SYNOPSIS: In this heartwarming journey through rural Texas, Hollywood actor Mack Cameron meets CJ Kinney, a small-town boy with big-time dreams.  When they're cast together in a local independent film, these seemingly different characters learn they have worlds in common.  Passionate about dancing and acting, 10-year-old CJ must shake off his father's plans for the future, while Mack struggles to salvage the family life his Hollywood career has torn apart.  As Mack shows CJ the acting ropes, can the boy help Mack rediscover his own dreams?

EDITORIAL REVIEW: This family friendly movie stars newcomer Ben Estes as CJ, a "presumed" fairy boy of a small town in "macho" Texas.  Why is he presumed to be a little light in the loafers?  A la Billy Elliot, he's a dancing boy!  The only thing worse than being presumed homo in a small Texas town filled with badass cowboys, is....well, that's pretty much as worse as it gets.  Pressured by his redneck father to play baseball, CJ defies daddy and dances his heart out at the school talent show.  That performance lands him an audition for an upcoming low-budget movie starring an over-the-hill action star.

Seasoned actor Timothy Bottoms plays 80's super action movie hero Mack Cameron.  No longer the "A-lister" he once was, Mack takes as many gigs as he can just to stay in the game.  All this work, though, has put a strain on his family life.  His marriage is on the rocks and his kids are growing up faster than he could ever have imagined.  One day Mack gets offered a sweet deal to shoot an action film in Canada...but this means leaving the family behind, yet again, and it couldn't have come at a worse time.

As luck would have it, a small production that pays only "scale" (the Union minimum), is shooting in Mack's hometown...and the producers have offered to put up his family in a near-by cabin.  This way Mack can be close to his family and try to patch things up while he is still able to work his craft.  With any more luck, when things are better with his family relations, Mack can skip out on this small independent film and head to Canada for the bigger movie with bigger bucks.

Dancing boy CJ gets cast in the same movie, but needs a little help with his acting skills.  So Mack takes CJ under his wing and helps him out, albeit very briefly.  Their short friendship is tested early on, as are the patience of everyone involved in Mack's life when he discovers that this sweet deal he had going on with the action film in Canada turns sour.  Mack's true colors shine brightly when he appears as the spoiled Hollywood actor everyone knew he was, and that puts CJ in a very dangerous position.

So, keep in mind this is a low budget movie.  More like a MOW shot in about a week with not a lot of time for 2nd and 3rd takes.  CJ (Ben Estes) is supposed to be a dancer, although he doesn't really do a lot of dancing in the film.  And when he does...sorry Ben...it's nothing special.  Well, certainly better than I can do, but not quite up to par with how well he thinks he dances...or rather how well others around him think he dances.  Perhaps it was the awful stock music the producers of Paradise Texas used to accompany Ben's dance scenes.  Totally not appropriate and completely out of sync with Ben's moves.  The music is more appropriate for Monday morning sports highlights than a movie of this genre.  That being said, Ben Estes does an ok job for his first (and so far, only) film.  Had this been a bigger budget film, he'd probably be sport on.  The irony here is that Ben does a much better job on the film within the film.

These family friendly movies aren't really supposed to be Oscar® winners.  The whole purpose of these types of movies is to spark thought and to give a moral of the story with the hope that someone will, perhaps, learn a thing or two about a thing or two.

No matter how bad, or how good; no matter how controversial, or family friendly...we'll add the film our roster either way!

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* This DVD will play WORLDWIDE.  This is NOT a DVD-R.

STARRING: Ben Estus, Dylan Patton, Emilio Mazur, Timothy Bottoms.
DIRECTOR: Lorraine Senna.
LENGTH: 90 minutes.
LANGUAGE: English.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 1.85:1 (16:9 Widescreen); 2.0 Stereo; 1 disc; Chapter selection; Uncut.
VIEWER DISCRETION: No objectionable content!
PICTURE QUALITY: Excellent picture quality. (what's this mean?)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA (2005).
ALSO KNOWN AS:
DATE ADDED TO OUR LIBRARY:  January 29, 2010.