The Jazz Singer (1980)

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Dreadful piece of tripe was a career low point for all involved. Although I heard she is good on stage, a medium whose best performers often can not transition to pictures, Lucie Arnaz just did not possess the magnetism to be a film star. She's bland and uninteresting but even with that she still gives the best performance in the movie! Neil Diamond is a fine singer but as this movie proved his gifts did not reach to acting competency. The great Laurence Olivier sinks right along with the rest by giving a ham-hock of a performance, perhaps his worst ever. Badly directed and antiquated even when shot originally in the twenties this is a total miss.

I like to see remakes, because in many cases you experience two films at once: the film you are watching of course, and the one you recall. Usually that prior one is pretty good. In this case, it IS pretty good, and historically important too.It was the first popular talkie, and not all talkie either. It was pretty amazing in depicting New York Jewry in a way gathered from the reality of the era, and on that score alone is fascinating. It was perhaps overly melodramatic, but suitably severe. And its "message" though simple wasn't quite dumb: that "jazz" music can be sacred work if delivered so. Along the way, we got (still!) entertaining songs. Now this. I do not know what prompted the remake. It seems that they simply had Neil Diamond and saw a fit. He is Jewish. He has a fantastic portfolio of songs, some of which seem written for the project, and he is at least a credible actor. So they tromped through the old script, modernizing as they went. They shifted the focus to the music and the self- discovery of the musician. The rift with the father is recast as upset over sex rather than jazz, something I think is a big mistake.And the script and production values (other than the songs) is horrible, Laurence Olivier embarrasses himself and us all every thing he speaks with some sort of faux stage accent. he is truly dreadful. Everyone is, save one, but he is the worst. The only good actor is on screen only a few times: he is the booker, played by Sully Boyar, and every time he shows up to speak, the sun shines. Doesn't kill the mold though.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I liked this movie even though there was no jazz, because I thought the story worked. The theme of whether to follow one's dream or stick with wife and family is significant and was treated well. Neil Diamond may not be a great actor, but he made me believe in his role and he made up for his acting limitations with his music, which I found appropriate to the larger context of the film. When his father disowns him because he has left his wife for a gentile woman I found Lawrence Olivier's performance quite dramatic and effective. I also saw genuine character development in Neil Diamond's character and thought the issues he was wrestling with were familiar and helpful to any musician trying to balance career and family.The tension between father and son is real throughout the movie and I liked the way Neil Diamond and Lawrence Olivier portrayed that tension.

The Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond is one of my favorite movies. How can anyone say he can't act? Every time I suggest to my husband that we watch it, he usually doesn't want to because he reckons it is one of the saddest movies of all time. I keep saying "They are only acting and it does work out in the end after all" but I still have trouble getting him to watch it and I usually have to agree to watch 'Going my Way" first!!!! Neil Diamond in concert is fabulous. Neil Diamond acting is nearly as good. I also can't understand why Lucy Arnez didn't make it as an actress, having famous parents must be a disadvantage in some cases.