seems to think that without her (or someone else of another persusuasion other than African American playing the lead role), it would basically be an all-Black (i.e 'just another 'ole Black') movie. Newsflash--that's what it is anyway--the idea is NOT original... I also think that the directors purposefully chose a Latina as the lead to cash in on the whole J.Lo/ Latina Sensation thing...

It's really sad b/c there are many, many legitimate and interesting stories out there to be told, esp. by "our people", movies to be made, that never see the light of day...:(

I thought Jessica Alba is multiracial... Like somebody in her ancestery of was of African descent... 'Cuz girlfriend was in that movie with the little Charlie's Angel producer/actress and if Jessica didn't use a relaxer, her hair would need a pick...

Really, does it matter? The fact is somebody is still trying to ride this hip hop/gangsta rap wave from the 90's... When alot of that stuh is beginning to die out--like it's getting old... Like R. Kelly and Michael Jackson are getting busted again for pedophilin'...

This movie is not even good enuf to view on XETV's Channel 6's Galavision 2 PM Saturday Kabuki Theater in Espanol with Tagalog subtitles...

It is a wonder how it ever got green lighted to get made in Hollywierd...

It ain't even got the flava of "I've got the hook up" with Percy and the gang...

But that's my take...

What did y'all expect?

I won't be watching either movie. I prefer the orginals to the remakes.

Got my copy fresh off the burner :D Will give a full review within the next few days. Monday and Tuesday's are blocked with my UPN shows looks like Wednesday is Free for Movie Review night.

Her mother has a French-Danish heritage, while her father descends from Mexican- Indian and Spanish lineage..
courtesy of IMDB.com


I won't see this mess not only because its the typical "white girls fits in and makes in the black world" storyline, but....well that's probably it. Plus, I am still shell-shocked from trying to watch Mariah Carey's Glitter! :eek: DON'T DO IT!!!

friends don't let friends rent Glitter

```````````````

Now Love Don't Cost A Thing looks like the black version of Can't Buy Me Love, which was a cute movie (or at least I liked it). I may watch this when it comes out on PPV.

I actually saw Honey when it came out this past Friday. It wasn't a great movie but it wasn't horrible either. I actually enjoyed it. Maybe because my expectations were low. Nevertheless, it was okay with me.

However, I will not pay money to see Love Don't Cost a Thing, whatever the title of that movie is. I can't stand Nick Cannon. He's on TRL with Ruben right now. I don't know why but Nick Cannon just urks me. He ruined Drumline for me.