Britney Baby - One More Time

Rating:
Summary: I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman
Review: After seeing Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank in the true life documentary American Movie: The Making of Northwestern (1999), I was excited to see they were involved in another project, Britney Baby One More Time (2002). I really like that film, and maybe it was unfair to expect what I did from this movie based on that, as this film didn't quite satisfy as I hoped it would.

The movie, partly based on a true story, stars Mark as Dude Schmitz, and Mike Shank as Mike Schmitz, Dude's brother. Dude is a struggling independent filmmaker in Wisconsin desperately in need of financing for his latest project, and falls into a gig to interview the real Britney Spears. After a interview cut short due to Dude's question regarding the realism of some of Britney's more impressive attributes, Dude has a chance meeting with a Britney Spears impersonator, Robert Stephans, played by Angel Benton. This is where the movie duplicates real life events as Angel Benton is a Britney Spears impersonator in real life, and truly won a Spears impersonation contest, allowing for a meeting with Angel's pop star idol, only to have it taken away due to a misunderstanding.

After Dude's meeting with Britney/Angel, he comes up with the idea to try and use Angel as the real Britney, promising constant coverage as they travel to where the real Britney Spears is performing in New Orleans. Only thing is, Angel is duped into believing the footage being shot with him is the ultimate fan's perspective, and not that he is being portrayed as the real Britney. The whole thing may seem messy, but it wasn't too difficult to keep track.

I thought the movie to be pretty good and funny in a number of scenes, but I was really hoping for more of what I loved about American Movie: The Making of Northwestern, which, as I stated before, also starred the two main actors in this film. Where that film had heart, showing a independent filmmaker struggling tirelessly and with childlike abandon to complete a project, this one was a bit shallow, and even silly at times, and tended to get bogged down in its' own smartness and tongue-in-cheek presentation and embellishment of the original story. Angel Benton certainly is a very good impersonator, mimicking Britney Spears well, almost too well, at times, lending an element of creepiness to the film. With right angle and the right lighting, you could almost believe that he is whom he is pretending to be...He even sounded like her, at least enough to really give me the heebee jeebees. And no, the real Ms. Spears does not appear in the film.

There are some very good extras available here, including a trailer for the film, a nice piece where Angel Benton relates his true life experience with winning the Britney impersonation contest and the subsequent events, and biographies of Angel Benton, Mark Borchardt, and Mike Shank.

Cookieman108

Rating:
Summary: AAA ! Hilarious movie !
Review: You dance like Britney, you sing like Britney, you look like Britney, you ARE britney. Or at least, everybody will think you ARE !

This is the funiest movie I have seen this year !