Crossroads (2002) |
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Crossroads (2002) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain Featurette-The Making Of Crossroads: 40 Days With Britney Deleted Scenes Alternate Audio-Break Through Britney Music Video-Overprotected (The Darkchild Remix) Music Video-I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman Karaoke-Overprotected Karaoke-I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman Scene Editing Workshop-Director's Chair Video Editor (I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A…) Gallery-Photo Theatrical Trailer |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2002 | ||
| Running Time | 89:32 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (31:14) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Tamra Davis |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Britney Spears Zoe Saldana Taryn Manning |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Trevor Jones |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0  (320Kb/s)English Alternate Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English for the Hearing Impaired | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
Crossroads is very predicable and slow. It's a coming-of-age road-movie chick-flick aimed squarely at teenage girls. It is presented on a DVD of good quality.
Three childhood friends, Lucy (Britney Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana), and Mimi (Taryn Manning), meet up following their high school graduation. Despite having become estranged from each other over the years, (and making no sense whatsoever), they immediately agree to travel to LA together (in an old convertible, of course), with a man named Ben (Anson Mount), whom none of them know.
This movie exists solely as a vehicle for Britney. Obviously having seen Glitter, and believing in safety in numbers, Britney opted for an ensemble piece as her feature film debut. While the acting is not too bad overall, the incredible slowness and dullness of the plot, and the fact that there is absolutely nothing interesting or remotely original about this story, make watching this movie a very long 90 minutes.
The transfer is taken from a recent source, and it is pretty good.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1; it is 16x9 enhanced.
The image is reasonably sharp throughout. The shadow detail and colour are good.
There were no problems with MPEG, or film-to-video artefacts. Some edge enhancement was present, and film artefacts did appear throughout, but they are mostly small, and I did not find them distracting.
The English subtitles are accurate.
This is a RSDL disc, with the very obvious layer change placed at 31:14.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
Apart from the English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, there is also an English Dolby Stereo-Surround track.
The dialogue quality and audio sync have no major problems.
The musical score is credited to Trevor Jones, but there are a few Britney Spears numbers, including Overprotected, Not A Girl—Not Yet A Woman, and her cover of I Love Rock 'N' Roll.
The surround presence and activity is largely limited to providing some subtle ambience throughout, such as during the party scene at 7:57.
The subwoofer is used largely to support the music.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
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| Overall | |
Sadly, there are a number of extras (why do you get them when you don't want them?)
Standard menu.
Theatrical Trailer (2:23)
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.
The Making Of Crossroads (25:33)
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, this is the usual self-serving, back-slapping, marketing tripe.
Deleted Scenes & Out-takes (11:45)
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, each is introduced by the director.
Break Through Britney
Britney pops-up and adds comments during the movie.
Music Videos
The videos for Overprotected, Not A Girl—Not Yet A Woman, are included, but sadly the video for her cover of I Love Rock 'N' Roll (the one I like) is not.
Sing Along with Britney
Overprotected and Not A Girl—Not Yet A Woman are presented, with the lyrics as subtitles.
Video Editor
Very basic — viewers (kids) can re-arrange three music video scenes.
Photo Gallery
Stills from production.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Crossroads was released on DVD in Region 1 in July 2002.
The Region 4 DVD misses out on:
The Region 1 DVD misses out on:
The R1 appears to have the edge in the extras department.
A wasted 90 minutes *yawn* — strictly for Britney fans only!
The video quality is good.
The audio quality is also good.
The extras are plentiful.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
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| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
| Display | Grundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
| Speakers | Sony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer |