Crossroads (2002) Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning, Dan Aykroyd Two stars for not being too obnoxious.
Crossroads didn't completely suck. That's about all I can say. The key to the whole film was the high school wet dream that you can (a) get paid to sing karaoke, and (b) the next step is naturally a recording contract. If you can get past that, and your head doesn't explode when Britney lip-syncs N'Sink, you may get through the film with your frontal lobes intact.
Britney continually gets upstaged by Saldana, Manning, and Aykroyd, mostly because she doesn't appear to actually be acting. She drifts through the film like a Famous Guest Star, not at all like the film was her Star Vehicle. Taryn Manning, on the other hand, was so intense and convincing that she had a cheerleader on rac-f convinced that she was "trailer trash" and "a slut" in real life. A rather unusual tribute to one's acting abilities.
Britney covers a Joanie Jett tune ("I love rock 'n roll") in this film and on her 2002 concert tour. Purists will take offense at that, but I have to admit, I'd rather her Britney sing that 20 times than have to sit through "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" again. It ties with mouthing "Bye Bye Bye" as the worst moment of the film.
Two stars of five.
Ron
http://roc85.home.attbi.com "Protesters against the wearing of animal skins by humans unaccountably fail to throw paint over Hell's Angels." -- Terry Pratchett
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