Jersey Boys (2014)

Very well executed

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

First of all, I think you definitely have to be a fan of late 50's (early rock 'n' roll) music to enjoy this movie, as it's centered around the story of Frankie Valli of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. But if you're a fan of this era (e.g., you grew up listening to this music) you likely will also have high expectations - especially for the music.The movie can roughly be divided into two major parts. The first part deals with the rise of Frankie Valli (and ultimately, The Four Seasons). I thought this first part moved rather slowly; there's a lot of "detail" (but not nearly as much detail as what actually took place in terms of members of the group, etc.). If I had to base my review only on the first part of the movie, I'd probably have given it a much lower rating (i.e., a '6').By the second half of the movie, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons have "made it" and are a big success. But as is often the case, trouble has been brewing all along, and the second half of the movie, which is much better, deals with the how the group handles the inevitable problems behind the scenes. The second half of the movie is very good, and resulted in my ultimate rating of an '8'.As for the music, all the classic songs are there. But, if you're a fan of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, then like me, you may be disappointed in the "quality" of the music - John Lloyd Young's (Frankie Valli) voice isn't on par with the original (but then, whose is? ;-) and the group as a whole doesn't begin to match the sound of the "real thing". I do give the actors credit for re-performing the songs themselves (as opposed to lip-syncing the originals), but still, it's less- than-satisfying.To be fair, in the end of the movie, they do use a few songs (as originally performed by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons) as part of the soundtrack.Once again, you probably need to be a fan of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons to fully appreciate and enjoy this movie. And that also means you probably were a contemporary. The younger generation is probably not going to identify with this era, and hence will have less of an appreciation for the story.

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.

I don't often attend live stage shows, but being a big fan of the 4 Seasons music, did catch the live production a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a bit disappointed the first time I saw the movie, it seemed that Eastwood tried to stay too faithful to the stage production, although I must admit I don't have a clue as to the process of adapting from stage to film. After 3 months I tried it again last night, catching it on HBO and enjoyed it much more. Maybe I wasn't comparing it to the stage show. In any case, it was enjoyable, a great ensemble cast and at the heart of it was the terrific music. The Seasons had an incredible run of hits from the early to late 60's and it turned out that their evolution was an engrossing story. My complaints-the story does drag in a few places, thought about .15 minutes or more could have easily been trimmed. The scene where they were riding in a convertible with the camera on the hood shooting at them in the car looked incredibly campy, obviously done in a studio. Also thought that the method of having each of the original 4 Seasons introduce a portion of the story may have worked well on a stage, but was unneeded for the film adaptation.One interesting thing-their biggest hit, 1975's "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" was used in the overture and in the grand finale, bringing out the cast in the stage and film production. This song, which also coincided with the beginning of disco dominating the Top 40 charts, is done by a different group of 4 Seasons, with only Valli left from the original group and this may be one of the only songs that Frankie didn't sing the lead. with Gerry Polci doing the vocals and Valli singing the bridge. Their comeback with this hit isn't mentioned, but the song is used.

As far as I'm concerned, Clint Eastwood is a music lover and rendering this biopic of the Four Seasons makes one more in his resume.Adapted from a Broadway musical, Jersey Boys tells the story how Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons rose to success after being so patient. Yes, there were some pitfalls (especially Tommy's shady deals which almost cost the band's career) but at the end, it brought the group to introduce the "Jersey Sound" with Frankie Valli's unique voice.At the end, the result is a piece of pop music history worth to watch.Even if critics panned this movie, the people decide. And Clint went ahead and "made his day" again.