Leofwine_draca
JERSEY BOYS is another winner from director Clint Eastwood and an adaptation of the popular stage musical about the life and times of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It's a lengthy and often slow-moving biopic that takes a long time to get to the fame and fortune of the group in their heyday, yet there's something engrossing about it all the same. It helps immeasurably that Eastwood is an assured direction who brings a sheen of class and professionalism to all of his films, making this a delight to watch.Most of the cast members are taken straight from the musical, so their singing is quite wonderful. Their renditions of all the popular hits are quite amazing, particularly the power house climax which is incredibly moving and perfectly performed. The ending credits, in which the whole cast provide an encore in the classic musical tradition, could easily have been completely cheesy in the hands of a less experienced director but Eastwood makes it work, and then some.Acting stand-outs are John Lloyd Young as family man Frankie, whose turbulent private life is in contrast to his serene presence on the stage, and Vincent Piazza, delivering a variant on his edgy presence in BOARDWALK EMPIRE. I was delighted to see Christopher Walken cast in support as well. As musicals go, I'm not a massive fan of the genre, but JERSEY BOYS is good enough even for non-fans. Check it out.
Shopaholic35
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.
Bryan Kluger
You might think it's quite odd that Clint Eastwood directed a musical this year with 'Jersey Boys', which is an adaptation of the Broadway stage play that is currently the 13th longest running show in history based on the careers of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, but you'd be wrong. In fact, Eastwood is very big in the music scene and always has been. You remember the film 'Honkytonk Man' and 'Bird', don't you, which were both about musicians. And you can add to this the eight films he wrote and composed the music for. My point is that Eastwood is a solid choice for this great musical adapted into a feature film.But the question is , how well does it transfer to film from the stage? Where 'Jersey Boys' the film might lack in the glitz and glamor that you would find on stage, it makes up for in emotional depth as we jump from each point-of-view from each band-member throughout the 134-minute film, which in my opinion was about twenty minutes too long. 'Jersey Boys' has a 'Goodfellas' - light backdrop that follows a young Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) getting into trouble with his friends Tommy Devito (Vincent Piazza) and his brother Nick in early 50's New York. They all do odd jobs for the local mob boss Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken) by day and play in a band by night. It seems that everyone in the neighborhood, including the police know who young Valli is and constantly ask him, "Don't you need to be home by 11", when he's out late?At home, his parents are good Italian working class people who have a framed picture of the Pope and Frank Sinatra paired together watching over Valli's every move. With Valli's impressive high pitched falsetto voice, people start to take an interest in their band called 'The Four Lovers' as they are going from lounge to bar to bowling alley, performing their tunes, but they don't seem to be cutting record deals yet. Since the Devito brothers can't seem to stay out of jail for short periods of time, the band takes on Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) as the bass player and things pick up. But it's when Joe Pesci, yes that Joe Pesci, introduces Frankie, Nick, and Tommy to Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), a writer and musician, where the band really takes off. Gaudio previously wrote the hit tune 'Short Shorts' that previous summer, and was known to be a class act. Tommy, the band's self made manager whose temper is fire hot, eventually agrees to bring on Bob, and when they do the hits roll in including 'Sherry', 'Big Girls Don't Cry', 'Walk Like A Man', 'Rag Doll', and 'I Can't Take My Eyes Off You'. All of these were #1 hits and provided the band with big money and concerts, and television appearances.They even changed their name to 'The Four Seasons'. But while the band was doing well, Tommy was secretly spending their hard earned money on gambling and becoming increasingly in debt with the mob. Needless to say, it was a rocky road for 'The Four Seasons', despite all of their money and fame, but all are still alive and well and eventually reunited for their induction in to the music hall of fame in the early 90s. Eastwood did a great job of showing us the more dramatic and emotional moments with each character, followed by a fun and energized scene or two of their big musical accomplishments that actually had people clapping and dancing in sync with the songs throughout the film.And let me also credit Eastwood for hiring Young and Lomenda for these roles, as they were the original Broadway actors for the first run on stage. And they pull it off flawlessly. Young's Valli is pitch perfect and spot on, never missing a beat, while the others fall into place. And Piazza (whose known as Luciano from HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'), pulls out a great performance as the hot-tempered band-mate, but he gives his character Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci's character name from 'Goodfellas') so much charm and wit, that it's easy to see why Frankie always stood by his side no matter what kind of trouble he got into.However, Eastwood is also known for having a slower-than-desired pacing with his films, and this one is no different. There are a few scenes that could have been cut out that while they offered some emotional depth to some of the characters, they were not given the proper amount of set-up time to make us grieve and didn't go with the basic story he was trying to tell. But other than that, 'Jersey Boys' the film is a solid gold hit. And the end credit scene with the Broadway vibe and dance routine was outstanding. I only hope the younger generation takes to this film and appreciates the music.
Python Hyena
Jersey Boys (2014): Dir: Clint Eastwood / Cast: John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza, Erich Bergen, Christopher Walken, Michael Lomenda: Misguided bio pic about a sound and where it originated. It regards Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and their rise to fame and the background struggle. Clint Eastwood is a fine director but he crams too much into this film. John Lloyd Young plays Frankie who is involved in the wrong crowd when young yet has a voice for song. This becomes a problem when Valli's voice and Young's performance fail to match. He gets married in what seems to be sudden in the film. Then he becomes a father and then it jumps ahead suddenly to his daughter grown up and her struggles, etc. Eventually he becomes involved with a journalist and that seems just thrown in and forgotten until they break up. Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito delivers the best performance narrating the film. He is seen as a bad influence on Frankie, and is in prison early in the film. He has a gambling addiction and generally ticks off the band. Erich Bergen as Bob is a writer whom Frankie works well with but Tommy disproves of. Michael Lomenda plays another member of the group and who also gets into trouble with the boys during their early fiascoes. Christopher Walken plays a mob boss who often helps the boys but he really has faith in Frankie's talent. Eastwood doesn't seem to be on his game here. Even the concluding dance sequence is corny and fails to add life to the film. The 1950's era is captured well but the screenplay sinks like the wrong single failing to climb the rock and roll charts. Score: 5 ½ / 10
