Review: Crossroads
07-13-02 | 02:41 AM
#1
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Review: Crossroads
DVD REVIEW: CROSSROADS (Britney Spears)
Review by Brian Jacks (from UGO.com
Films used as promotional vehicles are hardly new in Hollywood. Elvis Presley certainly paved the way for that niche. But at least the King had a career that wasn't based on hype, conglomerates, and a "flavor of the week" essence. That's more than one can say about everyone's favorite virgin, Britney Spears, who recently dipped her toes in the cinematic pool for the release of Crossroads, her film debut. Now released as a "Special Collector's Edition" DVD, Crossroads definitely has built-in starpower, but unfortunately it's missing every other element that makes a good, or even remotely bearable, movie.
The tagline for Crossroads declares matter-of-factly, "Dreams change, friends are forever," and that's essentially what this movie purports to be about (I suppose "Demographics change, pop stars fade away" isn't as catchy). In the film, Spears stars as "Lucy," a teenage girl traveling down the path of self-discovery and every single other teenage angst. When two former best friends voice their intent to take a road-trip to Los Angeles, Lucy decides to hitch a ride to drop in uninvited on the birth mother who walked out on their family when she was three, but whom Lucy thinks about on a daily basis (and even keeps a picture of in a locket around her neck!). Gee, how touching. Toss in a mysterious hunk/Spears-love-interest who's driving with them to Hollywood and a veritable non-stop parade of Spears songs and you have yourself...uh, well, one hell of a boring movie.
The film suffers in a variety of areas; heck, in every area. While talented castmembers including Dan Aykrod and rising star Taryn Manning do bring some talent to the movie, Crossroads is still saddled with the fact that the lead, the only reason for the film's entire existence, has no real acting ability. I'm sure Spears tried her best, and while she succeeds in a few scenes, she consistently resorts back to her music video persona of the puppy dog eyes, the twisted face, and the tilted head to carry her character. That may get you on the cover of Rolling Stone, baby, but it won't get you anywhere in the movie business. Not unless you're willing to bear some skin, which brings me to yet another objection: the film's relentless dishonesty (i.e. trying to portray itself as something it's not).
Crossroads redefines the conglomerate-driven feature, and not in a good way. Not since Spice World has the world been subjected to such a perverse display of corporate power and greed. Perhaps making it all the more frustrating is that the powers behind this crapheap vehemently attempt to paint this movie as a realistic depiction of teenage issues, as if everybody was able to raise hundreds of dollars by singing badly off-key Joan Jett melodies in a questionable Louisiana nightclub (which prompted a mini-controversy when Spears incorrectly gave credit for the song to Cyndie Lauper in a media interview). The writing is completely devoid of any real attachment to real people or any semblance of intelligence, and the direction is practically non-existent. Crossroads exists solely as a promotional tool for Britney Spears, her record company, MTV (who co-produced the film, surprise, surprise), and the plethora of obvious product placement ads throughout the entire movie, and nothing more. It's time everyone who worked on Crossroads realize that, and stop pretending that this film actually has meaning. You're all shills!
Whew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
Because this film is nothing more than an extended music video, it's somewhat surprising that the DVD is presented in anamorphic widescreen rather than full-frame. The transfer is clean and unblemished, and no real artificial enhancements were noticed. Colors are crisp, although used boringly.
Crossroads is delivered in 5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.0 Surround, with an additional track available in French. For the most part, the audio is clear, particularly during the musical performances. Aside from the songs, the rears and .1 channels are scarcely used, with the center channel receiving the most heavy usage, particularly during the lengthy "chick flick" scenes.
If there is anything special in this "special edition," and that term is used very loosely, it's the extras package. Of course, one should keep in mind that this stuff will only be of interest to Spears diehards (those who tune in every day to catch TRL). There are two featurettes included in the package, the first being "The Making of Crossroads: 40 Days with Britney," which is more like one minute with Britney, and ten minutes with the rest of the cast and crew exclaiming how smart and incredibly amazing and misunderstood she is. It's mind-numbingly kiss-assey, and is produced like an MTV segment (which it probably actually was considering the role MTV had in the movie). The second featurette is "First In Line: Inside the Crossroads Premiere," which features a camera crew following around castmember Zoe Saldana on the red carpet during the film's premiere. Lasting about five minutes, it really serves no purpose other than for us to watch Zoe signing autographs and listening to the actress exclaim how exciting it is to have everyone take pictures of her. I'm sure everyone can relate.
Aside from the featurettes, there are also two additional segments included on the disc. One is actually the deleted scenes portion, which contains seven sequences cut from the film, each with an on-camera introduction by t?e film's director, Tamra Davis. The other is called "Taryn's T-Shirts," and features the film's costume designer teaching actress Taryn Manning and us how to make t-shirts that look to be straight out of HBO's Taxicab Confessions.
Additional supplements include "Break Through Britney," which include both comments from Spears and various movie facts that are accessible directly from the film, two karaoke videos for the songs "Overprotected" and "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet a Woman," a 5-second DVD welcome from Britney herself (hurray!), two full-length music videos of the aforementioned songs, a Crossroads photo gallery, four television spots, and both domestic and international trailers. There's also option to edit your own music video, but it's so cumbersome I couldn't figure out how to use it. There are three scenes from various Britney videos that you are allowed to stitch together, but I ended up always getting the standard sequences. I cried myself to sleep that night. Lastly, there's a full-length commentary with producer Ann Carli, director Tamra Davis and writer Shonda Rhimes, but it's so boring I can't imagine anyone listening to it all the way through. I suppose Britney couldn't be bothered to provide anything more than that 5-second "welcome to my DVD" sound bite.
The Movie: If you enjoy Crossroads, you're probably either my 13 year-old sister or Britney Spears' agent. Grade: D-
The Look: Anamorphic widescreen is a nice touch. If only there were something worth watching. Grade: B
The Sound: Surrounds are utilized to good effect during musical sequences, with clean dialogue throughout. Grade: B
The Extras: This has a good number of supplements, but almost all would appeal only to Britney Spears fans. Grade: C
Overall: This film is a cross between an MTV music video and the worst after-school special ever captured on tape. Buy this DVD only if you have N'Sync stickers on your notebook . Grade: D
Review by Brian Jacks (from UGO.com
Films used as promotional vehicles are hardly new in Hollywood. Elvis Presley certainly paved the way for that niche. But at least the King had a career that wasn't based on hype, conglomerates, and a "flavor of the week" essence. That's more than one can say about everyone's favorite virgin, Britney Spears, who recently dipped her toes in the cinematic pool for the release of Crossroads, her film debut. Now released as a "Special Collector's Edition" DVD, Crossroads definitely has built-in starpower, but unfortunately it's missing every other element that makes a good, or even remotely bearable, movie.
The tagline for Crossroads declares matter-of-factly, "Dreams change, friends are forever," and that's essentially what this movie purports to be about (I suppose "Demographics change, pop stars fade away" isn't as catchy). In the film, Spears stars as "Lucy," a teenage girl traveling down the path of self-discovery and every single other teenage angst. When two former best friends voice their intent to take a road-trip to Los Angeles, Lucy decides to hitch a ride to drop in uninvited on the birth mother who walked out on their family when she was three, but whom Lucy thinks about on a daily basis (and even keeps a picture of in a locket around her neck!). Gee, how touching. Toss in a mysterious hunk/Spears-love-interest who's driving with them to Hollywood and a veritable non-stop parade of Spears songs and you have yourself...uh, well, one hell of a boring movie.
The film suffers in a variety of areas; heck, in every area. While talented castmembers including Dan Aykrod and rising star Taryn Manning do bring some talent to the movie, Crossroads is still saddled with the fact that the lead, the only reason for the film's entire existence, has no real acting ability. I'm sure Spears tried her best, and while she succeeds in a few scenes, she consistently resorts back to her music video persona of the puppy dog eyes, the twisted face, and the tilted head to carry her character. That may get you on the cover of Rolling Stone, baby, but it won't get you anywhere in the movie business. Not unless you're willing to bear some skin, which brings me to yet another objection: the film's relentless dishonesty (i.e. trying to portray itself as something it's not).
Crossroads redefines the conglomerate-driven feature, and not in a good way. Not since Spice World has the world been subjected to such a perverse display of corporate power and greed. Perhaps making it all the more frustrating is that the powers behind this crapheap vehemently attempt to paint this movie as a realistic depiction of teenage issues, as if everybody was able to raise hundreds of dollars by singing badly off-key Joan Jett melodies in a questionable Louisiana nightclub (which prompted a mini-controversy when Spears incorrectly gave credit for the song to Cyndie Lauper in a media interview). The writing is completely devoid of any real attachment to real people or any semblance of intelligence, and the direction is practically non-existent. Crossroads exists solely as a promotional tool for Britney Spears, her record company, MTV (who co-produced the film, surprise, surprise), and the plethora of obvious product placement ads throughout the entire movie, and nothing more. It's time everyone who worked on Crossroads realize that, and stop pretending that this film actually has meaning. You're all shills!
Whew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
Because this film is nothing more than an extended music video, it's somewhat surprising that the DVD is presented in anamorphic widescreen rather than full-frame. The transfer is clean and unblemished, and no real artificial enhancements were noticed. Colors are crisp, although used boringly.
Crossroads is delivered in 5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.0 Surround, with an additional track available in French. For the most part, the audio is clear, particularly during the musical performances. Aside from the songs, the rears and .1 channels are scarcely used, with the center channel receiving the most heavy usage, particularly during the lengthy "chick flick" scenes.
If there is anything special in this "special edition," and that term is used very loosely, it's the extras package. Of course, one should keep in mind that this stuff will only be of interest to Spears diehards (those who tune in every day to catch TRL). There are two featurettes included in the package, the first being "The Making of Crossroads: 40 Days with Britney," which is more like one minute with Britney, and ten minutes with the rest of the cast and crew exclaiming how smart and incredibly amazing and misunderstood she is. It's mind-numbingly kiss-assey, and is produced like an MTV segment (which it probably actually was considering the role MTV had in the movie). The second featurette is "First In Line: Inside the Crossroads Premiere," which features a camera crew following around castmember Zoe Saldana on the red carpet during the film's premiere. Lasting about five minutes, it really serves no purpose other than for us to watch Zoe signing autographs and listening to the actress exclaim how exciting it is to have everyone take pictures of her. I'm sure everyone can relate.
Aside from the featurettes, there are also two additional segments included on the disc. One is actually the deleted scenes portion, which contains seven sequences cut from the film, each with an on-camera introduction by t?e film's director, Tamra Davis. The other is called "Taryn's T-Shirts," and features the film's costume designer teaching actress Taryn Manning and us how to make t-shirts that look to be straight out of HBO's Taxicab Confessions.
Additional supplements include "Break Through Britney," which include both comments from Spears and various movie facts that are accessible directly from the film, two karaoke videos for the songs "Overprotected" and "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet a Woman," a 5-second DVD welcome from Britney herself (hurray!), two full-length music videos of the aforementioned songs, a Crossroads photo gallery, four television spots, and both domestic and international trailers. There's also option to edit your own music video, but it's so cumbersome I couldn't figure out how to use it. There are three scenes from various Britney videos that you are allowed to stitch together, but I ended up always getting the standard sequences. I cried myself to sleep that night. Lastly, there's a full-length commentary with producer Ann Carli, director Tamra Davis and writer Shonda Rhimes, but it's so boring I can't imagine anyone listening to it all the way through. I suppose Britney couldn't be bothered to provide anything more than that 5-second "welcome to my DVD" sound bite.
The Movie: If you enjoy Crossroads, you're probably either my 13 year-old sister or Britney Spears' agent. Grade: D-
The Look: Anamorphic widescreen is a nice touch. If only there were something worth watching. Grade: B
The Sound: Surrounds are utilized to good effect during musical sequences, with clean dialogue throughout. Grade: B
The Extras: This has a good number of supplements, but almost all would appeal only to Britney Spears fans. Grade: C
Overall: This film is a cross between an MTV music video and the worst after-school special ever captured on tape. Buy this DVD only if you have N'Sync stickers on your notebook . Grade: D
Last edited by BJacks; 07-13-02 at 02:45 AM.
07-15-02 | 02:01 PM
#3
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DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Originally posted by Rypro 525
the only way im buyin this is if there is that "flashing" scene in the deleted scenes area but i doubt it has it.
the only way im buyin this is if there is that "flashing" scene in the deleted scenes area but i doubt it has it.
-Brian
07-21-02 | 07:04 PM
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From: The place, at where my bottom is sitting at this very moment, right about........now!
I really enjoyed this film. Not just because Britney was in it, but because it was a really good romance movie. Even if Britney wasn't in it, the movie would still be good. (Of course why the hell would I have seen it if Britney wasn't in it.) It's a good movie, I really enjoyed it.
