Crossroads

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Not only makes excellent use of the singer's sweetly coltish acting abilities, but it also promotes a standardized set of sturdy values with none of Mariah Carey's desperate ''Glitter,'' or any of Mandy Moore's gummy pap in ''A Walk to Remember.''

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Everything she (Spears) does seems diluted and secondhand and is never transformed into something original or indelibly self-expressive.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Adults will wish the movie were less simplistic, obvious, clumsily plotted and shallowly characterized. But what are adults doing in the theater at all?

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Here's what Crossroads does not have: Cohesive direction from Tamra Davis, intelligent dialogue, a comprehensible plot.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Spears delivers a performance with the same sincerity she invests into a Pepsi commercial, only this film contains twice the sugary calories.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

This is a star vehicle that stalls.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

Highbrow self-appointed guardians of culture need not apply, but those who loved "Cool as Ice" have at last found a worthy follow-up.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Marks the emergence of a talented young actress. Not Britney -- who has the amateur's tendency to stand looking awkward after delivering her lines -- but Manning (Crazy/Beautiful), who plays Mimi with the gusto of a young Holly Hunter. Though she has little competition here, when she's on the screen she pretty much owns it.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Fascinating in its own strange way, not as entertainment but as a cultural document.

Boston Globe Loren King

Packaged fluff aimed low, and patronizingly, at Spears's legion of young female fans.

Slate David Edelstein

So vanilla yet so transcendentally sleazy that its target audience seems to be pubescent girls and dirty old priests.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Spears, Davis, and company are well aware that they're making nothing more than the cinematic equivalent of Spears' glossy bubble gum pop -- but that's exactly the problem.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The movie is a lumbering load of hokum, but unlike those other recent pop star white elephants -- it's at least watchable.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film's mealy-mouthed messages about feminine empowerment will almost certainly fall on deaf ears, since even 11-year-olds know Spears's power resides largely in her taut torso.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Less a movie than a mind-numbingly dull road trip.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I went to Crossroads expecting a glitzy bimbofest and got the bimbos but not the fest. Britney Spears' feature debut is curiously low-key and even sad.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Ellen A. Kim

Crossroads may now fall into the same paragraph as "Glitter," Mariah Carey's disastrous star vehicle.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

When the cast is shown during the final credits repeatedly cracking up in blown takes, one would like to think they were laughing at some of the lines they were expected to deliver.

Village Voice Jane Dark

You spend a lot of time wondering, "Better or worse than Glitter?" You think if the projectionist cranked the volume a little you could actually sort of get into this.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Not a music video, not yet a movie, but more like an extended-play advertisement for the Product that is Britney.

The New Yorker David Denby

What it's really about, of course, is the very delicate marketing problem of turning a super-bland pop star into an acceptable human being onscreen. [4 Mar 2002, p. 90]

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Young girls are the only ones likely to enjoy this vapid road-trip movie.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

In a way, it's probably unfair to blame director Tamra Davis exclusively for this debacle. After all, she's toiling in the shadow of a would-be multi-media superstar, making her essentially a hired gun.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

So dull, a road-trip movie that's surprisingly short of both adventure and song.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Spears is filmed and costumed in such a harsh, unflattering manner that it looks like Christina Aguilera bribed the crew to make her rival look as hideous as possible. Spears' ubiquity has spawned an inevitable backlash, but the awful Crossroads ought to do more harm to her career than even the most powerful Britney-basher.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Awfully lame bigscreen debut for pop diva Britney Spears.

Los Angeles Times John Anderson

Spears acquits herself as well as anyone might, in a movie as contrived and lazy as this one.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A movie so pathetically lame that hopefully even Spears most ardent young fans will give this stinker a big thumbs down.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Functions mainly as a big-screen showcase for America's No. 1 teen tease, with the story and other characters serving mainly as accessories.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Go see Crossroads if you want to hear Britney sing or see her wear next-to-nothing. But otherwise, avoid this train wreck at all costs.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It does wonders to a critic to know that [Britney] could be a continuing font of teen and post-teen kitsch for years to come.