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Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey

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  • Title: Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey
  • IMDB: link

Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's JourneyIn 2007, following the loss of Steve Augeri to a chronic throat infection, American rock band Journey was looking to put out an album and start a new tour without a lead singer. Scouring the Internet for a suitable replacement, Neal Schon happened upon a YouTube video that would help launch the band’s most profitable tour in decade and discover a star halfway around the world.

Director Ramona S. Diaz‘s documentary follows the unlikely journey (pun intended) of unknown Filipino singer-songwriter Arnel Pineda who would rise from complete obscurity to become the new lead singer of Journey.

Filled with plenty of classic Journey songs which Pineda belts out well-enough to make Steve Perry proud, the documentary follows Pineda growing into his role as the band’s frontman, going from star-struck fan to the man fans go crazy for, and opening up and entirely new audience with a huge influx in Filipino fans. Crazy enough for a movie script, the story happens to be true.

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Guilty Pleasure – Action Jackson

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  • Title: Action Jackson
  • IMDB: link

Action Jackson1988’s attempt to turn Carl Weathers into an action star leading man fizzled with both audiences and critics making less money than Funny Farm, Short Circuit 2, or Ernest Saves Christmas. The premise of the film was to cast Weathers as the toughest cop in town (who we know is tough because various supporting members of the cast keep telling us that Jackson is such a bad ass).

The storyline involved Detroit Detective “Action” Jackson taking a second run at a powerful local businessman (Craig T. Nelson) Jackson knew, but was unable to tie, to the deaths of several union members who worked for the man’s company. When Dellaplane’s wife (Sharon Stone) comes forward to offer Jackson the proof he needs to take the man down, the auto magnate frames the cop for her murder forcing Jackson to rely on the help of Dellaplane’s heroin-addicted mistress (Vanity) and a hairdresser (Armelia McQueen), to prove his innocence and set things right.

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Take a Ride on the Silver Streak

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  • Title: Silver Streak
  • IMDB: link

Silver StreakTaking Alfred Hitchcock‘s concept of a man in far over his head in North by Northwest to absurd levels, director Arthur Hiller’s Silver Streak provided not only an enjoyable comedic thriller but also the first opportunity to pair Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor on-screen together. And, once again proving my Train Theory (that all things being equal, movies with trains are better than similiar movies without), this is still their best collaboration.

When George Caldwell (Wilder) boards the Silver Streak, a train from Los Angeles to Chicago, on his way to his sister’s wedding, looking for no more than two days of relaxation and boredom he has no idea the journey he is actually embarking on. On the train he meets the lovely Hilly Burns (Jill Clayburgh) and during a romantic night in his cabin a rather drunk and distracted George sees the body of Hilly’s boss Professor Gierasch (Stefan Gierasch) fall from the roof of the train.

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Political Animals – The Complete Series

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  • Title: Political Animals
  • tv.com: link

Political Animals - The Complete SeriesDespite hopes to expand the original six-episode mini-series, Political Animals ended after its initial run. The series focused on the soapy behind-the-scenes drama of the family of former First Lady and current Secretary of State Elaine Barrish (Sigourney Weaver doing her best Hillary Clinton impression). Over the course of the mini-series Barrish would butt heads with the current President (Adrian Pasdar) who she considers running against in the next election, and deal with family drama mostly tied to her ex-husband the charming but lecherous former President (Ciarán Hinds) and drug-addicted gay son (James Wolk).

The rest of the cast included Elaine’s dutiful son and Chief of Staff T.J. (Sebastian Stan), T.J.’s bulimic fiance Anne (Brittany Ishibashi), Elaine’s sassy drunk mother (Ellen Burstyn), and newswoman Susan Berg (Carla Gugino) whose acrimonious relationship with the Barrish softened over the course of the series. We also saw a hostage crisis in Iran, a sinking Chinese nuclear sub off the coast of San Diego, and the gearing up of Barrish’s second Presidential campaign.

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The Flashpoint Paradox

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  • Title: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
  • IMDB: link

The Flashpoint ParadoxAlternate reality stories are nothing new in comics. Although not originally designed for that purpose, Flashpoint became a major storyline in DC Comics to help the publisher transition from the established DCU continuity to that of their New 52 reboot. Spanning more than 75 issues the story centered around the Flash finding himself trapped in a darker version of the world he knew with heroes similar, yet different, from those he called friends, and a war between Atlantis and Themyscira threatening to destroy the Earth.

The results of Flashpoint were mixed at best and I certainly wasn’t expecting much when I heard DC had chosen the project for their latest straight-to-DVD feature. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is actually pretty good and arguably the best animated feature the company has put out over the last couple of years since Batman: Under the Red Hood.

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