Hey folks, Harry here with the first review I've seen of Britney Spears' burgeoning film career. Soon we'll have EMINEM's new film... Personally I think they should make a romantic musical comedy together. A remake of GREASE, but set modern day... All of EMINEM's songs would be angry repressed white boy angsta rap. And Britney would be vacuous pop fluff... It'll make bazillions I tell ya... Sigh... Well apparently she's pretty good in this film... maybe she'll make a career change and leave my radio alone... "A dream is a wish your heart makes..."
Yesterday a friend and I went to an advance screening of a movie starring Britney Spears (I'm not sure of the title, but my friend, Crazy Ass, said it was What Are Friends For). He's probably already mailed you with a detailed description in the movie, so I'll just give a basic description of what happened.
On thursday we went to the Block in Orange (an outdoor shopping mall with a fairly new AMC 20-something) To see Scary Movie 2. Upon arriving in the ticket line a weird lookin' guy came up to us and handed us papers to an advanced screening of a mystery movie and told us to bring a friend and RSVP. We took them cause the guy was freakin' us out, jumping around like he had to get all the fliers out before the end of the night or some guys would have their way with him. When I see a guy like that I take pity, and to refuse to take a flier from a person I take pity on in that way just isn't in my capacity. We bought tickets, went inside, watched the movie, laughed a little, although some of the laughs took coaxing from the girls that sat in the row in front of and behind us (There's just something strangely comical about young girls laughing at jokes and then asking eachother what they mean, even though these girls were only about a year or two younger than I). I thought the movie was funny, but not as much as its precursor, nor was it as inventive, being many of the jokes were from the original.
On the drive home I began to think about the screening and wondering what movie would be shown. Crazy Ass and I pondered and came to the conclusion that it would probably be some movie released around Christmas or later, and the flier said 13-21 years for the screening so we figured it could be anything from the grail, Lord of the Rings, to Monsters Inc. or Osmosis Jones. Not knowing what to expect we went 'cause it was free.
The next day, yesterday, Friday, we arrived early, around 5:45 and got on line, signed forms saying we wouldn't talk to you guys, waited another hour, and went in. We got the best seats, right in the middle of the screen (well, if you draw a line out from the middle of the screen you'd hit us right in the face), but it took everyone another half hour to get their seats. Right before the movie starts they say the movie stars Britney Spears so of course the room full of 300+ kids screamed and shouted throught the first minute and a half of the movie, but all that happened was they flashed the MTV logo and showed a scene where three girls (a brunett/white, a brunett/black, and a blonde/white)were burying a box with stuff in it that represented their wishes. It then flashes forward to Britney walking down a school hallway with the kid from Ed and the Black girl walking with her posse of bitchy princesses. The Black girl pays the white brunett an insult and while she laughs she isn't paying attention and runs into Britney. from there the story goes on and blah, blah, blah (see Crazy Ass's summary. I haven't read it, but I trust it's accurate).
I thought the movie was great. It was a bit long, which I liked, but like most teen movies it'll be butchered down to be short for marketing purposes, which is a shame since many things happen on the road trip that alter what they do so the only thing that can be cut is the comedy. I liked this movie because it was funny without needing to try to be funny, whereas Scary Movie 2 tried to be funny ever second and had some of the jokes backfire from being too obvious or corny. Yes, much of the humor might have been unintentional, but this movie wasn't dramatic so that was okay (an audience full of kids laughed at Britney saying, "I didn't feel anything," and Dan Akroid (her single father) responding, "You've got a good head on your shoulders," and "I've busted my hump for you to get this far." This was shown after the attempted sex scene with the guy from Ed, but they were talking about her graduation.)
There were some things in the movie that I thought could be better, such as shortening Britney's underwear dance at the beginning (it was nice, just long), reducing the number of scenes in which Britney sings (I'm not a fan of her music), and perhaps making the characters less mercurial (all of them go through moments of being nice and then mean and then caring and then joking and then playful and then angry etc.)
My final diagnosis is that this was a good movie, something I don't say
often, that wasn't overly comical, dramatic, or girly. Also, Britney makes
a much better actress than singer, except when she has to cry.
