Good music, good acting, overuse of the word honey

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2003)

Did I get your attention? Well, scrap the subject... but not completely!
Right, I may well be biased, being a Jessica Alba fan, but I expected this movie to be a lot lot worse than it was! Granted, it ripped off many movies - Sister Act 2, Glitter and Save The Last Dance, but I thought that 2/3 of those movies were good in the first place. The 2 main child characters of Benny and Raymond were strongly performed, and Jessica Alba held the whole movie together like she understood the character. People have complained about not casting a "black" girl in this role, but it wasn't meant for one. It was meant for someone who could see both sides of the fence.
The music used in the movie drew me to it mainly, and I was far from disappointed. The music video scenes were good, and there were no shortage of classy cameos!
The messages about kids getting into trouble easily were not completely finished, but the story was all wrapped up well, with a happy ending like this family film should have been.
The faults of this movie are simple. It's no-where near original, they overused the word honey in the songs and dialogue, they didn't go into parts of the story deep enough - such as Honey's blossoming romance, her relationship with her parents, child abuse and troublesome teens. -Ok that sounds like there's a lot wrong with it, and it's true. But there's also a lot right with it.
Overall, I was entertained and touched for the movie, and by the end, I had the urge to get up and dance.