By Jason Robey

It's been said before, and I'll say it again: just because you are a success in pop music does not mean you should make movies. It's a fact that's been proved by Mariah Carey, Vanilla Ice and the Spice Girls, yet Britney Spears didn't learn a lesson from any of their colossal failures.

Spears' first movie, Crossroads, opened last weekend. I was not disappointed by it at all, but that's because I didn't expect much from it.

This movie will obviously be seen differently depending on the viewer's perspective. Unfortunately, the writers didn't seem to know what audience they were making the movie for.

Almost every pre-teen girl in the country probably wants to see the movie, but the sexual themes and scenes were too predominant to go over their heads without notice; so, as the PG-13 rating suggests, it's not a movie for anyone under 13.

Those same scenes will probably make more sense to the post-puberty crowd, but most of them probably won't be intrigued by a plot that's about as deep as fingerprints and about as possible as me voluntarily seeing this movie again.

For example, the movie begins with three elementary school-aged girls making a pact to be best friends forever. The next scene shows the girls graduating high school, all hating one another. One of the girls is a pregnant, tough-yet-sentimental social outcast; one is a stuck-up, recently engaged prom queen; and the other (Spears) is a nerdy daddy's girl, who is attempting to lose her virginity on graduation night just because she can. Suddenly, within the span of about one minute, they reunite, and decide to take a road trip across the country together.

The rest of the movie makes as much sense, and is just as interesting as the first scenes.

In Spears' defense, however, her acting wasn't all that bad. Her role wasn't exactly a stretch though, she plays a pretty teenage girl who wears skimpy clothes and sings.

Bottom line: girls under 21 might like it, and under 13 probably won't get it. Guys of any age will be awakened momentarily by two scenes of Spears in her underwear, two in skimpy clothing, and one in a bikini -- trust me guys, you'll be keeping count too, it's the only way to get through this one.

MS
MS

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