Crossroads
Review
by : Gareth Von Kallenbach
Starring:
Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana, Taryn Danning,
Kim Cattrall, Dan Akroyd
Directed by: Tamra Davis
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In today's entertainment world, more artists than ever are
pre-packaged over produced and thrust on the public in a wave
after wave of over saturation where style is prominent over
substance and artistic merit. The over profliferation of boy
bands and flavor of the month bands has reached an all time
high. The reason for this is simple: money. Iif something
hits it big, then it stands to reason that something packaged
in the same vein is likely to tap into the cash flow as well.
Case in
point the recent cinematic flop "On The Line" starring Lance
Bass and Joey Fatone of Nsync. The powers that be figured
if you put two members of one of the hottest boy bands in
a film, then fans are likely to rush to cinemas to view it.
The recent dud that was "Glitter" was a further illustration
that a top selling singer, is not guaranteed to draw fans
to the box office, and the damage done to Mariah Carrey's
career by the film is still occurring. Even a star such as
Madonna has had more than her share of box office failures
ranging from "Shanghai Surprise" to "Body of evidence" illustrating
the challenge of even established stars taking the plunge
into acting.
Not one
to be left out, MTV and Paramount have decided to take the
queen of bubblegum pop, Britney Spears and place her in a
starring vehicle called "Crossroads". Spears stars as Lucy,
a valedictorian who has started to question her life free
of fun and adventure while studying to impress her father
Joe (Dan Akroyd). Joe works as a mechanic and plans to send
Lucy to medical school as he sees a bright future for his
daughter. Before long, Lucy and her friends Kit (Zoe Saldana),
and Mimi (Taryn Danning), in an effort to get to a record
company audition and a visit to Lucy's long lost mother (Kim
Cattrall). If you are having a hard time seeing the connection,
join the club. Lucy just decides to leave everything behind
on a whim to travel with her two friends, who have grown apart
from her in recent years. The pregnant Mimi plans to get a
record deal and make something of her life, and Kit wants
to visit her fiancé who attends school in Los Angeles. As
if this scenario is not bizarre enough, the girls are being
driven by a loner named Ben (Anson Mount), who is rumored
to be an ex con. If you think this plot summary is a mess,
than congratulations, you have figured out the movie and saved
yourself time and money.
The film
plays out as one long music video and is sure to delight all
of Spear's fans who are under the age of 16, and do not know
enough to see garbage when they see it. Spears is an attractive
lady and a talented performer, but she is given little to
do other than play herself, and her acting ability seems limited
to turn, smile, sing, look wistful, and playful. I have seen
greater range from an air rifle, and to be honest, her acting
in the Pepsi commercials is better than this mess. One has
to wonder just what entices talent like Cattrall and Akroyd
to appear in a piece of fluff like this. They surely can't
need the money this badly to be reduced to charactures in
brief and uninspired supporting roles.
The dialogue
in the film is terrible, and the audience at the test screeners
laughed at several scenes and lines where no comedy was intended.
Worse yet, several people at the completion of the film have
said that they have not seen a worse movie in years. Criticism
is often easier than construction, so I will endeavor to explain
why the film failed. First, the story and characters are very
bland and uninspired. The story is a mix of several stock
plotlines, and one can see the outcome of scenes and characters
far in advance. The characters are bland and are not capable
of gaining support or sympathy from the audience. There are
gigantic lapses in reason and logic, such as the girls being
able to raise large sums of money from an impromptu karaoke
concert of "I love Rock and Roll".
I could
go on and on about the lack of chemistry, the bland characters,
and other issues, but suffice it to say, there is very little
to redeem this film. My advice is for Britney to stick to
what she does best, singing and leave the acting to professionals
until she has more time to devote to the craft and not see
filming as something to squeeze in between touring and commercial
shoots as she did for this film.
Gareth
Von Kallenbach
Gareth@nwlink.com
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