User reviews

Where to begin? I feel as to not make my comment way too lengthy, as I could go on all day about this travesty, I'll briefly hit every key point:

• Acting/Casting - The main girl looks like she's maybe heard one Britney Spears song in her life, and like she's heard even less about the stars' life and career before signing onto the movie. She acts like the bubblegum Britney for the entire film, and it is extremely infuriating almost to the point of parody, like she doesn't even give a sh!t about the story she's trying to encompass even a little. She doesn't look like Britney, she certainly doesn't dance like Britney, she's not Britney... I'll sum up this portion of my review very quickly by saying that the only person that doesn't look miscast in this and doesn't do a terribly unfortunate job at their performance is the mom, who honestly could have pulled off Britney Spears better.

• Directing/Editing - Choppy, chop, chop mess. Everything felt so overly rushed and poorly edited. We're flying scene to scene with no time to grow any attachment to what's going on in front of us. You'd be better off watching the real life videos again of what Ms. Spears had to go through in order to get a better grasp on the situation, because along with no acting depth, there is no depth in how the director is trying to accomplish every single scene. Such poor direction.

• Facts/New information - Aside from a few things with Justin Timberlake I was unaware of, this movie doesn't bring anything new to the spotlight that has not already been covered by the media or by Spears herself. They're all jumbled facts and info to begin with, and I know it's supposed to just be a chronicle of her life so far, but as other commentators have stated, there were big parts of her life left out, both good and bad.

• Songs or lack thereof/Britney's own rejection - By far one of the worst factors of this movie? The shining star of the film did NOT want it being made, and it shows more than ever. The only music that it shows the woman portraying Britney singing in the film are songs that Britney covered from other artists. ("I Can't Get No Satisfaction, though it's the Rolling Stones version in this movie of course, and "I Love Rock 'n' Roll".) All the other songs? Generic, dumb, badly timed Pop written for the movie it seems that is not worthy of imitating the multiple, high-tempo, sexy Dance beat albums that have been so publicly adored and acclaimed by Ms. Spears. She did not want this movie being made, and I can see why. But aside from the fact that she knew the movie would be bad, it's just an insult altogether. Britney is a normal person like you are me. Yes, a staple icon, but a person nonetheless, who knows that if anything was going to come out documenting her life, she would want full hand in it, and she'd want it to be done with so much more care and understanding than these Neanderthals tried accomplishing.

In the end, the only reason I did not give it a 1 is because I made it all the way through it without vomiting, and surprisingly enough have seen a small handful of worse films. Britney Ever After, however, was a complete mess and useless effort on any and all levels.

"Britney Ever After" (2017 release; 90 min.) is a bio-pic of Britney Spears which premiered this weekend on Lifetime TV. As the movie opens, we are in 2008 and Britney is being interviewed in connection with her comeback. We then go back to "Florida 1998" when Britney is about to embark on her first tour, opening for *NSYNC. Britney soon reconnects with childhood friend Justin Timberlake and soon the two become an item. Meanwhile her mom and dad can't stop arguing about the smallest thing. At this point we are 15 min into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: first, this is an unauthorized bio-pic, made without any blessing or cooperation from the Britney camp. In and of itself this shouldn't stop the movie makers from putting together an interesting movie. Alas, they didn't. The movie heavily focuses on the Britney-Justin romance (taking more than a third of the movie), and then rushes through the rest of the material. The quickie Vegas wedding and subsequent dissolution is literally dealt with in a minute or so. Career highlights (such as VMA 2000) and lowlights (VMA 2007) flash by in no time. Worst of all is that there simply is no depth in any of the main characters, it all just happens. Not helping matters is that the movie producers don't have any original Britney music in the film, so the only and few performances we get are covers Britney did in her career (including the Stones' Satisfaction and Joan Jett's I Love Rock n Roll). All the other music is Britney-reminding club music. Natasha Bassett, the Australian actress playing Britney, does the best she can with the material given to here, but she can't save the movie from its strictly by-the-numbers feel (Bassett does the actual singing of the 2 covers mentioned earlier). Please note that, other than the very last minute of the movie, nothing beyond 2008 is covered.

As a Britney fan from the early days on, I was simply curious about this movie, and went into it without a lot of expectations. Even those low expectations weren't met. Given the tumultuous ups and downs Britney has had over the years, surely there is a great movie to be made one day about it all. Alas, "Britney Ever After" is not that movie. If you are a Britney fan, you will learn nothing new that you didn't know before. Viewer beware.

Terribly innacurate storyline, awful acting, and the caracters doesn't look like the real ones not even by far. Actually to be fair, the girl playing Britney does look a little bit like her when she smiles, and she does try hard to look like her, but she hardly gets close to it. I understand they can't use her music to it, but could at least create songs close to her style than the crap they came up with. And could dig deeper in the stories insteat of all those superficial happenings. Cleary the person who wrote it doesn't know Britney at all. Why haven't they asked a fan to write it? It definitely would be much better. Well...there goes 1 hour of my life which i'll never get back!

First of all, watching the movie does not give you any information or help you understand what really happened during the tough years.

Second, even though I don't know much about Britney, I do know that a lot of the movie was inaccurate.

Horrible acting.

Horrible casting - the main character does not make you feel like you are watching something about Britney's life because she does not look like her AT ALL. And the JT character -- really?? From there it only got worse - I didn't realize the guy playing Kevin was supposed to be K-Fed.

Horrible storytelling - they jumped all over the place and skipped LOTS of important things (both good and bad).

The movie was all over the place. The script seemed like it was written in a weekend. It never felt like a movie about the life of Britney Spears. The acting was just horrible. The casting was all wrong. The guy playing Justin Timberlake! Why?! I'm a 56 year old African American woman and would have been better cast to play Britney than Miss Bassett!

Initially from the opening shots it felt like I was watching an SNL version of Britney's life ..From the cooky vibe, to the tacky accent to the overly hyped up 9 year old silly girl performance of the lead, I knew I was watching a joke and a disaster, but I was curious.

The girl has 0 sex appeal nor conviction nor even physical attractiveness (with all due respect to her off course) but its insulting to one the biggest pop icons in the world who's known for being sexy, sultry and physically perfect.

I assumed they could not use the real music for copy right infringement issues that could result in a law suit, and that is what happens when you make a movie about someone whose life is not even half way through being lived and does not approve of the story. That affected the story GREATLY ! Not a single Britney song lol

There are levels of bad, and I came into this with poor expectations, but it surprised me just how truly horrid it was, the acting the direction, the story layout, above all the lead, and everything in between. The amateurish direction, the poor production values and the terrible cast truly destroyed a powerful story into a messy, clichéd film.

An opportunity to recreate greatness and capture vulnerability, iconic moments of real life, style and inspiration missed.

Final Grade F-

First of all, watching the movie does not give you any information or help you understand what really happened during the tough years.

Second, even though I don't know much about Britney, I do know that a lot of the movie was inaccurate.

Horrible acting.

Horrible casting - the main character does not make you feel like you are watching something about Britney's life because she does not look like her AT ALL. And the JT character -- really?? From there it only got worse - I didn't realize the guy playing Kevin was supposed to be K-Fed.

Horrible storytelling - they jumped all over the place and skipped LOTS of important things (both good and bad).

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

A made for TV biopic of the pop icon Britney Spears (Natasha Bassett), from starting out with her breakthrough single Baby One More Time in 1999, where she was shoved into the limelight by her pushy mother Lynne (Nicole Oliver) and domineering manager Larry Rudolph (Peter Benson), who both naively thought she was old and mature enough to handle such massive media exposure and pushed her to lie about her virginity to keep up an illusion, through to the trials and turbulence of her relationships with Justin Timberlake (Nathan Keyes) and Kevin Federline (Clayton Chitty), before a revealing 2008 documentary aired.

Sometimes, something can give you a really bad vibe, yet you still feel utterly compelled to see it. Your instinct can tell you it looks really bad, and you can see no end of bad reviews, and you can almost write a review before you've even seen it, but still you're still interested in the subject matter and you just have to see it yourself. While I've never been a massive fan of her music, something about Britney Spears has always captivated me and kept my attention, being such an icon of popular culture as she is. For all this, though, I've never gotten the feeling she was comfortable with this status, and so a dramatisation of her life, as inevitable as it was, was never something I thought she'd be happy about (and, from what's been said, that's definitely the case with this.)

Such a popular name is Britney, that a big studio could quite willingly have thrown its clout behind a production of her life, so why this no budget monstrosity is even in existence is ripe for question. And what little budget it must have had, as the terrible production values are in evidence from the opening credits, and from there, like a crashing plane whirling down from the sky, it just becomes an even bigger amateurish, terribly made mess. Lead star Bassett looks, and pretty much sounds, nothing like the real Britney, and her portrayal of her is just excruciating, as is Nathan Keyes's cringe-worthy performance as first love Justin. You never get the feeling you're watching a real life unfolding, just a corny, overblown childish imagining.

This is just the typical sort of thing you see on the Hallmark Channel/True Entertainment, only the worst kind of example, and one which you can really see from the outset and just trust your instincts on. NO STARS.

This movie is ridiculous.

The writing is atrocious. It shows all the basic facts that were incredibly obvious, doesn't hit on any of the real blank spaces about Britney's life, and fills in any small blanks around said basic facts with shallow, empty interpretations.

It's like the writers have no concept of the human soul. Because Britney has no soul in this movie.

And if I hear the actress playing Lynn say "SUGAR" in that atrocious way one more time...

This movie actually shows a lot about how we treat celebrities in this country.. This movie lets us see Britney Spears as a real person. She struggles with mental illness , which is common, more and then we like to believe. 30% of America is affected by mental illness in one way or another. They did a good job at portraying her struggles and her difficulties and it made me think differently about who Britney Spears is. And I am happy that this movie shows her in a true light and that the world has judged her unfairly. Her struggle with the media was tragic and she was ill but she was just trying to be a good person and a good mother. This movie gave good insight into her struggle, the acting was good, the characters are great, and overall I enjoyed the movie as a whole. In fact after watching 30 minutes I couldn't stop watching it! So I hope everyone else is enjoying it as much as I did. It is definitely worth watching. :)

Britney Ever After is May have a lot of Stuff missing but I enjoyed watching it for some reason.My Favriote character is Natsha Basset who played as "Britney Spears" she may not really look like Britney But I feel Like she connected with her.Like when she said it was a love letter to Britney I truly agreed it was love letter to her a Little bit but the film did have it's issues. Too much stuff missing,Not the real songs,too much sex,the unbalance of the characters and the wrong outfits.But I truly Think the movie was pretty good and I think you should watch it.

Sincerely,

Oliver Wady

This is seriously one of the worst, low-budget movies I have ever seen and that is saying something even with it being Lifetime movie. The actress who played Britney Spears was terrible, I'm not sure even knew who Britney Spears was because that was NEVER how Britney Spears acted. The rest of the cast was just as bad and couldn't act to save their lives. It's seriously the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen and should literally never be seen again.

Horrible Acting Horrible script Writing, Horrible actors to play the parts. Britney, Justin and Nsync actors looked nothing like the real ones and Britney singing could not even come from worst Britney impersonator. Seemed like lifetime tried too hard to make Britney look bad in movie cause she wanted no part of the horrible cheese work behind it. Epic failure by Lifetime F------

Absolutely horrible film from start to finish. The acting was laughable. Britney Spears deserves better than this. I don't blame that spears didn't want nothing to do with this lifetime movie. It didn't even have Britney songs init lol shocking bad! 1/10

I thought this was about Britney Spears...not a 'How to Over-Act every scene' documentary.

This is the worst movie ever to grace our screens , I feel the makers of this movie should pack up and quit, what we're they thinking, I found this an insult to the real Britney, she deserves better representation. The real Britney had talent and was a star to her fans. I knew movies are not epic like they used to be but this is repulsive trash, this is my honest opinion. I feel sorry for Britney Spears as I feel she is a wonderful person and this movie does not reflect her personality at all.

There are no words. From the horrific acting, the actors that looked nothing like the people they portrayed, and the obviously out of whack costumes and technology gaffs (iphones didn't exist in 2000), this film was a mess from start to finish. It wasn't funny, it wasn't accurate and wasn't memorable. A total embarrassment.

No wonder Britney didn't endorse the film, it's fiction. It makes Britney a victim and her parents and manager the hero...... well in January 2022 we know that is not the case. Wow, just awful.

Wow!! This was legit the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. I am a big Britney fan and this was just embarrassing. Britney Spears should honestly sue lifetime for this awful not accurate life portrayal. I mean everything from the acting to the dancing was just bad, bad, bad. Lifetime should be ashamed of themselves for this one and so should the rest of the talent and directors.

Totally ridiculous. TERRIBLE acting, I felt like the girl playing Britney made her come off as mentally challenged. Maybe I'm not the best person to rate this film, seeing as how I was so displeased and annoyed within the first 15 minutes that I actually shut it off, but for me it was that bad... and I have managed to sit through bad movies in the past...

If you actually watch the film, you'll see that the acting isn't half bad. It's the cheesy "Lifetime Movie Network-style" production that irritates people to the core, that's all. Like with (all) LMNs you're going to notice that it's basically geared toward someone who's about 14 years-old. If you can look past that whole low-intelligence LMN thing, it really isn't a bad film. It shows how Britney was a victim; victimized by a lot of different people and situations HOWEVER she's a strong girl who became a strong woman and a great mom. The one thing she truly loves in her life is her children. It allows you to imagine if you were her, thrown into entertainment from a young age and you suddenly become the world's biggest musical icon and then everyone wants a piece of you. She's definitely a strong survivor. She's smart, she's strong and she is highly talented.

Let's face it, if you do a lifetime TV movie about Britney Spears, without the authorization of her family or her estate, therefore not gaining permission to use any of her songs - you know how it's going to turn out.

For what it is, the actress who plays Britney was not bad. But everyone else, including the pacing, editing and directing, was as abysmal as you would expect.

Britney's live (albeit lip-synced) performances were iconic, so the lack of them due to the non-authorization of her songs is probably the worst thing.

Her meltdowns are intertwined with interviews of her feelings on it - but I had so much trouble trying to identify with her struggles that the film just got more and more annoying.

A wasted opportunity.