Honest ** (2000, Melanie Blatt, Nicole Appleton, Natalie Appleton, Peter Facinelli, Corin Redgrave) – Classic Movie Review 13,955

The struggling, sleazy, low-wit British 60s retro black-comedy crime caper thriller film Honest was a resounding box-office flop and a damaging fiasco for the All Saints.

The struggling, sleazy, low-wit British 60s retro black-comedy crime caper thriller film Honest was a resounding box-office flop and a damaging fiasco for the British/ Canadian All Saints pop girl group, three of whom (Melanie Blatt, Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton) appear in the lead roles, streetwise gun-toting cockney girl crooks who disguise themselves to pull crime jobs.

The 2000 film Honest is directed with an air of amateurish enthusiasm by avant-garde musician Dave Stewart [David A Stewart] of the Eurythmics. Just occasionally, it shows signs of what it hoped to be – a fun dolly-bird, swinging crime caper. Stewart also provides the music.

To be honest, you’d expect the All Saints girls to have made a Cliff Richard-style Swinging Sixties movie. But no. Natalie, Melanie and Nicole boldly go for the adult market as thieving East End sisters who dress as blokes, pinch Mob money from a club, and get involved with American college-boy hunk Peter Facinelli.

Debut writer-director Dave Stewart tries to satirise the Sixties, with the help of limp jokes from co-screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and most of it falls wide of the target. As a crime thriller, it’s like a creaky old movie, as a sex film (the girls get their kit off) it’s a bit embarrassing, as a musical it isn’t one (they only sing on the soundtrack). Yet there’s some marks for trying: the Saints are genial and game for anything, and Facinelli brings his easy-going charm to a film that’s hard to dislike. No, honestly.

It has a UK 18 certificate and it is Rated R in the US for strong sexuality and nudity, language, drug use and violence.

Release date: 26 May 2000.

Running time: 105 minutes.

The low-budget film flopped in its UK opening weekend, grossing only £111,309 on 220 screens, against its £3 million cost.

‘Good lovin’s not only from the heart./ You gotta be smart/ and stay just the way you are.’ Just sayin’.

The cast are Nicole Appleton as Gerry Chase, Natalie Appleton as Mandy Chase, Melanie Blatt as Jo Chase, Peter Facinelli as Daniel Wheaton, Jonathan Cake as Andrew Pryce-Stevens, Rick Warden as Baz, Annette Badland as Rose, Corin Redgrave as Duggie, Matt Bardock as Cedric, Willie Ross as Woodbine, Derek Deadman as Night Watchman, Naima Belkhiati as Body Painted Girl.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,955

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