Amazing modern day Horatio Alger story about Arnel Pineda, a Philippinno man who was pulled from obscurity to become the new lead signer for the band Journey. Besides simply getting to see lots of great concert footage of a great band, along with a well told backstory of the band, the star of this film is Pineda and his story. Pineda grew up as a homeless youth in the Philippines singing in a band with his friends to make ends meet, among other things. As an adult, he was still no longer homeless, but still living a very impoverished life, when Neal Schon of Journey happened upon a YouTube video of Pineda and his band performing covers of Journey songs and was blown away. Pineda is a true talent and this film presents the amazing story of his dreams coming true, as much to his delight the band, and to millions of fans across the globe.

I am a Journey fan, but I am not the biggest fan by any means. This documentary took me by surprise. The story is almost unbelievable at first. It is well produced. It has a nice balance of on stage live music ,one on one interviews, interviews with the whole band, and fan interviews. I have watched it multiple times with different friends, and I enjoyed each viewing. I have honestly never considered hunting down a Journey tour, partly because I didn't realize they were still touring. After watching this I went to Journey's website and checked out their current tour line-up. As of today, there is nothing close enough for me, but i am keeping my eyes peeled. Rock on Journey!

Is there any song more American than "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey? It concluded The Soprano's, it's the theme song of the Chicago White Sox, and has achieved enormous notoriety in film and television. It is, essentially, one of the best rock songs ever written by one of the best rock bands ever formed, Journey. It also begins the new documentary about Journey, titled Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, centering around Arnel Pineda, the new Filipino lead singer of the band.After Journey's lead singer Steve Perry left the band in 1998, the gang was scrambling to find a new voice. After a few replacements, temporary and official, they settle on a Filipino man named Arnel Pineda, who lead guitarist Neal Schon found on Youtube after spending hours searching for a new possible frontman. Pineda discovered that several dozens of Youtube videos had been posted of him singing with his coverband called "The Zoo." When Schon stumbled up his cover of "Faithfully," and continued watching additional Journey songs, as well as Survivor and Aerosmith, he knew he found their guy. The problem was, could it work? The hardest part about replacing a member of a classic rock band, the lead singer, nonetheless, is that the fans of the music want the sound, style, and rhythm to stay the same. How would fans respond to Journey's choice to make a short, Filipino man from a third-world country their lead singer? The documentary shows the hesitance from the fan-members, including the obligatory racist remarks Pineda got when he first signed on with the band. "I'm not cute; I'm short, I'm so Asian," a self-conscious Pineda states. He recalls his first concert in 2008 in Chile, in front of thousands of people, with pinpoint detail to how he felt that specific night. Before the concert, he states, his lips were trembling, his heartbeat was slowing, his voice and breathing became faint, and everything "was moving in slow-motion." Until he got up on stage and sung his heart out, along with jumping wildly and running from the opposite ends of the stage. It showed the band that not only was Pineda bringing his amazing voice and talent to the table, but also, his kinetic energy and charisma.In many ways, Arnel Pineda reminds me of the singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, who was profiled in Searching for Sugar Man, which won Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars this past year. The film concerned the immense popularity of a singer named Rodriguez in South Africa, which lead to two filmmakers researching the man's roots in America, where he became reclusive and part of the obscure when he realized his albums did nothing but fail in his homeland. Pineda and Rodriguez have the same kind of personality; they're somewhat shy, self-conscious, modest, and beyond charismatic.The documentary shows how the band has been affected with Arnel Pineda now leading the iconic group, and it seems that it couldn't have been more positive in terms of popularity. We see how Journey is playing in different parts of the world now, and that there is a stunning influx of Filipino attendees at their concerts now. One wonders if it's still necessarily politically correct to refer to the band as the all American rock band.I fell in love with Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, not just because of the inclusion of unforgettable tunes such as "Anyway You Want It" and "Separate Ways," but mainly because of the likability of Pineda, and how the group currently functions with him. He's such a talented, brave soul, who wandered the streets of Manila to be the lead singer of a larger-than-life rock band. Documentaries are known for shedding light on smaller, more overlooked areas in a big world, and in that case, Pineda's story needed to be told. If you don't experience an emotional resonance with Pineda or his story during the final sequence, where he belts out "Don't Stop Believin'" to an incalculable crowd, you may have the inability to be moved.Starring: Arnel Pineda, Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Jonathan Cain, and Deen Castronovo. Directed by: Ramona Diaz.

"People think we're whining or crying about success if we're just really trying to tell you that there's some intense pressures and really some things that could be helped"; these are words of Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, stated three days after the death of his contemporary Kurt Cobain in 1994. The pressures in the music industry that Vedder is talking about are really well exposed, like few other times, in this documentary, which turns to be something interesting even when it's mainly just for the Journey fan (and that's something I'm infinitely far from being). We have a great take on music as a business. Journey is a band that began in the seventies in San Francisco, with a progressive rock that took them to be compared with the Grateful Dead – the lead guitarist, Neal Schon, had been working with Carlos Santana. Sounds like a promising beginning right? However, the band was a financial failure and had no trouble in changing their sound for something more "radio friendly". For Journey, the (horrible) eighties were synonymous of millions of dollars and certainly of that "arena rock" that was later replaced by Cobain, Vedder and company. If that "arena rock" from the eighties, with its weak ballads, is not something you like, DON'T STOP BELIVIN': EVERYMAN'S JOURNEY won't give you any reason to change your mind. Neal Schon, for instance, is shown as the classic rock star with no charisma, that always shows off his ability with the guitar but never loses himself with the magic of the instrument like the great ones (if that makes sense). But there is some good news; with the central character of the documentary we have interesting material that counteract, for instance, the decision of the director to show a live performance of a famous Journey ballad in its entirety. Meet Arnel Pineda, a little man from Manila, Philippines, who is the protagonist of a, in his own words, "Cinderella story": in 2007 Journey needed a new vocalist and thanks to the magic of Youtube they found this Philippine, who had videos of him and his group playing Journey cover songs. The fun begins not only for Pineda but for us as well, since watching him in action, at his first show with the band (in Chile), and hearing his story about how the adrenaline made him run and jump literally in the whole stage, is as hilarious as this brief description of him (made by the drummer): "He's like David Lee Roth and Bruce Lee put together".As the film goes on, the great pressures of music previously mentioned appear in a notable way for Pineda. He and his wife enjoy the money, obviously, but it always looks like the charismatic Pineda ain't ready to bear the weight that comes when you're part of an act that sells more than the Jonas Brothers (yes, this bizarre fact is part of the film); the previous moments to each show are some sort of internal fight, in which the Philippine convince himself that he couldn't be in a better place. All of this is by far more relevant than any Journey song, although if you're a fan of this band, what are you waiting to sing along to them? *Watched it on 16 February, 2013