Graham plays Maria Ramirez, a dancer who's had multiple run-ins with the law and is handed a community service order for Honey's dance centre after a stint in juvenile detention. Striving to break away from the bad influence of her ex Luis (Christopher Martinez), she falls in with a new dance crew that includes Brandon (Randy Wayne), Tina (Saychelle Gabriel) and Carla (Melissa Molinaro). Maria's group, dubbed High Def, get into a heated rivalry with Luis's 718 troupe, culminating in a reality TV face-off on Mario Lopez's Dance Battle Zone.
Honey 2 might be predictable and gleefully daft, but it's inoffensive and often entertaining thanks to Woodruff's energetic dance montages and a strong turn from Graham. The lack of grit or edge in Honey 2 is probably a deliberate ploy - this is a bubblegum depiction of the New York dance scene that'll hit home with its target audience of pre-teen girls, although stretching to a broader range of cinemagoer might prove to be more of a challenge. It's worth noting that an early (now removed) BBFC entry for Honey 2 showed a 12A version, yet the cinema release is a tweaked cut awarded a PG.
Honey 2 works best when it's raising the pulse for dance sequences and not indulging in rickety plotting and a cheesy romance between Maria and the slumming-it rich kid Brandon. The trash-talking crews help to keep the laugh-count high, although Lopez struggles with a couple of witless zingers as he's compering the fictional reality show. "Somebody call the cops because these guys just broke some of the laws of physics" being a particular highlight.
Woodruff's music video background stands him in good stead with the multiple montages, but the inclusion of Gabrielle's 'Dreams' suggests he had a momentary temporal slip to 1994 and the use of Los Angeles to double for New York robs the city of its personality somewhat. Ultimately, Honey 2 isn't looking to break any new cinematic ground, it just wants to entertain. It does, and there's no harm in that.
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