"Hip hop can't take you to places ballet can," is the redundant piece of advice delivered to dancer Honey (Alba) by her disappointed mum.

So it's up to the feisty, fleet-footed reluctant ballerina to prove her wrong by making it big in the world of, er, music videos.

Honey's smooth moves catch the eye of happening producer Michael Ellis (Moscow), who recruits her as a dancer and then promotes her to chief choreographer.

However, Honey's slide up the greasy showbiz pole alienates her from her best pal Gina (Joy Bryant) and complicates her relationship with neighbourhood crimper Chaz (Phifer).

An added distraction is the welfare of loveable street imp Benny (Lil' Romeo), who's acting as the legs of a local drug dealer.

This sanitised, squeaky-clean group of stage school kids should, in a real world, be off mugging people rather than dancing round a boogie box.

Although you don't expect grim authenticity in a film pitched at impressionable teens, this lot are so sickly sweet you'd hand back your Blue Peter badge in disgust.

Moscow never convinces as a hotshot record producer, largely because his dialogue belongs to a streetwise black hustler rather than a white kid sitting in the director's chair.

The only hint of edge is delivered by an all-too-brief cameo from Missy Elliott which brightens proceedings every time she appears.

It's got all the straight-down-the-line honesty of J-Lo warbling on about "being from the block" when it fact she's from the latest private viewing at Tiffany's.

Honey's heart's in the right place but her soul, sadly, is of the plastic variety.

Tim Evans