Jersey Boys (2014)

Boring

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I watched this movie last night, I've wanted to see the Broadway show for sometime now. HBO was free for a few days and this was one of their offerings.Overall the film was just okay, I enjoyed it mostly for the great songs and the fact I'm from New Jersey too. I'm not really sure how true to life the story was. There were at least some things I know were factual, like the untimely death of Mr. Vali's daughter. I did not find John Lloyd Young's performance playing Frankie Valli to be that good even if he did win a Tony for performing onstage. Good stage actors are not always good film actors and vise versa. He simply has no charisma in my opinion. Also, some scenes were not that well presented . For instance the makeup used near the end of the film to make Mr. Young and the others look older was almost laughably bad. The supporting cast, the guys playing the other members of the group, were decent to good. Some of them were also from the Broadway show. Christopher Walken is also featured. I've found Mr. Walken's performances in recent to be lackluster, like he's phoning it in. Here he was acceptable playing a sentimental mobster who helped the group's career. I suspect the movie depicted Frankie Valli as a better person than he may really is. I guess that's to be expected from these bio stories. If you like the music of the 'Four Seasons' then you'll probably be able to tolerate this film too. Clint Eastwood has proven himself to be a fine director in the past, I don't think he did a good job with this film, perhaps he should stay away from interpreting successful Broadway musicals for the cinema. If he was trying to give it the look and feel of a Broadway show instead of a movie, he failed.I give this film 5 out of 10 stars, that's being generous mainly because I enjoyed the musical performances and I'm a proud Jersey boy myself.

Oh what movie. See what I did there. One of The Four Seasons best songs and a nice play on words with it. But yes, this is a good movie. I don't know why it rated so low on IMDb. So here we go to the review.Synopsis: Jersey Boys is a musical biography of the Four Seasons-the rise, the tough times and personal clashes, and the ultimate triumph of a group of friends whose music became symbolic of a generation. Far from a mere tribute concert (though it does include numbers from the popular Four Seasons songbook), Jersey Boys gets to the heart of the relationships at the center of the group-with a special focus on frontman Frankie Valli, the small kid with the big falsetto. In addition to following the quartet's coming of age as performers, the core of the show is how an allegiance to a code of honor learned in the streets of their native New Jersey got them through a multitude of challenges: gambling debts, Mafia threats and family disasters. Jersey Boys is a glimpse at the people behind a sound that has managed to endure for over four decades in the hearts of the public. Starring: John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza, Michael Lomenda, Erich Bergen Director: Clint EastwoodClint Eastwood proves yet again why he should never stop making movies. He is a brilliant, brilliant film maker. Just look at the history of this man. He has proved time and again that he is the man who should be asked in the top five directors first to direct a movie. This being his first musical was not a bad venture.One great thing that Clint did was cast people who acted in the musical to begin with. That did nothing but help this movie. The guys who were playing the roles of the Four Seasons played them before, so they knew the material. They already had it in their heads how it should go.I found out throughout the years that most people didn't know that the four guys were connected to the mob in more ways than one. At first, I didn't believe it. Then I looked into the matter. And if it wasn't for the mob, a lot of the musicians out of Jersey wouldn't have gotten any farther than they had. I'm glad that they left that part in. It really is an intricate part to the story.The last thing I need to talk about is the soundtrack. I mentioned it earlier, but these guys singing sounded almost like the real singers. The soundtrack is not the best part, but it is very close to it. Just for the fact of the soundtrack is enough to watch this movie.I strongly encourage everyone to watch this movie. Just give it a try, it will surprise you.Rating: 8 out of 10

I'm not sold on this movie. I just found it to be a little lacklustre and a musical it is not. The Four Seasons had some really classic songs and their rise to fame has some interesting points but it seems like every other artist around the same time. Childhood friends create singing group, they struggle to make it, they finally make it, the group suffers from ego problems...and well you know the rest.I never really knew the story behind the Four Seasons but I definitely love their music. But I'm not sure I cared to see it played out in the theatres. Besides no actor can do their music justice. The musical performances were OK but they were missing that spark. It's nice to watch but certainly not a masterpiece. Clint should stick to grittier genres from now on.

we saw the London stage production of Jersey Boys and it was one of the best stage show I've seen in 30 years of theatre going. I also love music from the 50's and 60's including the 4 Seasons songs. And I'm a big fan of Clint Eastwood who produced and directed this, so all the boxes are ticked to really enjoy the film and give it a 9 or 10.......and I wish I could. The simple reason(s) I can't is the awful singing of John Lloyd Young who plays Frankie Valli. Now the focal point of the story is FV's amazing voice that was the ticket out of new jersey for this group , but in this film at times he sounds like he has been sucking helium from a balloon! now this is bad enough but considering that when this became apparent they could simply have had the actors dubbed by the original songs this is criminal. Add in some other problems like the makeup as the actors age being awful and you have a deeply disappointing film. Mr Eastwood needs to take the blame for this major gaffe.