Jersey Boys

[Rocky Raccoon]

Has anyone else seen it?  It got mixed reviews but I thought it was great.  A little overdramatic at times but a fantastic performance by John Lloyd Young who doesn't really look or even sound much like Frankie Valli but he really becomes Valli in the film.  Of course the music is great too and it's given me a new appreciation for the songs of the Four Seasons.

[EgoHanger1966]

I've actually seen it twice since it opened (with two different people), and generally, it's entertaining. However, there are soooo many inaccuracies that it's hard to call this movie a biopic - more like a very twisted version on some things that actually happened, some that really didn't. Also, as you noted, Lloyd doesn't really sound or look all that much like Valli.

[Moon Dawg]

  Great movie - you don't have to be a Four Seasons diehard to love it. (I'm not, and I did.)

[Lowbacca]

I'm psyched..! Unfortunately I guess it's going to be some time before I manage to see it. Even if a theatre in the area is showing it, it will probably be horrendously dubbed (the dialogue, I mean). On the other hand it's not necessarily a film one would have to see in the theatre, am I right? I guess it won't be so much about about the cinematography as it's about the characters and, well, the singing. Still looking forward to it, though.

[Summertime Blooz]

I love the Four Seasons and the stage show was good, but this movie didn't really work.  I think Eastwood was just the wrong man for the job. A lot of the "humor" that was attempted fell flat. It needed a lighter touch. It seemed pretty dour a lot of the time and there were not nearly enough Four Seasons songs used even though the movie was quite long. For an alleged musical, there were long stretches with no music. The actual storytelling was too sketchy and sloppy. The cinematography was dull and unappealing; I was wishing I had a remote control to increase the color saturation. Wait for it home video.

[KittyKat]

I'm not sure why may people put the failure of the film mostly at Eastwood's feet. He may be part of it, but the main weakness of the movie is the weak script provided by the writers of the stage show, Brickman and Elice. Whose bright idea was it to turn the Francine drug OD story into Frankie making a comeback with "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" (recorded in 1967, when Francine would have been a small child, not a young adult having demos make with Bob Crewe)? I was never a fan of the book of the stage show, which seemed like a clched TV sitcom when the guys weren't singing, and it got worse with the movie script. That's where the story telling got sketchy and sloppy.

The movie barely got made at all, and Clint was called in at the last minute (the plug was pulled on the first idea of using Jon Favreau as director, due to lack of financial backing for his more expensive version), and shot it on a near-TV movie type of schedule and budget.  I know, it cost $40 million, but a large chunk of the budget was spent on music rights. Which also explains the lack of more songs. Some of the songs in the film, that they had to pay for, are the original Four Seasons recordings, played in the background. The movie exists as a piggy bank for Valli/Gaudio, who get a lot of money from the song rights and also from any soundtrack sales. The soundtrack also has quite a few Four Seasons originals. The movie soundtrack CD has mostly Broadway cast recordings, which make me think that they didn't want to spend much money on doing music numbers, which are not cheap to mount, especially when extras/audience members are involved. To do a proper adaptation of the stage show and include all the music, done fresh, and have background audience members, probably would have added several million to the budget. Considering that the film is barely going to break even if it's lucky, they got the movie they could afford, and Clint was the right guy from their vantage point because he's so good at making movies on budget and on time.

[Lowbacca]

Uh, that doesn't sound good. Thanks for the background elucidation, KittyKat. Gonna see it nevertheless. Also, I can't believe it'll flop or not break even. It's an Eastwood film, after all - and it was cheap. It'll do okay.