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Honey 2

5/10

Stars: Katerina Graham, Randy Wayne, Christopher 'War' Martinez, Lonette McKee, Seychelle Gabriel, Gerry Bednob

Director: Bille Woodruff

The only connection between this hip-hop dance movie and Honey 1 is that the action takes place at the dance academy established by Honey Daniels in the first film.

Maria (Graham) is released from juvenile detection to do community service there as a janitor. It isn't long of course before she's choreographing the college crew as they prepare for the Dance Battlezone competition in which most of the teams seem better than they are.

Maria's shady ex (Martinez), who bosses the previous year's winning crew, tries to win her back without success. 'I've changed,' she tells him. 'I ain't caught up in that bullshit any more.'

She quickly forms a relationship with her vis-a-vis (Wayne) at the academy, but guess what? 'I just found out,' he gasps, 'that my finals are the same day as the audition.'

Well, the wisp of a plot sees a shoplifting girl member of Maria's crew defecting to the opposition, but the film is almost all dancing, vigorous but hardly exhilarating, and interspersed with such familiar lines as 'C'mon, guys, we can do this' and 'I know what it's like to have people who believe in you'.

And, just when you think it's almost over, the final ends in a tie, and there's a dance-off more agonising than any penalty shoot-out on the soccer field. Graham is probably the best of a desperately moderate cast, while the dancing, as mentioned, is energetically efficient, but hardly anything to set the blood racing.

David Quinlan

USA 2011. UK Distributor: Universal. Colour (unspecified).
111 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 1, Swearing 0.

Review date: 06 Jun 2011