Solid Entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2015)

I don't often attend live stage shows, but being a big fan of the 4 Seasons music, did catch the live production a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a bit disappointed the first time I saw the movie, it seemed that Eastwood tried to stay too faithful to the stage production, although I must admit I don't have a clue as to the process of adapting from stage to film. After 3 months I tried it again last night, catching it on HBO and enjoyed it much more. Maybe I wasn't comparing it to the stage show. In any case, it was enjoyable, a great ensemble cast and at the heart of it was the terrific music. The Seasons had an incredible run of hits from the early to late 60's and it turned out that their evolution was an engrossing story.
My complaints-the story does drag in a few places, thought about .15 minutes or more could have easily been trimmed. The scene where they were riding in a convertible with the camera on the hood shooting at them in the car looked incredibly campy, obviously done in a studio. Also thought that the method of having each of the original 4 Seasons introduce a portion of the story may have worked well on a stage, but was unneeded for the film adaptation.
One interesting thing-their biggest hit, 1975's "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" was used in the overture and in the grand finale, bringing out the cast in the stage and film production. This song, which also coincided with the beginning of disco dominating the Top 40 charts, is done by a different group of 4 Seasons, with only Valli left from the original group and this may be one of the only songs that Frankie didn't sing the lead. with Gerry Polci doing the vocals and Valli singing the bridge. Their comeback with this hit isn't mentioned, but the song is used.