Jessica Alba left Honey with some mighty big dance shoes to fill. The 2003 Universal Studios film catapulted Ms Alba to fame, hot off her TV role in the post-apocalyptic series Dark Angel. But it’s worth remembering that Honey struck sweet gold in the glory years of dance-films. Many have ‘stepped-up’ ‘stomped the yard’ and ‘taken the lead’ since Save the Last Dance plié’d onto our screens and set the ballet bar in 2001.
Viewers hoping for the eagerly-anticipated follow-up film to recapture some of that initial Honey magic may leave theatres with a nothing other than a bee in their bonnet. To be fair, Bille Woodruff’s 2003 flick was hardly saturated with critical acclaim but it most definitely had rhythm, which not only inspired a string of similar street-dance movies to emerge but also made Alba into the bonafide Hollywood star she is today.
But we know the score. In what’s shaping up to be quite the year of the sequel, it would be unjust to judge every follow-up movie entirely on comparisons to the original. So in Honey 2 we have relative newcomer Katerina Graham (The Vampire Diaries) taking on the lead role as Maria Ramirez, who, since being released from juvenile detention, lives a life eclipsed by the legacy of Honey Daniels. Honey’s mother Connie (Lonette McKee) is now Maria’s foster guardian and attempts to shelter her away from the mean streets of Manhattan.
But despite her brush up with the law and what she believes to be relatively bleak prospects, Maria envisions a life far more glamorous for herself than the one she’s living. A simple part-time job at the local corner shop and sweeping the floors of Honey Daniels legendary dance studio will not do. While she’s left dispirited by her past hiccups, Maria is still plagued with desire to become a world-renowned dancer. But like every other dance movie to ever be released, we’re reminded of the overly-familiar catchphrase drummed into the narrative of the film that “It’s not where you’re from…but where you’re at!” 
And she just so happens to be ‘at’ a local Bronx nightclub when a chance encounter with a handsome dance studio volunteer Brandon(Randy Wayne) see’s her luck begin to change. It’s through his influence and “college-boy” mentality that he softens Maria’s guarded exterior and gets her to lead a group of unguided dancers called the HD’s. Together they perfect their moves to enter popular TV dance competition show ‘Dance or Die’, where they rival her former ‘718’ crew and bump heads with Maria’s slimy ex-boyfriend Luis (Christopher Martinez).
The dance-flick formula is one that seems to always prove highly successful with younger audiences, and Honey 2 reins in on some of those key ingredients to attract the teenage viewers. The slick routines are all courtesy of A-list choreographer Rosero McCoy, and with his past pupils including Beyonce and N*Sync, you’re guaranteed to be popping and locking right in your cinema seat. Aside from the sizzling sequences, you can’t fault the superb soundtrack which features some of the hottest new artists on the scene, including electro-pop quartet Far East Movement. What’s more, the love-story centered around Honey 2 plays out beautifully amongst a stylish New York backdrop.
Verdict:
While on very close inspection we manage to find some buried treasures deep within Honey 2, overall it proves to be a tired story within an exhausted genre. In the new age of Oscar winners such Black Swan successfully pushing the conventions of dancefilms, it will take more than a duplicated street dancing re-make to impress 2011 audiences. On the back of its preceding counterpart Honey, this sequel should defiantly have the teens piling in on June 10 2011 but many may find Honey 2 just a tad too sticky to enjoy.
2/5
