If you like musicals, and The Four Seasons, you'll probably really enjoy it.

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2014)

'JERSEY BOYS': Four Stars (Out of Five)
Film adaptation of the popular (Tony Award-winning) jukebox musical (of the same name); based on the history of the 1960s pop group The Four Seasons. Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice wrote the screenplay (and the musical book it's based on) and Clint Eastwood directed the movie. John Lloyd Young reprises his role, from the musical, as Frankie Valli (and does all of his own singing). He's joined by actors Vincent Piazza, Erich Bergen and Michael Lomenda as the rest of The Four Seasons (Christopher Walken also plays a big role in the movie). I found it to be a little too long and clichéd at times but entertaining enough (especially with the great music).
The story begins with the four young singers starting out as a 'boy band' in the 1950s and follows their many years of touring, recording, breakup and reunion (decades later). It focuses on the different singers struggling with family relationships, friendship drama and mafia trouble (due to large debt accrued by one member). It pays special attention to the bond between Frankie Valli (Young) and Tommy DeVito (Piazza). Different band members narrate different parts of the story (by talking directly to the camera).
I've never seen the musical, and didn't really know anything about it's story (prior to seeing the film), but I've heard it's much better than this movie. As a film the story is definitely pretty cheesy and clichéd at times. It's still really entertaining though. It's hard to see why Eastwood wanted to direct it and his presence, at the helm, is hard to detect (while watching it). Still the music is beautiful and watching it come to life is pretty moving. The performances are decent enough and Walken does shine throughout. It's too long, and would be much better cut to less than 2 hours, but if you like musicals, and The Four Seasons, you'll probably really enjoy it.
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