Image courtesy of www.impawards.com
Director :
John Schultz
Cast :
Cedric the Entertainer……….Ralph Kramden
Mike Epps……….Ed Norton
Gabrielle Union……….Alice Kramden
Regina Hall……….Trixie Norton
Eric Stoltz……….William Davis
Jon Polito……….Kirby
John Leguizamo……….Dodge
Carol Woods……….Alice’s Mom
Ajay Naidu……….Vivek
Arnell Powell……….DJ Suckaslam
Leticia Castillo……….Young Mother
Doreen Keogh……….Miss Celestine
Camille Donegan……….Lissa
Joanna Dickens……….Bus Stop Woman
Kim Chan……….Quin
Condensing a television series into a two hour is always hard to do from many standpoints. On television you can invest longer periods of time into character development, spread all of your best comedic moments over a series of months or years, and afford to change portions of your cast mid-stream without losing the effectiveness of your overall story. Turning any television series into a feature-length movie is a difficult proposition. Which is why almost every major television show of the past 50 years has been immune from cinematic exploitation; one can hardly imagine how a television show like C.S.I or Friends would translate on to the silver screen.
For the most part adaptations of television shows have been limited to those who’ve been cancelled for over two decades. The original actors are long gone from the spotlight, so new ones can move into old characters and give a new telling of a familiar story for the most part.
There is a certain sense of nostalgia from seeing the 70s through Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in Starsky and Hutch, seeing Mike Myers and Dana Carvey get two hours to step into their signature Saturday Night Live roles of Wayne and Garth for two hours in both the Wayne’s World movies or seeing Tom Cruise bring Ethan Hunt into existence in the Impossible Missions unit en route to establishing an action movie franchise with the Mission: Impossible movies.
The thing these movies all share is that they aren’t universally beloved; they were popular and on for many seasons but they aren’t a beloved part of Americana. The Honeymooners is. Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph formed the cast of a television show that is still looked upon as one of the greatest television shows of both its’ era and of all-time.
Apparently John Schultz didn’t know this when he crafted his version of The Honeymooners, the latest TV show turned movie. Gleason and Carney are still recognized as one of comedy’s great all-time duos, so thrusting anyone into these roles would be filling awfully large shoes.
So instead of finding the best duo out there, we are given Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph and Mike Epps as Norton. Gabrielle Union and Regina Hall fill out the cast as their respective spouses Alice and Trixie, as the movie is a watered-down version of the TV show.
Ralph wants to get rich quickly, Norton is there to get him into more trouble and all the while both men are coupled with women far more understanding and impressive than either deserve. While it was the recipe of four gifted comedians who had impeccable timing with each other, this movie is a disaster of many proportions directly resulting from new faces in old roles.
The main problem is that the cast is completely out of its element. Cedric can be funny on occasion, but as Ralph he is about as comfortable as a pair of leather pants two sizes two small. He has moments where he is moderately funny, but for the bulk of the movie he is completely out of his element as Ralph. The type of humor written for him is completely different from his manner of delivery and his strengths as a comedian. Epps, though, is completely out of place as Ed Norton. He has little chemistry with his partner and displays the worst manner of physical comedy this side of Carrot Top. Hall and Union are completely mismanaged and marginalized; they both have some acting talent and comedic chops at their disposal and yet Schultz gives them little to do but stand around and look pretty. Union exhibits a good chemistry with Cedric and Hall is adequate in her role but they’re given minimal time on screen to develop their characters. Cedric and Epps are given poor joke after poor joke to try and turn into comedy gold and fail so often that the brief time Alice and Trixie are on screen it’s a welcome change.
If it isn’t bad enough to have two people who aren’t funny in the roles of Ralph and Ed, the story has a lot to be desired. While it mirrors the heart of the show, the way the story evolves doesn’t lead you to feel the sort of emotional highs and lows it attempts to go to. Union and Cedric have a certain sort of chemistry together but, in this context, the plot is forced at best and unnecessary at worst. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is written for people with the sort of comic sensibilities of the original cast. The current one has a much different comedic sense and the movie tries to force them into it with little success.
At its’ heart The Honeymooners was a love story. Ralph and Ed were two everymen who wanted their slice of the American dream; it’s a tale that anyone can relate to. It’s one of those backbones of America that still resonates to this very day; this version of The Honeymooners is a disappointment in almost every way possible.
