The Honeymooners film review

certificate_PG

THE HONEYMOONERS

The expression, 'the honeymoon is over' means the end of a harmonious period and the beginning of rougher times, as opposed to when The Honeymooners is over which signifies the end of a painful period and a moment to rejoice. The best thing that can be said about this vacuous and inept piffle is that it's relatively short. But considering its skeletal plot, it's a wonder it even stretched this far.

Any more films like this and Cedric will be forced to change his name to Cedric The Torturer. Scavenging amongst the debris of The Honeymooners for anything slightly redeeming is as futile as prescribing Viagra to the Pope. Although billed as a comedy, The Honeymooners is more of a mystery. It's certainly a mystery that anyone at any point thought this was worth making or why actors of the caliber of Eric Stoltz and John Leguizamo would get involved.

Based on the 1950s American TV sitcom, it's sad that after waiting fifty years to make a big screen version, this is the best they could come up with. Cedric The Entertainer plays the role of Ralph Kramden made famous by Jackie Gleason. Kramden is a dreamer and entrepreneur who is constantly hatching hair-brained get rich quick schemes that will free him from his job as a New York bus driver. "This whole bus driving thing is temporary, " he impresses on Alice (Gabrielle Union), when they first meet. "One day, I'm going to own this town." Cut to six years later and the couple are married and Ralph's plans to own this town are still some way short. In fact he doesn't even own his own house, something the long-suffering Alice is fed up with.

It seems the world was not quite as enthusiastic about pet cactuses or velour "man bags" as Ralph. When the opportunity to buy the house of her dreams comes up, Alice is thwarted by yet more of Ralph's schemes. Encouraged by his best mate Ed (Mike Epps), one involves an antique train which he plans to restore, just as soon as he figures how to get it up from 60ft below street level, the other involves a greyhound he rescued from a rubbish tip and plans to race.

The premise isn't void of potential, but in the hands of no less than five listed writers (plus no doubt several unlisted) and under the limp guidance of John Schultz, it barely registers a smirk. Even the hard working Leguizamo as the huckster dog trainer could do little with the material he had.

Kevin Murphy