Jersey Boys

[TNGTony]

[CONTAINER][MOVIE1]Title: Jersey Boys

Genre: [GENRE]Drama[/GENRE], [GENRE]Music[/GENRE]

Director: [DIRECTOR]Clint Eastwood[/DIRECTOR]

Cast: [ACTOR]Christopher Walken[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Vincent Piazza[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Freya Tingley[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]James Madio[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Sean Whalen[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kathrine Narducci[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Francesca Eastwood[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Mike Doyle[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Steve Schirripa[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Barry Livingston[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Alexis Krause[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Jeremy Luke[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Silvia Kal[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]John Lloyd Young[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Erich Bergen[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Michael Lomenda[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Johnny Cannizzaro[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Joey Russo[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Billy Gardell[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]John Griffin[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Elizabeth Hunter[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Lacey Hannan[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Renée Marino[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Erica Piccininni[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Steve Monroe[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Rob Marnell[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Troy Grant[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Grant Roberts[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kara Pacitto[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Michael Patrick McGill[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Nancy La Scala[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Clint Ward[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Jackie Seiden[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Matt Nolan[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Meagan Holder[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Joe Abraham[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Phil Abrams[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Joe Howard[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Katelyn Pacitto[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Ben Rauch[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Bill Watterson[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Annika Noelle[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Derek Easley[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kim Gatewood[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Alexandra Ruddy[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Keith Loneker[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Marco Tazioli[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]David Newton[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Donnie Kehr[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Scott Vance[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kyli Rae[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Travis Nicholson[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Allison Wilhelm[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Tye Edwards[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Jon Paul Burkhart[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Lou Volpe[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]David Crane[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Lou George[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Michael Butler Murray[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Michael Lanahan[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Aria Pullman[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Jacqueline Mazarella[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Danielle Souza[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Miles Aubrey[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Johnny Dinu[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Maggie Beal[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Jeff DePaoli[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Vincent Selhorst-Jones[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Angel Murphy[/ACTOR]

Release Date: [RELEASE]2014-06-20[/RELEASE]

Runtime: [RUNTIME]134[/RUNTIME]

Plot: [PLOT]Jersey Boys is a musical biography of the Four Seasons-the rise, the tough times and personal clashes, and the ultimate triumph of a group of friends whose music became symbolic of a generation. Far from a mere tribute concert (though it does include numbers from the popular Four Seasons songbook), Jersey Boys gets to the heart of the relationships at the center of the group-with a special focus on frontman Frankie Valli, the small kid with the big falsetto. In addition to following the quartet's coming of age as performers, the core of the show is how an allegiance to a code of honor learned in the streets of their native New Jersey got them through a multitude of challenges: gambling debts, Mafia threats and family disasters. Jersey Boys is a glimpse at the people behind a sound that has managed to endure for over four decades in the hearts of the public.[/PLOT][/MOVIE1][POSTER1]

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[TNGTony]

Friday night, movie night for me. I just finished watching Jersey Boys. This is a movie based on a Broadway show based on a book based on the early days of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. If that last sentence makes your head spin, it should. The movie is so far removed from reality that it should be viewed fiction, not a historical document of these guys' climb to success.

Okay that might be a little harsh, but the movie does take many liberties with actual dates and events. So, it's a movie. No big deal.

This movie suffers from the musical bio-pic syndrome so well satirized in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story". The story is always the same. It doesn't matter if it's Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, John Lennon, Jim Morrison... all the stories have the same formula and the producers tell it in the same way. There is always a brooding, festering darkness in all of the stories that take away from the enjoyment of what the artists must have felt in making the music in the first place. Just like every other musical bio-pic ever made it seems, this movie has the rise to the top, the festering darkness that explodes at the top, the struggle to get back to the top and the epilog; all on cue.

But there's the music to consider. We get to hear all these great hits performed as the movie progresses. That should be worth something, right? No. Not for me. The problem is described by Christopher Walken, playing the mob boss, Angelo DeCarlo, who backed Frankie from the beginning. "Frankie, you have a one-of-a-kind voice". And it's true. He does. The problem is that the movie doesn't use Frankie's voice most of the time. They use a reasonable facsimile. The arrangements o the hits we all know so well are different. The music is just a little "off". And at times, the signers are off key or don't harmonize quite right. I can see that for a stage play, but definitely not for a movie.

One thing I found interesting in the movie's narration was that all the main characters eventually break the cinematic fourth wall and talked directly to us, the audience. It had the feel of the move Casino in the way the narration changed. But it sometimes felt forced after the first 20 minutes of the movie. At the end, I thought they should have used a different vehicle for the closing monologs.

So what did I take away from this movie? Other than the stereotypical rise to fame and constant fight to stay there? I got 2 hours of reasonable entertainment. So what else did I want?