Honey is about as harmless and sweet as bee-nectar the title character it's named for. Honey Daniels (Jessica Alba from TV's Dark Angel) is just a sweet girl from the hood who just so happens to have mad skills as a dancer, and big dreams of busting out as a choreographer. In the mean time she tends bar at a trendy dance club, hangs with her gal pal (Antwone Fisher Joy Bryant) Gina and volunteers teaching dance at a local community center ran by her mother - the beautiful veteran Lonette McKee.

The hood in which she lives is of course beset by drugs and violence, but this is perhaps the most sanitized version of street-life you're going to see. Probably because the target demographic of this innocuous morality tale are a few years from being eligible to vote. Any one above this age is going to see the gaping holes in the plausibility of the story, but might just like it anyway because of a strong rap score as well as alot of walk-ons cameos by the likes of Missy Elliot and Ginuwine. It may also appeal to adults who are nostalgic for films such as Fame and Flashdance. In fact the fresh-faced Alba reminds some of a young Jennifer Beals crossed with Jlo. And though this is a paint by numbers part, she acquits herself well enough.

The story is as pat and processed as they come, still there's enough going on in this film in terms of the dancing to remain entertaining to even a cold cynic. Honey is discovered by a Video Producer David Moscow while strutting her stuff in the club, and before you can say Cinderella she's working as a dancer in videos and right away calling the shots as head choreographer. Through it all, Honey tried to keep it real by staying true to her friends and her commitment to help children avoid the pitfalls of the ghetto by getting them involved in dance and hip-hop.

She is pressured to attend a swank industry party that conflicts with Gina's big birthday party in Atlantic City. Her heart is further tried as during the party Moscow corners her in a bedroom and expects a little Honey in reciprocation for all the nice things he's done for her. She spurns his drunk advances and soon finds herself blackballed from the business. All of this is taking place as she's trying to save the Community Center from foreclosure, by putting up her big hip-hop paychecks as collateral.

With the help of her shorty's, her love-interest Chaz the Barber (Mekhi Phifer) and Lil Romeo whom she is endeavoring to snatch from the jaws of the ghetto industry of drugs, she sets out to produce a huge fund-raising benefit to save the center. Meanwhile back at Ellis productions things are falling apart because all the new rappers want Honey to do her fly-steppin on their videos. All of which makes Ellis (Moscow) do the obligatory begging scene that we cheer when Honey tells the slimeball to talk to the hand.

If you're in the mood for a hip-hop film with more happy faces than The Brady Bunch, Honey will divert you. Capturing its spirit exactly is the film's most celebrated cameo performer, Missy Elliott, who all but winks at the audience as she delivers her all-too over-written lines. Elliott's clearly amused at all this business, which is exactly the right attitude to have.