I love this movie so much

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Made way before Brittany Spears, lose her mind in 2007. She made one of her first biggest mistake in 2002 by trying to act in a 'coming of age' movie. Her role as Lucy Wagner, a young doe-eyed high school graduate who begins an essential journey of self-discovery with her off and on again, friends, Kit (Zoe Saldana) & Mimi (Taryn Manning) on a road trip received mostly negative. However, I don't believe, all the hate by the critics, is deserved. The movie isn't bad. It's just a run-of-the-mill female driven road movie, audiences have seem, before, and done, better, in similar films like 1995's 'Boys on the Side' & the master hit, 1991's 'Thelma and Louise'. It just doesn't stand out, much. It's surprising, because the film, deals with some really emotional heavy themes, like teen pregnancy, rape, and abandoned issues. If anything, these things, should had made this movie, a lot more interesting than it was! So, what went wrong!? Well, one is bad-marketing. While, the film was still targeted toward pre-teens that make up, Britney's audience at the time. None of the trailers, really focus much, on the emotional depth of the story. Instead, it play up, the comedy and music of the film, which in truth, the film has little of. No wonder, why audience felt like, they got their money, stolen. The viewers really thought, they were going to see, a light-hearted comedy film, similar to 1997's film, 'Spice World'. Instead, they got a seriously downer drama like they were watching 1988's film, 'Beaches'! Even, if the audience got their light-hearted musical comedy, like they ask for. None of the jokes in the film was funny. If anything, the short sequences of humor, really took me out, of the film. About the music, the way, the writer, Shonda Rhimes, introduced it, was also pretty jarring. A good example is the unrealistic karaoke bar scene. Honestly, what was the chances of a karaoke bar in the middle of nowhere, tipping singers so well during one night, that the three of them, has enough to fix a yellow 1973 Buick Skylark convertible and find parts!? It doesn't even seem real. It's a huge stretch. I'm sorry, I can't suspense my disbelief, here! If the movie had female 'balls'. They would had, the characters, steal the money from somebody, or have one of the character sell herself or something more mature-driven like that. It's seem like the characters are dodging all the worst possibilities, unrealistic because the film is PG-13. The most infamous of this, is the convenient blue bottle and miscarriage scene. Without spoiling it, too much. OMG! It's really lazy screen writing! The idea that one of the rational character, can tell, that another character rape her, by him, holding a blue bottle is one of the weakest point of the film. It's not like, Bud-Light is popular. Another thing, I think the film would had been stronger, if the character went through, with having a real-life abortion or keeping the baby for the sake of the child. Instead, of having her, lose the child, as a write out, as luck. It's a bad example. I also hate, that don't even, moan the death of the baby, for that long, before they end up, going to the audition. It's really, really horrible. Anyways, like I said before, it's nothing, too bad, to get, work up, about. The story was just, not well-written. The acting, on other hand, isn't that bad. Taryn Manning is by far, the strongest actress of the three, in this film, while, Zoe Saldana isn't given much to stand out, besides, being a bitch, in the beginning. Her character, kinda dies out, as the film goes along. As for Britany Spears. She isn't the worst pop singer turn actress in the world. She did impressed, some critics, with her stints on guest spots on televisions shows like 'Saturday Night Live', 'Will & Grace' and others. However, without spoiling the film, too much, her role in this film, was a bit disappointing. The movie spend so much time on her delivering fan service, that it's hard to take her character's seriously. Honestly, if the movie cut scenes of her singing in her underwear and short-shorts, then maybe; people would rethink, her performance. As, for now. It's below standards, because she basically playing herself. As, for the other supporting cast like Anson Mount, Dan Aykroyd, Justin Long and Kim Cattrall. They were alright. Once again, I have, saw them, in worst off films than this. Overall: I have to say, this movie from director, Tamra Davis could had been better. However, the badly written story, combine with shameful product placement, made this film, hard to watch. In the end, this road is better off, being closed off, until it can be, once again, repaired.

This reviewer is certainly not a Britney Spears detractor.She doesn't have one of my favourite pop voices (compared to those with wider ranges and put more emotion in their singing, i.e. Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey) but she does have a good voice, she is a charismatic performer and her songs (if more before she started making headlines frequently with an increasingly messy personal life) are good and catchy.With this being said, one cannot accuse me of being biased. Not a fan of Spears, but am a long way from disliking her. Having heard nothing but bad things about 'Crossroads' there was the worry of whether it was as bad as all that, but giving it a fair chance with no personal bias while 'Crossroads' is a long way from good it could have been much worse. It is much better than 'Glitter' with Mariah Carey, which didn't even have a good soundtrack and Carey's extraordinary abilities as a singer doesn't come over in her incredibly one-note acting.Getting the good things out of the way with 'Crossroads', some of the scenery is nice, Justin Long and especially Dan Aykroyd make amusing enough cameos and the soundtrack is memorable and has a nice range of emotions. Despite the Golden Raspberry (Razzie) win and nomination, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" and "Overprotected" to me are not bad songs at all, in fact they were two of the soundtrack's highlights and most likely got the negative attention due to them being performed by Britney.Britney has gotten a lot of stick for her acting here, and one can see why. She does fare better than Carey does in 'Glitter', she at least looks more engaged and has a better ability of displaying more than one emotion. Despite being a charismatic performer on stage, the same kind of charisma doesn't come over in her performance here, which has a lot of erratic changes of mood, awkward line delivery and lack of genuine emotion in the emotional scenes (she doesn't even convince doing crocodile tears). The rest of the cast don't fare so well either, with Kim Catrall wasted, Zoe Saldana annoying as a result of over-compensating and Anson Mount amongst others looking disengaged. Chemistry is also lacking.In all fairness, the cast are saddled with shallow and underwritten characters that are written with no warmth or originality and a clichéd and tonally muddled script that is filled with cheesy and juvenile humour, clunky and attempts at emotion, heavy-handed dramatic elements in places where the film attempts to tackle more mature themes and romantic parts that have more sugar than a pack of eight diet coke cans. Tamra Davis is uninspired visually, with very limited use of camera techniques which cheapens the film's look, and lacks cohesion from a narrative point of view.Despite a decent start, 'Crossroads' has a story that is as muddled and incomprehensible as its script, not being able to decide whether to be a road trip film, a vanity vehicle for Britney Spears, a comedy, a drama or a romance, because it tries to be all those things and doesn't work as any of them. The problems with the comedy, drama and romance have been detailed when describing what was wrong with the script, while the road trip parts are aimless and meandering and while not as self-indulgent as other music-themed films with similar kinds of stories it does feel like an extended advertisement for upcoming projects for Britney Spears herself and Britney's strengths are not put anywhere near enough to good use as an attempt to shed from her pop idol image.In summary, was expecting much worse but 'Crossroads' to me, even when judging it with an open mind, was a long way from good. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The only "good" thing I can say about this movie, is that, in some ways, it's A BIT better (read: less annoying) than Mariah Carey's, J.Lo's and Paris Hilton's movies. While this one is truly awful, the aforementioned are even beyond that.The acting is atrocious. We all know that Britney can't act, but... everyone else in the movie was equally bad. It's like, Britney's team wanted to find people that would make Britney look good (at acting), which is VERY difficult. They picked THE WORST cast ever! Honestly, these so-called actors are an embarrassment.This is just another "vanity movie". It is clear that Britney has no interest in acting; she's just doing this to show off or something. There's no difference between this movie and one of Britney's music videos. None. This is not really a movie as such, is it? Seriously, I can't imagine what sort of person would ever consider praising anything about this movie. Everything - every single thing - about it is s***.An empty, stupid, meaningless, all-round disastrous mess.

For a while there, I thought that I was going to be in genuine danger of having to admit that I liked this movie. For the first forty minutes it was a warm, if slightly generic, road movie about the positives of friendship and following your dreams... Then, after that point, I started to feel it turn into a Steel Magnolias clone. It was now apparently the type of film where the girls all sit around in a sewing circle, and discuss their problems. I suppose this is fine if you feel like these are real issues and you can relate to them, but when they feel as though they've been cribbed from the pages of 'Dear Abby... ', you stop suspending your disbelief that these are real people, and start seeing them for what they are: Stock Movie Characters.Going along with the well-worn movie tradition, the guy our heroine gets with has to be 'hot', and not the slightly awkward, geeky schoolfriend that she actually shares a little bit of a rapport with. That's Movie Law - don't lose your virginity to someone you have a little bit of history with, lose it instead to the hunk you've only just met who has a heartbreaking backstory and abs chiseled from stone, but lacks the facility of meaningful conversation. Hey, why talk much when you can just beat up sleazy jerks in bars and win the girl's affection that way, right?!The first half of the film actually has a path that seems like it might be leading somewhere... until suddenly, that trail goes cold, and the rest of the movie is essentially just a visually 'inspirational' pep talk for Spears' status as a teen role model. It's a shame too, because Spears' performance as a whole suggests she would be capable of handling more diverse requirements. Sadly, these don't appear to be in the play- by-play manual followed by the makers. Eventually, the clichés win out, as we all must have suspected they would do, in the first place.