Honey (2003 film)

Honey is a 2003 American dance film directed by Billie Woodruff (in his feature film directorial debut). It stars Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer, Romeo Miller, Joy Bryant, and David Moscow, with a cameo by Missy Elliott and featured performances by Tweet, Jadakiss, Ginuwine, and Blaque.

Honey
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bille Woodruff
Written by	Alonzo Brown Kim Watson
Produced by	Marc Platt Andre Harrell
Starring	Jessica Alba Mekhi Phifer Joy Bryant Lil' Romeo
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Edited by	Mark Helfrich Emma E. Hickox
Music by	Mervyn Warren
Production company	NuAmerica Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 5, 2003 (2003-12-05)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$65.3 million

Plot

Honey Daniels works as a bartender, a record store clerk and a dance teacher at a NYC community center run by her mother. She wants to become a hip hop choreographer, though her mother presses her to teach ballet uptown.

Honey and her rival Katrina are recorded having a dance off. She and her friend Gina find brothers Benny and Raymond street dancing and invite them to her classes. The dance-off video reaches video director Michael Ellis, who hires Honey as a backup dancer and later as a choreographer. Her career brings money and fame, but takes her away from the center and the neighborhood kids.

After Benny gets into a fight, Honey hires him as her assistant to keep him out of trouble. She convinces Michael to hire her students as dancers in Ginuwine's new video. Honey begins dating Raymond's barber Chaz, who inspires her to prioritize her happiness over fame. She puts down a deposit on an old store she can turn into a dance studio. Michael insists Honey go with him to an "important meeting," causing her to cancel the birthday trip with Gina. The meeting turns out to be a networking party, where Michael drunkenly hits on her. She slaps him and leaves. Gina is furious to see a photo of Honey at the party. At the Ginuwine shoot, Michael fires Honey, replacing her with Katrina.

Benny returns to drug dealing, only to get arrested and land in juvie. Honey then visits him and tells him that she is aware of his pending release and mentions that she wants to help him once he is released. At this point, Benny starts to insult her. Honey attempts to express disappointment about his choices but Benny continues belittling her and tells her to leave him alone. As she prepares to leave, Honey manages to ask Benny how often do his gangster friends come to visit. causing Benny to become visibly saddened and silent. Honey then departs and he instantly regrets his rudeness towards Honey realizing that she was the only one that cared enough to visit him due his own mother and brother’s refusal to see him because of their disappointments in him. Benny realizes that he has mainly disappointed himself for making wrong decisions that could get him imprisoned for life or killed.

Gina eventually forgives Honey, and encourage her to trust in herself. As Honey's income dries up due to Michael's influence in the industry, she is unable to pay the remainder of the store's down payment, which will soon go back on the market. Honey decides to hold a dance benefit and newly-released Benny brings his dance friends to help, teaching them some moves he learned while in juvy.

Michael pushes Katrina as choreographer for a Missy Elliott video, but Missy prefers Honey. Having realized his huge mistake, Michael profusely apologises to Honey and begs her come back, offering to buy her the studio. Realizing that he is in major trouble with his artists, Honey calls him out on his hypocrisy. She stands up to him and tells him that he is selfish. She then rejects his offer and makes him realize that not only did his selfishness and arrogance cause Honey to be blackballed and fired but he intentionally betrayed the kids and took his anger out on them and he did it out of pettiness and absurdity.

Gina's bank manager asks arts donors to attend the benefit, which is a full house and everyone is enthusiastic about the performances. Honey's mother sees that the dance form her daughter loves can give her everything that ballet could. The bank manager assures Honey the building is fully funded.

Missy arrives as the benefit finishes, rushing in to meet Honey. She introduces Honey to Blaque at her new dance studio, The Bronx Dance Center, to prepare their new video.

Cast

• Jessica Alba as Honey Daniels, a hip-hop choreographer
• Mekhi Phifer as Chaz, a barber, Honey's boyfriend
• Romeo Miller (credited as Lil' Romeo) as Benny
• Joy Bryant as Gina, Honey's best friend
• David Moscow as Michael Ellis, a music producer
• Lonette McKee as Mrs. Connie Daniels, Honey's mom
• Zachary Isaiah Williams as Raymond, Benny's brother
• Laurie Ann Gibson as Katrina, Honey's rival

A number of popular hip hop and R&B musicians, groups and producers play themselves in prominent cameos, including Missy Elliott, Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, Shawn Desman, Ginuwine, Rodney Jerkins, 3rd Storee, Tweet, and Blaque.

Production

The film is inspired by the life of choreographer Laurieann Gibson, who was the film's choreographer and appeared on screen as Katrina, the main character's rival.

Singer/actress Aaliyah was reportedly originally cast as Honey, though the role was later recast to Jessica Alba due to Aaliyah's death in August 2001. However, in 2020, director Bille Woodruff debunked the rumor, stating: "That’s incorrect. It was supposed to be Beyoncé. That’s been widely reported but it’s incorrect, [Beyoncé] couldn’t do it because of her touring schedule for her first album Dangerously in Love."

Reception

Critical response

Honey was released to mostly negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 21% based on reviews from 116 critics, with an average rating of 4.20/10. The critical consensus reads, "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Metacritic, based on 30 reviews, gives the film a score of 37 out of 100, signifying generally unfavorable reviews.

A. O. Scott of The New York Times was one of the critics to give the film a positive review, noting that it "brings out the wholesome, affirmative side of the hip-hop aesthetic without being overly preachy, although it will not impress anyone with its originality."

Box office

The film opened at #2 at the U.S. box office, earning US$12.9 million in its opening weekend, behind The Last Samurai. The final box office was $30.3 million in the U.S. and Canada and $31.9 million in other countries, for a total of $65.3 million worldwide.

Music

Main article: Honey: Music from & Inspired by the Motion Picture

A soundtrack containing hip hop, R&B, funk and disco music was released on November 11, 2003 by Elektra Records. It peaked at #105 on the Billboard 200 and #47 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.

Sequels

Bille Woodruff, the director of Honey, also directed three sequels, the theatrically released Honey 2 (2011) and two straight-to-video sequels Honey 3: Dare to Dance (2016) and Honey: Rise Up and Dance (2018), each with different casts.

External links

• Honey at IMDb
• Honey at AllMovie