JERSEY BOYS REVIEW — I was worried as we headed to the theater, because I am not a fan of Clint Eastwood (as an actor, as a director, as a drunken political conventioneer) and I am not a fan of Broadway musicals or the derivative films they spawn. I am, however, a huge fan of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, so I was hoping for the best. ... Instead, I got the worst. The film was awful. It was lifeless. It was colorless. It was humorless. It was drawn out — we didnt hear a recognizable Four Seasons song until an hour in — and too long. Lifeless — There was no spark, no chemistry whatsoever among the primary characters. John Lloyd Young, playing Frankie Valli, was less than mediocre as an actor and completely unconvincing as a singer. There were a dozen (if not a hundred) mentions of that voice throughout the film, and each time I thought, What voice? There are any number of screen performances where actors not known as singers pull off a characterization without exactly imitating that voice — Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn, Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin, Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, even Gary Busey as Buddy Holly — but not once in Jersey Boys did I think, Thats Frankie Valli. From start to finish it was just some guy trying to be Frankie Valli. In the performance sequences — American Bandstand, Ed Sullivan Show, Radio City Music Hall — the audiences behaved like cardboard cutouts. Maybe they were — the whole production design looked like it was done on the cheap. (When the band plays the Ohio State Fair it looks like a petting zoo at 6-year-olds backyard birthday party, with maybe 30 people watching. And when a state police trooper arrests the guys after their set he says, Welcome to Cleveland. Are you kidding me?!) Colorless — I mean this literally. The film was devoid of color. It was shot almost entirely in a drab sepia-tone that looked like cold turkey gravy congealed on the screen. A Yellow Cab looked like a side order of creamed corn. Ive attached publicity stills to show the beige-on-brown-on-gray-on-blah look. It should have been shot in black and white, like A Hard Days Night (now playing in theaters around the country) or in real-life color, like the closing Broadway-style production number that was the only highlight of the film. Humorless — I laughed exactly three times. Once was early on when the actor playing Joe Pesci (who knew he was involved with The Four Seasons?) dropped a Funny how? reference from Goodfellas — I was the only person who laughed in a nearly full theater — and very late when Christopher Walkens stereotypical mob boss strung together two decent bathroom jokes. I wanted the film to be good. It wasnt. Ill be generous and give it 4 stars out of 10 because at least the songs evoked great memories of seeing The Four Seasons perform on the midway at Cedar Point, a little kid leaning right against the stage and being entertained in living color, in real life. * * * Still with me? I recommend two music films directed by Taylor Hackford for your viewing pleasure: • The Idolmaker (1980) youtube/watch?v=4_g9NHDzjF8 • Ray (2004) youtube/watch?v=YvY7hXqz6uI And when youre done with those, the granddaddy of them all, directed by Alan Parker: • The Commitments (1991) youtube/watch?v=uvHuv9xVB9E
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 15:47:42 +0000