Honeymooners (The Honeymooners)
U.S.A. 2005

Opening 28 Jul 2005

Directed by: John Schultz
Writing credits: Barry W. Blaustein, Danny Jacobson, Don Rhymer, David Sheffield
Principal actors: Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps, Gabrielle Union, Regina Hall, Eric Stoltz

Middle-aged people will remember the television series The Honeymooners starring Jacky Gleason and Ed Carney. Now The Honeymooners are reincarnated as modern African-Americans, but the actors stay true to the original characters and remain as funny and lovable as ever. Ralph Kramden (Cedric the Entertainer) drives his New York City bus up Madison Avenue, bops along merrily and energetically to radio music, meets lovely Alice (Gabrielle Union), and their story begins. Alice, a waitress, dreams only practical dreams: like owning their own little duplex home in Brooklyn with friends Trixie and Ed Norton (Regina Hall and Mike Epps). Ralph unfortunately thinks of himself as an entrepreneur and goes from one unsuccessful money-making scheme to another. He tries to sell ridiculous products, buys an old train hoping to use it giving sightseeing tours and finally loses their down-payment money by trying to turn an abandoned dog into a race dog. That's where comic actor John Leguizamo (great as Dodge, the dodgy dog trainer) shows up. The film is really a lot of laughs, but the relationship between Ed and Ralph has its very serious moments, and it is Ed who helps Ralph realize where he's going wrong so that the film can end as happily as it begins! (Thelma Freedman)