Customer Reviews

Honeymooners [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I usually love movies that either Cedric the entertainer or Mike Epps are in but this movie is just horrible.

Ced and Epps take the roles of ralph and Ed from "the honeymooners" in a try to urbanize them as if they were 2 black males who are married and live in manhattan instead of being white like the classic "honeymooners" tv show.

The Negatives-This movie seems so rushed and seems no effort was but into the script and it shows in the humour quality as this movie delivers a couple of funny lines but mostly drags for most of the movie.
-It seems that Ced and Epps did this movie for the check since they seem like they aren't even having a good time doing this movie and show no type of on-screen chemistry.

The Positives-A couple of funny lines, and slight chuckles here and there do not outweigh the negatives in this movie.

Conclusion-A very horrid attempt of a Remake,No chemistry between characters, unfunny script, this movie is just another failure for Hollywood trying to remake classic shows(for example Bewitched which was slighty better than this)

1.5 stars rounded up to 2 out of 5 stars

The Opinionated One has Spoken

I was very skeptical about this movie to begin with, not because of the cast. The casting was perhaps the only good thing. It seems like these highly talented actors were misplaced in the wrong movie. And they didn't seem to be having fun in it either. The Honeymoners is an ancient show to begin with. A remake given it's proper due of this series is pretty difficult material to tackle. To make it funny for today's audiences seems next to impossible regardless of what ethnic group or race the actors are. It's just not as funny as it once was. It would be the same as some director doing a Three Stooges remake. Some things just shouldn't be done over or dug up again. In regards to this film. It would've helped if it was funny. The audiences of today have high expectations often to a fault. I tried to like this movie though and Cedric the Entertainer is very talented and funny when he is given decent material to work with. This unfortunately wasn't it.

"It's alive!" The infamous words by Dr. Frankenstein could not even bring back a sitcom that has been dead for over a half a century. However, director John Schultz gives his best effort to remake the sitcom from 1955 with a new adaptation into the theaters, as he casts Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps as his sidekick. Together with these two comedians, Schultz tries to poke fun of the economical situation of a family, and their attempt to gain the American Dream in a swift and easy manner. However, nothing is easy or swift, as it sets up a myriad of slapstick situations and silly humor.

The film begins to set up the story in New York in the fall of 1999, as Ralph Kramden (Cedric the Entertainer) drives a bus while displaying his dreaming persona. It also shows how he met his future wife Alice (Gabrielle Union) and his deficient skills in business through a Y2K survival kit. Six years later, Ralph is still a bad businessman and a bus driver who keeps dreaming of the big deal. However, his relationship with Alice is no longer as sweet, as it was when he met her for the first time. Now Ralph has to deal with the responsibilities of being married while he also secretively tries to juggle shady business deals in order to make quick money. However, whenever the truth catches up with him, and it usually does, Alice throws her wrath over him.

Honeymooners' storyline focuses on both Ralph and Alice, but also on their neighbors and friends Ed (Mike Epps) and Trixie (Regina Hall). Alice and Trixie have decided to buy a duplex before the entrepreneur William Davis (Eric Stoltz) buys the building, but in order to do that they have to have $20,000 within two weeks. This presents a problem to Ralph, as he has squandered some of their money on a supposedly get-rich-quick deal. It causes further problems for Ralph, as he and Ed begin to look for another quick deal. The dumb thing is that they do not understand when they have a good deal, and they do not know what good business is. When they are lucky to find a sure winner, even then they mess it up.

The story is a sad mess moving in a predictable direction and the silly jokes do not make it any better. Sure, the audience will find opportunity to laugh, but so do people when a stranger tells a funny joke. In Honeymooners the story feels forced while even the performances feel like a bunch of bad skits put together in order to create something that looks like a storyline. With a budget of 27 million dollars, it should raise some questions such as why they green light the project, as it still requires a lot of rewriting and reworking. Maybe in another 50 years, a remake of Honeymooners (2005) will be available that they have been able to revitalize through a proper script that has some life in the story.

Here we have one of the most ill-conceived remakes in history, a truly forgettable film exploiting a well-known, much-loved commodity for money (and very little of it, as things turned out). Exploiting may not be the right word for me to use here, however; it's not as if this movie sought out to make fun of the original series, and the transformation of the Kramdens and Nortons into middle-class African-Americans carries no kind of overt or underlying statement whatsoever. The only problem with this odd movie is its failure to be very funny. I've always said that Cedric the Entertainer is always funny. Well, I can't say that anymore. I did get a few laughs over the course of the film, but watching this modern version of The Honeymooners is sort of like watching a fish out of water: initially, it's sort of funny to watch it flop around all over the place; before very long, though, it starts to get boring, all that activity begins to slow down more and more as it makes its way to a painful death, and you're left just standing there, hoping to sneak away before anyone notices you were ever there to begin with. Someone really should have thrown this fish out of water back.

None of the actors seemed to have his heart in what he was doing. Cedric had his moments, but they were few and far between, and I couldn't help but notice that even he seemed rather uncomfortably embarrassed delivering his final and fully predictable line at the very end. There was no real chemistry to be found among the actors, either. Gabrielle Union is a lovely young actress, but she just doesn't have the feisty nature of a true Alice Kramden; she's just too nice for the role. Mike Epps didn't exactly scream Ed Norton to my brain, either.

Plot-wise, there's not much to talk about. Alice and Trixie want to have a home of their own, and Ralph's many get rich quick schemes prevent them from putting a down payment down on the duplex they've found. Ralph scrambles around, jumping from one hare-brained money-making scheme trying to get the money back before Alice finds out it's gone. From sewer-bound trolley cars to dumpster dog racing, Ralph just keeps getting himself closer and closer to the proverbial doghouse. Throw an embarrassingly trite ending on this puppy, and you've got The Honeymooners movie in a nutshell.

The fact that Cedric the Entertainer isn't even very funny in this movie tells you all you need to know about the script. It's all just incredibly bland and lifeless; I never even felt like I was watching a movie. Personally, I think the film might actually have done better without a tie-in to classic television's The Honeymooners, as that really just set this decidedly weak film up for a fairly substantial fall. On its own merits, I would give The Honeymooners two and a half stars - the writing is weak, the characters have little depth, and the whole movie just isn't that funny. I have to round that down to two stars, however, in deference to the Great One, who may or may not have been spinning in his grave when this film was released.

the girl has lost her mind(did she have one in the first place?!?!?!?)HEY,'NETTE,THE MOVIE TANKED BECUASE IT STUNK!!!!!!IF YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO CREATE EXCUSES FOR IT ONLY SURVIVING 1 DAY IN THE THEATERS,THEN HAVE AT IT.AND WHAT YOU FAIL TO REALIZE IS THAT THERE ARE SOME OF US HERE WHO ARE WEALTHY.AND FURTHERMORE,THE REVIEWS A MOVIE GETS(GOOD OR BAD)MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!!!!DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MAYBE A REMAKE OF SANFORD AND SON SHOULD DO BETTER?!?!?!?!?

I was greatly disappointed by this movie. You would think with Mike Epps,Cedric the Enterainer, and John Leguzimo this would be a funnier movie. But alas it wasn't it was unoriginal as it not funny. However the actress Regina Hall character as Trixie is fresh and funny. Poor Gabrielle Union again such an amazing actress stuck in another lifeless movie. I couldn't recommended this as DVD movie or rental. Skip this altogether.

The Honeymooners (DVD)

Cedric the entertainer resurrects the NY City bus driver character made famous by Jackie Gleason with his perpetual "get rich quick" schemes.

All-in-all an entertaining movie.

Recommended for Cedric the Entertainer fans and fans of Jackie Gleason.

December 2007

i know everyone says "i'm not racist". to say it or not to say it has nothing to do with this review. if you are going to remake something, be historically correct. don't remake sanford and son with an all white cast. don't make the honeymooners with an all black cast. we will all be happier, black and white. and by the way i loved sanford and son, saw every episode, and i am white. :-)

First the disclaimer - I grew up in NYC at a time when the original Honeymooners series was on WPIX just about every night at 11:00 pm. As such, I've seen every episode and have always loved the show. I had heard all the terrible things about this film and was prepared for a train wreck of a movie. Surprise - there is no train wreck here! (Although there is a buried Pullman car).

This is the first movie I've seen Cedric the Entertainer in, and I can't imagine a better choice. Chris Farley might have been able to pull it off if he were alive. And Kevin James is already playing "Ralph Kramden" on the King of Queens (think about it - that show is basically an updated Honeymooners, except "Ralph" drives a UPS truck instead of a bus, and has an obnoxious father-in-law instead of mother-in-law.) I was less thrilled with the Alice and Trixie roles here, but Cedric was perfect and Mike Epps carried off an acceptable Ed Norton. No, it's not the TV series, but it's far from the worst updating of a TV show into a movie you'll find.

Having read prior reviews here, I've been a little dismayed to see all of the negativity over the fact that this was cast with black actors and actresses. So what? There is nothing inherent in these characters to prevent this story being told with either a white or black cast. Working class blue collar NYC employees come in various shades and races, and a black NYC bus driver - a black Ralph Kramden - doesn't exactly stretch the boundaries of imagination or credibility here. What's more important is that they get the spirit of the characters right, and Cedric had that spirit, Epps had enough of it, and Alice and Trixie - although they could have used a bit more - are secondary players anyway. I never viewed this as a black Honeymooners. I viewed it as an updated Honeymooners.

This isn't a great movie, but it's decent entertainment, and - contrary to a previous poster's comment - light years better than the Bewitched updated film version.

Recommended for a light, fun night of popcorn on the sofa with your sweetie.

one day this was in the theater,the next it was gone.no news paper reviewed it and there were no commercials.why am i NOT surprised?!?!?!?!?!?!?the cast of the GREAT ORIGINAL TV SHOW MUST BE ROLLING AROUND IN THEIR GRAVES AT SUCH A LAME AND UNFUNNY MOVIE VERSION!!!!!!!!the 1/2 hour tv show had more heart,laughs,talent,originality,PLOT,than this pile of fecal matter.i no longer blame hollwood for releasing such garbage.they know theres enough guffawing idiots who will pay for this and anything else it has to offer.these are sad days indeed.btw,anyone notice these so called comedians are absolutely corny when they cant use foul language?!?!?!?!?