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Back Shelf Beauties
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The Honeymooners This movie convinced me Eddie Murphy should be the only living person legally allowed to make fun of The Honeymooners or portray Ralph Kramden. Cedric the Entertainer stars as Ralph Kramden - a New York City bus driver who has many get-rich-quick schemes, much to the chagrin of his down-to-earth wife, Alice (Gabrielle Union). As Ralph dreams of the big score, Alice quietly and slowly saves their money in hopes of buying a modest house. Finally, Alice's prayers are answered when a kindly elderly acquaintance, Miss Benvenuti (Anne Pitoniak), decides to sell her duplex. Needing to move quickly before an evil developer, William Davis (Eric Stoltz), can buy the house in a greedy plan to turn the entire neighborhood into a gentrified, cramped condo complex, Alice checks the savings account, only to discover Ralph has blown the money on another hair-brained scheme. Can Ralph and his good buddy, Ed Norton (Mike Epps), replace the money in time to buy the house of Alice's dreams? If you are a fan of the classic TV show with Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, you'll want to tear the screen apart and burn the print so no one else has to live through the feeble attempt to recapture the legendary magic. For everyone else, The Honeymooners is a sometimes silly, but, more often than not, predictable comedy that isn't very funny. The story is typical Honeymooners with plenty of new twists and additional settings appropriately added for a modern movie remake, but it lacks charm. Crude humor enters the picture several times as the writers (four of them) struggle to find comedy beyond the classic jokes and lines fans of the series have heard a million times before (Weekdays, 11:30 PM, WPIX in NY). I guess booger jokes and sexual innuendo qualifies as modernizing The Honeymooners. Worst of all, I never felt like Cedric and Epps shared the special chemistry needed to make the movie work. Instead of being two good pals willing to stick together through thick and thin until the end, Cedric and Epps make Kramden and Norton feel like strangers doing their own thing without regard for the other. This friendship is the centerpiece of the entire movie, but the two don't play off each other very well, and Cedric doesn't display his usual flare and energy. He is giving a forced performance, maybe trying too hard to be true to and respectful of Gleason. Meanwhile, Epps is OK to mediocre with the comedy, but fails miserably in his dramatic scene. He doesn't show the depth of emotion needed to be convincing, and doesn't play it comedic enough for laughs. The Honeymooners is better when it gets away from the familiar material and tries to be a modern comedy instead of attempting to be The Honeymooners. 1 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2005 - WaffleMovies.com
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