Blu-ray Review Jersey Boys Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Jersey Boys Blu-ray Review

Director Clint Eastwood's Jersey Boys adapts the hit stage play chronicling the career of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons from their rough and tumble New Jersey roots through a remarkable series of hits in the 1960s and the personal and professional ups and downs of the ensuing decades.

Studio: Warner Brothers

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish 5.1 DD, French 5.1 DD, Other

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese

Rating: R

Run Time: 2 Hr. 14 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, UltraViolet

Standard sized Blu-ray case with two disc hubs and cardboard slipcover

Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer), DVD-9 (dual layer)

Region:

Release Date: 11/11/2014

MSRP: $35.99

The Production Rating: 3/5

Jersey BoysDirected by: Clint EastwoodStarring: John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza, Christopher Walken, Mike DoyleJersey Boys is a musical biopic that tracks the career trajectory of popular 1960s group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. As with the stage play from which it was adapted, the film divides their career into four "seasons" with a different group member driving the narrative for each section. Tommy DeVito (Piazza) narrates the groups "spring" starting with their rough and tumble New Jersey teen years, the incorporation of Valli (Young) and his angelic falsetto into DeVito and Nick Massi's (Lomenda) existing band, and their eventual teaming with ambitious musician/songwriter Bob Gaudio (Bergen) and producer/songwriter Bob Crewe (Doyle). Gaudio picks up the narration for the groups "summer", including their efforts leading up to their breakthrough hit "Sherry" in 1962 and their remarkable string of hits through the 1960s. Massi narrates the groups's "autumn" as personal and financial troubles mount within the band leading to the original group's dissolution. Valli takes over narration for the groups "winter" including a punishing concert schedule he takes on through the late 1960s in order to make good on financial obligations, the toll it takes on his family, his professional resurgence with some late career hits, and the induction of the original group members into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.Jersey Boys is a decidedly old-fashioned musical biopic that successfully leans on the string of Four Seasons hits blending rock and doo wop vocal elements, but does not do enough to transcend its familiar genre elements. Perhaps its biggest shortcoming is that it does not explain or make a case as to what was special or unique about the group other than Valli's voice. Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe were an ambitious and formidable writing and production team that had a number of interesting successes and failures in their push for innovation, but the film barely touches on this. The chronology of the group's career is altered for the sake of narrative clarity, which is a pretty standard practice in Hollywood biopics, but the result is an unremarkable and mechanical feeling narrative with insufficient set-ups for the dramatic pay-offs it tries to deliver.Despite the "by the numbers" plotting and relative lack of insight about its subject matter, the film will still likely entertain fans of the stage production and Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons' music. Eastwood and his team of mostly regular collaborators display their typically top notch technical acumen. In particular, James Murakami's production design is wonderfully evocative of the era in which the film is set. The cast is very capable, with all but two major cast members being veterans of one or more productions of the stage show. The two exceptions are Christopher Walken as soft hearted but pragmatic gangster Gyp DeCarlo, and Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito. Walken is everything one would want him to be in the role, and DeVito makes the most of probably the meatiest part in the film. John Lloyd Young is one of the few people on the planet who can pull off a credible Frankie Valli style falsetto live, and even though this skill was not necessarily required for the film adaptation, his experience playing the part hundreds of times on stage no doubt was a contributing factor to the utterly convincing performance he gives on screen.

WHV Jersey Boys Playlist

Video Rating: 4.5/5 3D Rating: NA

The film is presented via a 1080p AVC encoding letterboxed to its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.4:1. The cinematographic style eschews natural colors for a desaturated palette tilted towards sepia intended to evoke a nostalgic feel. The theatrical intent is realized on home video with only a handful of instances of minor artifacts of the manipulation and digital rendering of the image.

Audio Rating: 4/5

The film's original English soundtrack is presented via a lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. As one would expect, the highlights of the film's audio presentation are the many musical sequences. The mix for most of the film makes subdued use of the surrounds, but they are used much more aggressively during certain key sequences of the film such as a performance of the song "Can't Take My Eyes off of You" at the Roostertail venue in Detroit.

Special Features Rating: 3/5

When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted with the following series of skippable promos:

• The Judge theatrical trailer
• This is Where I Leave You theatrical trailer

Proper special features accessible from the disc's menu include:From Broadway to the Big Screen (22:57) is a fairly concise featurette on the film's development and production. It includes personal recollections about The Four Seasons the filmmakers, the history of the stage musical, how Graham King and Clint Eastwood came to the project, the decision to use a lot of actors who appeared in various versions of the stage production, and personal reflections on the production. Comments are provided by Director Clint Eastwood, John Lloyd Young ("Frankie Valli"), Mike Doyle ("Bob Crewe"), Producer Graham King, Vincent Piazza ("Tommy DeVito"), Donnie Kehr ("Norm Waxman"), Writer Rick Elice, Music Supervisor Ron Melrose, Casting Director Geoffrey Miclat, Erich Bergen ("Bob Gaudio"), Michael Lomenda ("Nick Massi"), Renée Marino ("Mary"), Erica Piccininni ("Lorraine"), Choreographer Sergio Trujillo, and Christopher Walken ("Gyp DeCarlo").To Good to Be True (4:51) Focuses on actor Donnie Kehr who originated the role of Gyp DeCarlo at the La Jolla Playhouse, played Norm Waxman on Broadway, and comes full circle to play Waxman again in the movie. Comments are provided by Kehr, Piccininni, Lomenda, Elice, Walken, King, and Editor Joel Cox."Oh What a Night" to Remember (5:05) Covers the film's closing musical number that brought the entire cast together for one elaborately choreographed sequence. Comments are provided by Eastwood, King, Choreographer Sergio Trujillo, Doyle, Joseph Russo ("Joey "), Cox, Lighting Console Programmer Benoit Richard, Young, King, Marino, Piazza, and Walken.SD DVDThis Blu-ray combo pack also includes a SD DVD that presents the film in 16:9 enhanced widescreen video with Dolby Digital 5.1 English, Spanish, and French audio tracks. Subtitle options include English SDH, Spanish, and French. The only special feature is the same "Oh What a Night" to Remember featurette that appears on the Blu-ray. When this disc is first played, the viewer is greeted with the following series of skippable promos:

• Anti-Smoking PSA that parodies energy drink commercials
• The Judge Theatrical Trailer
• This is Where I Leave You Theatrical Trailer
• Horrible Bosses 2 Theatrical Trailer
• Tammy Home Video Trailer
• Edge of Tomorrow Home Video Trailer

Overall Rating: 3/5

While fans of the Jersey Boys stage production and/or the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons may enjoy Clint Eastwood's film adaptation, the film leans too hard on tried and true biopic genre cliches to impress more discriminating viewers in a post-Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story world. It is presented on Blu-ray with a solid rendering of the films audio and stylized desaturated cinematography. Special features are modest in number, but provide reasonable depth and insight into the film's development and production, although I would have personally liked to have seen more information (or even participation) from the original Four Seasons members themselves.

Reviewed By: Ken_McAlinden

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Clint Eastwood does it again folks. This film proves what we already knew time and time again about his legendary figure. So far one of my top 20 films of they year.

No Dolby Atmos for this bluray.

Not the kind of movie I would expected to be theatrically released in Atmos, but there you have it.
http://www.dolby.com/us/en/experience/dolby-atmos/movies.html

Stephen_J_H said:

Not the kind of movie I would expected to be theatrically released in Atmos, but there you have it.
http://www.dolby.com/us/en/experience/dolby-atmos/movies.html

Click to expand...

Even more there you have it. if studios and atmos has this attitude after many have spent thousands for a paperweight rather than new decoder to show to show-off all this new high ground surround technology. Its nothing to do with early days, I don't think Dolby AC-3 laserdisc buyers was getting mucked around with 1 title. There was more content being released then DVD market. The studios should have had film content 10 or more ready with their promise that 10 more next month and so on.