Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I haven't seen Jersey Boys yet, but I remember looking forward to it when I saw the trailer a while back. However reading what you and some other people have said about it the past few days, I'll probably still see it eventually, but it will most likely be dropped down on my watchlist a little bit. (Unless I get lucky and find the DVD cheap at a garage sale.)

I'm glad I watched it, just wasn't the best Eastwood film I've seen. I forgot to mention I liked Christopher Walken in it.

Does this mean we can recommend movies to you? If so, have you seen The Changeling, with George C. Scott?

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I am sure that Clint Eastwood had a reason for why he wanted to direct "Jersey Boys" (maybe he just really liked the show - who knows?), but as for his first musical (if he ever planned on any more), I don't know why he would've chosen this show. I thought he sounded like an odd choice when I first heard it was going to be directed by him.

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

This is a really nit-picky observation, but in real life, if you look at the 4 Season's album covers, Bob Gaudio stands out in every photo because he was head and shoulders taller than the other guys who were all rather close in height and kind of short. I don't know how tall Gaudio was (looked well over six foot) but his height gave the band a very unique silhouette on stage (as opposed to other quartets of the era). When they came on stage, even before the lights came up, everyone knew it was the Four Seasons.



In the movie, however, the actor playing Gaudio looked tall, but not much taller than the actor playing Nick Massi. So visually, the group in the movie lost the unique look it had in real life. This neither makes or breaks the film by any means, it's just a bit of trivia.

At least I now know that I am not the only one that makes nit-picky observations about things like that. Sometimes I think people think I am crazy for doing it, but I just can't help it. It is the "little" stuff that bothers me (i.e. like what you pointed out).

Nah, you and Capt aren't alone in the nit picking department, I do that too. I hadn't noticed the height issue. I was bugged when the kids dragged out a huge safe, put it in the trunk of the car and the car did a wheelie! Funny maybe, but so totally unreal. The other nit picking thing for me was Frankie looked like Adam Sandler and once I got that idea in my head it stuck.

And the person who likes to watch a musical cares if something is "unreal". Heck, I've got things to say about every single movie I have ever really liked. My favorite movie of all-time is "Glory". Oh, boy, do I have things that I could say about that!

I agree musicals can be fanciful and usually are but Jersey Boys was straight up drama-biography, except for the end scene with the cast singing which was a musical number. I don't look for total realism in movies and I do allow for artistic licensees but the scene where the car is driving down the road doing a wheel stand was just plain slap stick comedy. IMO the director should not have went that way. It would have been funny enough had the put the 1000 pound plus safe in the trunk and the bumper went right to the ground, making the boys all have to run for it.

Destiny thanks, I'm always grateful to anyone who takes the time to give me movie recommendations...It works out the best when some one gets to know what I like and don't like in films, as I tend to be picky!

If anyone is interested just cruise through this thread, look at the movies I watched and the ratings I gave, that will tell you guys a lot of what I like....and you don't have to read the reviews either.

I had a thread where I received a lot of neat movie watching idea.
Your 2014 movie recommendations for me

I haven't seen The Changeling (1980). Post 1970 horror is not my thing, so I almost would say no, but I read about the film and it does sound intriguing and I hope it's more cerebral.

"A man staying at a secluded historical mansion finds himself being haunted by the presence of a spectre." and "The supporting cast is headed by Melvyn Douglas (in one of his last roles)"

So I will give it a watch Thanks! (my library has it too)

Do you think that scene would've been questioned by you if they'd just kept "Jersey Boys" as a musical (which it really should have been) rather than a biopic?

I agree with you. I understand artistic license, but sometimes - mainly when it is something based on facts/true stories - they should not get too carried with how they are telling the tales of what happened. Extra little jokes and stuff is sometimes so unnecessary and they drive me crazy. But there goes my nit-picky self again.

I think the main reason the safe in the trunk-car doing a wheel stand scene struck me as odd is that I actually have a safe of that size and I know how heavy it is!...and because I like old collectors cars and right before they stuck the safe in the trunk, I'm thinking it's going to ruin the car and shove the bumper into the pavement...

So I had a preconceived idea of what would happen and then when it happened differently, I was disappointed. That happenes a lot to me when I watch films, I literally write my own scenes in my head as I'm watching.

If Jersey Boys had been a comedy or a light heartened comic musical, then that scene would be OK with me....But it's not like I'm upset over that scene or anything, it just struck me as odd. See I really should have been a director

I need to explain how my nit-pickery on that issue came about...

I didn't know all the Four Season's member's names when I started watching the film, but I did know what they looked like from an album I'd had (and I knew there was one really tall guy and three short guys). So in the beginning of the film when they show a significantly taller guy hanging with Tommy & Frankie (I think he goes into jail as Tommy is coming out or vice versa) I'm thinking this must be the "tall guy" in the group that I know from the album covers.

Turns out, the guy I thought was the tall guy from the covers was supposed to be Nick Massi (who, in real life, wasn't much taller than Tommy or Frankie, who were both short). And the next tall guy who shows up in the movie is supposed to be Bob Gaudio - the actual ONLY tall guy in the real group.

So my nit-pick came out of the fact that the movie confused me as to who was who since my knowledge of who was who was based entirely on knowing there was one tall guy and three short guys!

After all this nit picking no one is going to want to watch Jersey Boys It was a OK film too. My 3 rating means it was OK and just about average.

I did like Renee Marino in the film she was feisty!

It's still on my watchlist, but you guys aren't making it sound like something that I should push to the top of my list.

It's garnered a lot more discussion than I ever thought it would - so there must be something to it.

(Kind of like Birdman - I absolutely despised it, but then spent days discussing it with people - so I guess it was kind of "good" in that it prompted so much discussion over whether it was good or not!)

Unlike Birdman, I did not despise Jersey Boys. But it was a case where I went in with high expectations because I'd been hearing for years how great the stage show was. It was surprising to learn that if the group hadn't achieved fame, then three of the members (including Frankie) may well have become mobsters.

GBG if you don't watch it you'll never know the secret about Joe Pesci

That WAS a surprise. I had no idea and had never heard anything about it (and I live in Jersey)!

I've heard great reviews of the "Jersey Boys" stage show, but I haven't seen it, so I won't have the show to compare it to, but it sounds like the movie doesn't even almost live up to the reviews of the stage show.

The difference between Jersey Boys and Birdman is that in the Jersey Boys discussion, you guys are all basically saying the same thing, just making different specific references, but in the Birdman discussion, everyone seems to have a different opinion about what they thought was real and/or imagined by him, and different opinions about the movie overall, making it a more interesting discussion.

I tell you one thing GBG, if you watch it you won't agree with Frankie's handling of a money problem caused by Tommy. Heck I thought Frankie was nuts too, but I guess there most be some truth to it?