"Honey" is the movie for those who couldn't handle the complexities of "Flashdance."

Jessica Alba, the sinuous star of TV's "Dark Angel," plays a strange combination of Jennifer Beal from "Flashdance" and Spencer Tracy from "Boys Town."

Honey Daniels has a dream. Well, a couple of dreams. She wants to be a world-famous hip-hop dancer, and she wants to inspire the kids in her neighborhood so they won't become gangbangers and drug dealers.

That first dream comes true overnight when music video director Michael Ellis (David Moscow, who played the young Tom Hanks in "Big") discovers Honey in a club. About two minutes after Honey arrives for her first shoot, Michael promotes her to head choreography and she's soon teaching steps to Ginuwine, Tweet, Jadakiss and other actual rap stars with albums to promote.

But with all this sudden fame, Honey no longer has the time to teach hip-hop at the community center, which disappoints the adorable mop top Raymond (Zachary Isaiah Williams) and sends his older brother Benny (Lil' Romeo) back to his drug-dealing buddies.

Writers Alonzo Brown and Kim Watson steal clichés from so many old musicals – "42nd Street" and "Babe in Arms" among them – that the Turner Classic Movies program guide should share screenwriting credit.

Every expected thing happens merely because it is the expected thing. Honey's mother wishes she would choose a more professional school of dance. "Hip-hop can't take you to the places ballet can," she says.

Even though his previous behavior doesn't suggest it, Michael suddenly says Honey owes him sexual favors for his success. Why? Because that's what the career managers always do in movies like this, and Brown and Watson couldn't imagine how to continue the script if they added an original thought.

Director Bille Woodruff, making his debut in feature films, comes from the world of music videos, but it actually makes sense that "Honey" be assigned to a music video director. Woodruff knows how to showcase dance scenes, and he and director of photography John R. Leonetti put Alba in the most gorgeous light.

Alba has a lightweight but likable presence. The saddest thing about "Honey" is how it wastes a great role model for young girls. Honey gets by on her own talents. She doesn't let anyone take advantage of her. She won't take advantage of anyone, either. Her prime motivations are charity and mercy. You want to see more people like her not just in movies, but in real life.

Honey is naturally sweet, but "Honey" is saccharine.