Stars: Britney Spears, Dan Akroyd, Zoe Saldana, Anson Mount, Taryn Manning, Kim Cattrall

Directed: Tamra Davis

This DVD opens with Britney Spears Telling us she enjoyed making her first movie and hopes we’ll enjoy this DVD special. We then go to the menu with all the usual choices: Play, Scene Selection, Set Up, Special Features (which there are a LOAD of and I will mention more later)

The movie itself opens with three young girls burying a “time capsule”, which contains items to represent their dreams of the future. The three promise to meet at midnight on Graduation night to dig the box up and remember their dreams. They also make a pact that they will be friends forever.
Cut to eight years in the future and they reintroduce the three girls embarking on their graduation. Of course they are no longer friends as their lives have all taken different turns.

 Lucy (Britney) has been raised by her single father (mum ran out when she was three), and has been trying all her life to live up to dads expectations. She has studied hard and feels she has missed out on doing all the things normal teenagers do. Dad (Dan Akroyd) wants her to be a doctor, but she loves singing.

Kit (Zoe Saldana) is the popular girl at school, prom queen and is engaged to a boy who has moved Los Angeles to go to Uni. Kit has her own set of issues with her mum and also wants to plan the wedding with her fiance.

Mimi (Taryn Manning) is approx five months pregnant, lives in the trailer park and wants just to enjoy her life a little and try to reach her dreams.

As the girls are no longer friends, the time capsule plays little importance in their lives, except to Mimi who reminds the other two of the pact they made. Although they say they won’t turn up they do. Upon opening the box they reveal their dreams to each other, and it is Mimi who announces that she wants to see the world and “have it all”. She announces that she is going to LA to audition for a recording studio, dabble her feet in the ocean, and has arranged a ride to LA with a guy named Ben (Anson Mount).

She encourages the other girls to come with them, and they say ‘no’. Of course in the morning the other girls are there and they all head off to LA each to seek the answers to questions in their lives.

This then becomes the predictable road movie, car breaking down, money troubles and the girls bonding. Of course we also have the romance developing between Lucy and Ben. Along the way Lucy seeks out her mother (Kim Catrall), and despite Lucy’s fantasies of her welcoming her with open arms, she is rejected because her mum never wanted her anyway. The girls head on to LA and so to the predictable end of the film.

THE EXTRAS

As mentioned before there are a truck LOAD of extras here. This is the Britney marketing experience in full blast, By the end of them all I was getting quite over “I’m not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman’ and “Overprotected”, the two Britney songs featured in the film. But if you love Britney, you’ll love this.

“The Making of Crossroads: 40 Days with Britney” is a behind the scenes look at the making of the film. It is not broken down into each day, but rather an overview of the time spent together by the cast and crew.
“Deleted Scenes” 8 scenes are presented here by the Director Tamra Davis. There is no titling of the scenes here to SELECT them individually. They do include bloopers.
“Breakthrough Britney” This feature enables you to have Britney pop up during the movie and share her personal memories/experiences of the scene. I suggest you watch the movie first, before selecting this option.

“Music Videos”: “I’m Not a Girl, Not yet a Woman” and “Overprotected (Darkchild Remix)”
:”Sing Along with Britney”: The two Britney songs, one of which has the lead vocal removed.

“Directors Chair Video Editor”: This gives you the opportunity to choose which of three scenes you want to have in the video.
“Photo Gallery”; 65 stills shots from the movie and set.
“Theatrical Trailer”

CONCLUSION

This is not a bad film, but it is entirely too predictable. The soundtrack is quite okay and the music is placed in the film quite well. Almost worth it just to see Britney singing Joan Jetts “I Love Rock n Roll”. Despite all the panning of Britneys acting I found that it wasn’t too bad. Even the best actors cannot make a great movie out of a fairly lame plot. This is an average film and will fill in the afternoon for bored teenagers fairly well. If they love Britney all the more so.

I understand why there is the M rating as a lot of the subject matter is too adult for young teens, which is the usual Britney target audience to date. We have to remember that Britney is growing up and she is no longer a Mousketeer. Her own song “I’m not a Girl, Not yet a Woman” which is featured in this movie is very apt for the age GROUP which would be the target audience.

Dan Akroyd, plays the grumpy conservative father quite well, but basically doesn’t get much of a run here. Kim Cattrall’s scenes are really that of a cameo and the film is carried by the three girls with Britney being in almost all scenes bar about one.
A pleasant teenage chick flick.

I’d give it a 3 (Average)