A dark tale of fealty and betrayal, and ultimately redemption, set against the backdrop of war-torn Prague on the eve of revolu… Oh, excuse us, wrong movie. A weightless tale of friendship, rainbows and skimpy little cut-off t-shirts, set in a too-friendly Karaoke bar on the eve of adulthood.

Reviewer's note: I do not dislike Britney (one T, no A) Spear's music; my daughter is a fan, and even owns an actual, authenticated personally-autographed t-shirt which she will not ever ever sell, even suspecting that it could probably bring in enough money to bail out Worldcom. The following review is strictly of the movie, not Britney or her career.

Let's get the downside elements out of the way. First, it's unclear to us just who the audience was meant to be for this vanity project. Some of the themes and language might make parents of preteens and tweeners uncomfortable, but the overarching wholesomeness of the character would make this disappointing to older viewers who may have been hoping that this film would break out a new, edgier Britney image (no, Tomb Raider fans, there is no "nude code"; none of Britney's outfits here approach even the Pepsi commercial). Second, the casting is wrong, almost laughably so. Britney plaing a nerdy social outcast valedictorian? John Wayne was more believable playing Ghengis Khan in The Conqueror.

The Karaoke scene is, perhaps, emblematic of the movie. The three performing girls are booed by the bar patrons (which include both biker types and 50-year-old housewives) until Britney's character takes over singing chores; by the first chorus, the bar patrons are completely won over, clapping along and stuffing the "tips" jar with ten-dollar bills.

The script by Shonda Rhimes (her first major original Hollywood story; her only well-known writing credit was for HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which was scripted from the book by Earl Mills) is simply a failure. Every event seems to have a waterproof veneer where serious issues such as child abuse and pregnancy are mentioned and subsequently glossed over with no emotional weight.

But let's talk about the good points of the movie. There's ..um, let's see, when, uh...

Hmm.

It's better than Glitter.

Film Synopsis:

"Crossroads" is the story of three childhood friends, Lucy (Britney Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning), who, after eight years apart, rediscover their friendship on a cross-country trip. With barely a plan, practically no money but plenty of dreams, the girls catch a lift with Mimi's handsome, mysterious friend Ben (Anson Mount) in his

Technical

Video:	Widescreen 1.78:1 (Anamorphic)
Audio:	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC] ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Surround [CC] FRENCH: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles:	English, Closed Captions
Chapters:	18

The film is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with support for 16:9 TVs. The video is mostly undemanding, and the transfer is excellent. More difficult lighting scenes, such as the dark karaoke bar with glaring red lights, are handled superbly, and there are few noticeable compression artifacts despite the fairly low bitrate of the DVD.

Audio is similarly excellent, particularly when studio-based soundtracks are used in the concert scenes; the rear speakers kick in frequently for ambience, and the frequency range clear down to the subwoofers is solid and undistorted.

Supplements

• Featurettes:
• "The Making Of Crossroads: 40 Days With Britney" (25:32)
• "Taryn's T-Shirts" (11:44)
• "First In Line: Inside the Crossroads Premiere," Hosted by Zoë Saldana (7:14)
• Deleted Scenes and Outtakes With On-Camera Introductions by Director Tamra Davis (11:45)
• Feature Commentary by Producer Ann Carli, Director Tamra Davis & Writer Shondra Rhimes
• Music Videos:
• "Overprotected" (The Darkchild Remix) (3:42)
• "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" (3:56)
• Britney's DVD Welcome (0:08)
• Break Through Britney
• Sing Along With Britney:
• "Overprotected" (3:23)
• "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" (3:50)
• Edit Your Own Music Video
• Photo Gallery (64 frames)
• Trailers & TV Spots
• Domestic Theatrical Trailer (2:29)
• International Theatrical Teaser Trailer (1:23)
• MTV Promos (2:47)
• DVD Credits

This show uses tools that are sharp and could be dangerous

There are a surprising number of supplementary features for a single-disc release, some more worthwhile than others.

One touted feature is "Britney's DVD Welcome." In order to save you eight seconds of your life, here it is in it's entirety:

"Hi, I'm Britney Spears, and I had a great time making my first film, "Crossroads," and I hope you'll enjoy this special DVD presentation."

The film contains an audio commentary by producer Ann Carli, director Tamra Davis and writer Shondra Rhimes. The commentary is of the type where crew members simply watch the film unwind, and talk about topics as they come; nothing of technical importance is divulged, and conversation -- sounding eerily like a three-girl sleepover pajama party -- is primarily of the fun the cast and crew had while filming.

Three featurettes are included. "The Making Of Crossroads: 40 Days With Britney" is a half-hour promotional fluff originally made for MTV in connection with the film, and is primarily for fans and Britney completists.

Next up is "Taryn's T-Shirts," in which actress/costume designer Jackie Denning and Taryn Manning (Mimi) go through the steps needed to recreate the singing trio's t-shirts from the film's Karaoke scene. Both actresses appear to be of high-school age, and the piece begins with the following warning:

"This show uses tools that are sharp and could be dangerous. Please have an adult help you when actually making the t-shirts."

Sure, it's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.

The third featurette is "First In Line: Inside the Crossroads Premiere," a seven-minute MTV piece (the standard warning goes out to viewers succeptible to pointless-camera-movement-induced motion sickness), which covers the L.A. premiere of the film. It's "hosted" by Zoe Saldana, who played Eva in the film.

Some deleted scenes and a minute or so of outtakes are introduced by director Tamra Davis; the scenes could have been left in or removed with little effect on the pacing of the film.

Also included is an "Edit Your Own Music Video" workshop. Three different videos for the song "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman" (each using the identical song mix) are presented, and you have your choice of the order in which bits from the three videos are arranged.

The "Break Through Britney" option will present the film with occasional pop-ups of Britney as she explains a little background information from the film ("My little sister plays Lucy in Crossroads, and she was very, very excited that she got to play Lucy in the movie...").

There are also two music videos, a follow-the-bouncing-whatever "Sing Along with Britney" section (why wasn't this done Karaoke-style?), trailers, and a photo gallery.