Honey: Rise up and Dance - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Honey: Rise up and Dance

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

​

Movie
I have a strange fascination with these “dance” movies that were all the rage in the early 2000 era. Movies like Honey, Step Up, Stomp the Yard, and You Got Served have added a new urban flavor to what was originally something completely ballroom (or table dancing, depending on the 80s film) and I’ve ALWAYS had a deep appreciation for the amount of sheer skill that it takes to perform moves like they pull off. It also seems that the DTV world is ripe to keep the momentum going, as many of these films have passed 4 or 5 in the sequel list (Step Up has it’s 6th movie coming out soon I believe). Most of them are abysmal failures at keeping up with the original, but like a martial arts movie, we’re not here for the acting. We’re here to watch bodies move on the dance floor.

Honey: Rise up and Dance is the fourth film in the franchise and it continues the downward spiral of the series. Honey was a decent enough dance movie that starred Jessica Alba, and for that reason alone I have it in my collection (don’t judge! Every 20 year old male who saw that film was in love with Alba). And it was followed up by a fairly mediocre sequel. Past that, I didn’t see much life left in the franchise, but for some reason the powers that be put out Honey: Dare to Dance back in 2016 and I SWORE that would be the death knell for any more films. Nope, this time we have a FOURTH film, and it’s about what you would expect, just with worse choreography (which is sad, the 3rd film’s choreography really wasn’t that bad) and even worse acting.

This time we’re back home in the states, and the Honey dance crew is back at it again. Skyler (Teyana Taylor) is senior in high school who just dreams of dancing. Her sister is the “talented” one in the family, and has been dancing her whole life (and getting a scholarship out of it), while Skyler is the “smart” one who’s talents shouldn’t be wasted trying to dance. Well, There’s an opportunity for Skyler to get in on the elite Pulsar dance squad that her sister is a part of and low and behold, she makes it! (somehow this hobby dancer is better than most other dancers).

While Skyler is now becoming part of the dance squad she has to battle a whole HOST of new things in her life. She’s got her sister jealous at her for the new found success (even though she swears she isn’t), and her boyfriend Luke (Joel Rush) is suddenly pushed to the side lines for no apparent reason when the hunky Tyrell (Bryshere Y. Gray) comes into the picture. Tyrell is this mysterious underground dancer who actually turns out to be the misfit son of her dance instructor. Which adds even MORE drama to the list when it turns out he’s the “bad boy” of the group and his mother wants nothing to do with him, and ESPECIALLY wants Skyler to have nothing to do with him. All of this adding up to the big giant dance battle between Pulsar and the rest of the dance community where Skyler really has to prove to herself that she’s all that.

Uggg. There’s really not a whole lot under the hood here. Honey: Rise up and Dance is a high school film (filled with 30 year old dancers playing the parts of 17 and 18 year olds) with high school drama and a penchant for how many times they can stuff the words “lit” and “dope” into a film. I never thought Honey 3 was a great film, but it had some interesting choreography and some great dancers. Here, I wont’ say the dancer’s are bad, but the choreography is a bit weird and the dancing just isn’t up to par with other movies. Combine than with the atrocious acting (these guys are professional dancers, not actors) and you have a movie that I would gladly never see again.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for suggestive content and some language




Video:

Honey: Rise up and Dance comes to DVD with a very competent looking encode from a digital shoot. Framed in 1.78:1 and using the Mpeg2 encoding, it looks about as good as a cheap film like this is going to get. Colors are bright and shiny, and the bright daylight shots show off plenty of details across the dancer’s costumes and faces. Even the darker “club” scenes look amazing, with only minimal crush and some minor banding here and there. The 480p DVD is a bit softer than I expected, but still rather sharp and clean cut nonetheless. A good encode and while it isn’t a Blu-ray, still looks rather nice.








Audio:

The 5.1 Dolby Digital track here is a bit of a conundrum for me. The one thing that the Honey films are KNOWN for are their incredible audio mixes. While I wasn’t a wild fan of the last film, the DTS-HD MA track was jaw dropping. Here, it’s a bit muted and not infused with that sense of “power” that I was expecting. I mean, the dialog is crisp and clean, and the surrounds are active the whole time, but that chest thumping dance track is really muted and laid back. LFE is tight and punchy, but reserved and restrained instead of chest cracking. It’s a solid enough track, but one that doesn’t go above and beyond what it could be.


.




Extras:

•

Final Score: ​

Honey: Rise up and Dance is an atrocious film with good dancing, but some rather mediocre choreography (at least in my opinion), which really does nothing but sink the franchise deeper into the DTV pit that it’s in. Much like the Bring It On series, I think we can stick a fork in it, cuz this puppy is DONE! Sadly, the world of DTV seems to be making a profit off of these films, as they keep getting made, and will continue to be made until the profits run out. Universal has put this on DVD only this time (the first of the series not to get a Blu-ray), and the video is quite nice, but the audio a bit lackluster. Combine that with the zero extras on the disc and I would say this is a film ONLY for fans of the franchise.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Teyana Taylor, Bryshere Y. Gray, Sierra Aylina McClain
Directed by: Billie Woodruff
Written by: Robert Adetuyi
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 100 Minutes
DVD Release Date: April 3rd, 2018

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: For the Dance Fans

 

[Todd Anderson]

And... not going to happen.

(not in this home, at least )

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never saw any of the movies that belong to this franchise. Guess, I can't dance.

 

[Asere]

My wife loves to dance and watches dance shows like Dancing with the Stars and You Think you can Dance so I am sure she will want to watch this one. As for me Nah not even streamed lol. Thanks for the review!