Trevor Rabin

Self-proclaimed stuntman Rod Kimble is preparing for the jump of his life - to clear fifteen buses to raise money for his abusive stepfather Frank's life-saving heart operation. Rod Kimble is a naïf, a slacker living in a small US town with his mom, his younger brother, and his stepfather whose respect he craves. He also misses his dead dad, whom he thinks was Evel Knievel's back-up. Rod, a man-child, believes that he is a stunt man. When his stepfather needs an operation, with help from his brother and his slacker pals, Rod hatches a plan to set a school-bus-jumping record on his moped. First, his crew and he have to raise money to rent the buses and build the ramp. Trouble is, Rod's inept at his chosen career. Looming failure is complicated by the return of Denise, Rod's next-door neighbor and secret heartthrob, who is home from college. Is public humiliation at hand? —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Fantasising about being a successful stunt performer, just like his legendary idol, Evel Knievel, unfortunately, the maladroit and overly optimistic wannabe stuntman, Rod Kimble, has never completed a jump without doing a faceplant. With his friends not taking him very seriously, and his bullying stepfather, Frank, treating him like a punching bag, Rod, however, is not going to take this situation lying down, and let these minor details stand in the way of accomplishing the greatest acrobatic feat of his life. Now, Rod has to do the impossible and jump over fifteen school buses on his feeble Tomos Sprint moped to raise money for Frank's costly heart bypass operation. Will Rod look death in the eye, prove his worth, and get the girl? —Nick Riganas Rod Kimble is a stuntman, well, an amateur stuntman at best. He lives in a small town with his mom and ailing stepfather. In order to pay for his stepfather's medical costs he decides to perform a daring jump. His life is further complicated by the addition of his secret crush, Denise, to his crew. —grantss

Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg) is a fanatical admirer of an 80s heavy metal band called Steel Dragon. By day, Chris is a photocopier technician and by night, he is the lead singer of a Steel Dragon tribute band called Blood Pollution (the name is taken from a Steel Dragon song). Internal struggles among the actual Steel Dragon band members culminate with the firing of their lead singer, Bobby Beers (Jason Flemyng), and the starting of recruitment sessions to find a new vocalist. Chris experiences his own strife with his Blood Pollution band-mates, particularly guitarist Rob Malcolm (Timothy Olyphant). During a live performance, Rob's playing fails to live up to Chris' over-demanding standards regarding note-for-note accuracy to the original Steel Dragon recordings, and Chris sabotages Rob's amplifier mid-song - a fight breaks out between the two onstage. The next day, Chris arrives at Blood Pollution's rehearsal space (the basement of an X-rated theater) to find that he's been fired and replaced with his arch-rival, the (now former) lead singer of another Steel Dragon tribute band. Rob also cites Chris' inability to create his own musical style, preferring to remain the singer in a tribute band. One day, Chris receives an unexpected phone call from Steel Dragon's founder and rhythm guitarist, Kurt Cuddy (Dominic West), and is offered an audition for the band (thanks to two of Blood Pollution's groupies, who showed Kirk a videotape of one of Blood Pollution's concerts). After hanging up on Kurt once, thinking he's being made fun of, Chris ecstatically agrees. At the studio, he meets the band, as well as learning that Bobby Beers was fired because he was a closeted gay and gives an outstanding performance of "We All Die Young" (a Steel Dragon song in the movie, but it is actually a song by Steelheart, whose lead vocalist (Miljenko Matijevic) provides Cole's singing voice for the film). Chris joins the band as their new singer, adopting the stage name "Izzy." Following a successful debut concert with Steel Dragon, Izzy must come to grips with the pressures of his new-found fame and success. The band embarks on a lengthy tour and Izzy experiences the excesses of the lifestyle, with the group's manager, Mats (Timothy Spall), serving as a sympathetic mentor to Izzy. His new lifestyle impacts his life both for better and worse, particularly with his relationship with his supportive girlfriend, Emily Poule (Jennifer Aniston), when she decides not to continue with him throughout the remainder of the tour as a rock star girlfriend, though Emily and Izzy agree to get back together when the tour reaches Seattle. Eventually, Steel Dragon stops in Seattle for a show, and Emily arrives at his hotel room as they had previously arranged, although Izzy had become so inebriated while on tour he forgot about the arrangement and did not even know what city he was in. Although taken aback by all the groupies, Emily still tries to reconnect with him, reminding him of their plans to meet up once he got to Seattle, however he is too intoxicated to really understand what she is saying, eventually suggesting they go to Seattle together. Heartbroken with his inconsiderate behavior, intoxication and the fact that he is sleeping with so many groupies, Emily leaves him. After the end of the tour, Izzy reports to the next series of Steel Dragon recording sessions with song concepts for the band's next album. The rest of the band rejects Izzy's ideas, with Kurt explaining that the band has to stay true to the "Steel Dragon thing" to fulfill fan expectations. Izzy is angered upon realizing that he was only recruited for his vocal abilities. After a heartfelt conversation with Mats about how he feared he had no control over the direction life has taken him, Izzy begins to reconsider his rock star lifestyle. On the next tour, in a scene directly paralleling one near the beginning of the film with their roles reversed, Izzy hears a fan (Myles Kennedy) singing along with him toward the end of a live concert. Impressed, Izzy pulls the fan, who introduces himself as Mike, onstage and hands him the microphone to finish the concert. Backstage, Izzy realizes that what he wanted for so long was not what he thought, and he says goodbye to Mats, departing from the band while doing so. Izzy (now Chris Cole again) makes his way to Seattle (while Steel Dragon, failing to evolve to changing tastes and styles, has its fame fizzle out) and starts a new coffee-house rock band with his old friend and former band-mate Rob. He finds Emily working in the coffee shop she and her roommate purchased a few years earlier but is initially too ashamed to speak to her. While walking one evening, Emily sees a flyer for his band posted on the wall and takes it down. In the final scene, Chris is singing with his band in a bar and Emily walks in. Chris leaves the stage and speaks to her. They reconcile, ending the film with a kiss and the final note of Chris' first original song "Colorful" (which is actually a song by The Verve Pipe).

Jack Cole (Steven Seagal) was once a CIA operative known as "The Glimmer Man," because he could move so quickly and quietly through the jungle that his victims would only see a glimmer before they died. Having retired from Central Intelligence, Cole, who is versed in Buddhism and unaccustomed to working with others, has become a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Cole is partnered with tough, no-nonsense detective Jim Campbell (Keenen Ivory Wayans) who has little patience for Cole's New Age philosophies and "outsider" attitude. Campbell says that they are homicide detectives and refuses to deal with anything outside of that. While Cole says that life and death do not distinguish between homicide or suicide and believes as policemen its their job to help the victims, no matter how they died. Cole and Campbell must set aside their differences when they're assigned to track down a serial killer known as "The Family Man," named for his habit of killing entire households. The serial killer had struck 6 times already and the 7th instance is the day Cole joins the LAPD. The distinctive feature of the killer is that all his victims are Catholics, and he performs a proper Crucifixion with their bodies. Cole determines at autopsy that the victim is a Russian. Campbell later IDs the victims as Eugene and Sonya Roslov. Cole and Campbell save Johnny Deverell from suicide. Johnny had taken a class of students' hostage, which was being taught by his girlfriend Millie. When Cole and Campbell reach the school, they find that Johnny had been in therapy and has a record for drug use. Cole enters the classroom where Johnny is ready to shoot himself and repeats "I can't go back to him". Cole manages to tackle Johnny to the floor, before he presses the trigger. Turns out Johnny is the stepson of Frank Deverell. Donald Cunningham is Deverell's head of security and wants Cole to testify that Johnny is insane to avoid a prison term. Cole refuses to cooperate and Deverall asks Cunningham to send their Russian friends after him. Cole and Campbell are ambushed by men sent by the Russian mafia, but they are able to fight them off. The Family Man strikes again. The Family Man's latest victims turn out to be Cole's former wife Ellen and her current husband Andrew Dunleavy. Cole lives with his current wife Jessica (Michelle Johnson). Cole knows that somebody is trying to send him a personal message. Cole's fingerprints are found on Ellen's body, and Campbell knows that Cole was with him the entire evening (when the murder took place). They deduce that someone is trying to frame Cole for the murders. Campbell tries to find out about Cole's history prior to LAPD and NYPD but gets nothing. Cole also refuses to dwell into his past. Cole suspects that Smith (Brian Cox) - Jack's former superior in the CIA - may be connected with the killings. Cole contacts Smith, who (unknown to him and Campbell) has been working with local crime boss Frank Deverell (Bob Gunton). Smith refuses to contact Cole and ignores his calls. Cole confronts Smith at a restaurant where he is having a private lunch. Cole says that the last 2 serial killings are the work of a professional. Campbell receive a tip from a teacher, who saw the drawings associated to the serial murders and she links it to one of her past students This leads them to Christopher Maynard (Stephen Tobolowsky). While Campbell goes after the residential address, Cole goes to the Church in the vicinity of the address and finds Maynard there. Maynard insists that the Family Man murders were actually committed by more than one killer. Only the slayings that occurred prior to Jack's arrival in Los Angeles were Maynard's work; more recently, a second party has been massacring households and blaming it on Maynard. Maynard pulls a gun on Cole and Cole is forced to shoot him in self-defense. Cole is suspended for killing a suspect without due sanction. This had happened with Cole previously in New York as well when he was serving with the NYPD. Cole is suspended pending investigation from Internal Affairs Division. Seeking a lead on the "other" Family Man, Cole goes to the home of Celia Roslov: Deverell's Russian translator and a relative of the recent victims of the serial killer. Jack finds out that the Roslovs had tickets to Russia, paid for by Deverell's company. The Family Man makes an unsuccessful attempt on the lives of both Cole and Campbell, blowing up the latter's apartment. It is revealed that the Family Man works for both Deverell and Smith, who have murder contracts out on both of the detectives and also on Johnny (Johnny Strong), Deverell's own stepson. Cole and Campbell chat with Johnny's girlfriend Millie (Nikki Cox), who tells them where to find Johnny. The detectives trick and kill a hit-man sent by Johnny's stepfather. Johnny informs Campbell and Cole that Donald Cunningham (John M. Jackson), Deverell's private security chief, is the other Family Man whose killings were confused with Maynard's. Johnny also reveals Smith's partnership with Deverell. Turns out that Smith was collaborating with Deverell to smuggle Chemical weapons into US to sell to terrorists. Smith & Deverell used the cover of the serial killer to tie up their loose ends. The detectives confront Smith, who reveals that Deverell has been smuggling chemical weapons into the USA from Russia and selling said arms to the Serbian underworld. Smith is arranging contacts for the deal, which is being cut by the Russian Liberation Fighters (aka the Organizatsiya). The sale has been scheduled to take place at a welfare hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. When Cole and Campbell storm the hotel to disrupt the weapons deal, Cunningham kills Deverell (because Deverell set up Cunningham for the LAPD, in order to clear himself of the arms-running charges) and wounds Jim. Cole fights Cunningham, who is finally tossed through a window and impaled on a wrought iron fence. Campbell half-jokes that Cole has brought him nothing but bad luck ever since they became partners. Cole says he'll keep that in mind, as Campbell is driven off to the hospital.