Jersey Boys Trailer thread

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 6:27am

For some glitchy reason, I can't comment on the Jersey Boys Trailer thread. None of the hyperlinks are active. It's like the thread is locked, only it isn't. The sidebar on the website freaks out too, so I imagine it's a site coding thing.

Anyway, with that thread out of commission for a couple of days, I thought I would start this one and hope the same thing doesn't happen.

As much as I liked the Normal Heart trailer, I didn't like the Jersey Boys trailer. I'm not sure why it feels like I've seen the movie already. Every shot seems to be lifted from Ray or That Thing You Do or Dreamgirls or even Goodfellas. And John Lloyd Young's voice sounds really weird. Not just high-pitched like Frankie Valli, but odd, almost like a singing mosquito. Maybe it's the sound mixing, but it isn't doing him any favors. He doesn't sound like Valli did on the records either. But he does make me reach for the fly swatter.

Hopefully the movie will play better than the trailer did.

EDIT: I should add that it's the trailer I find cliche, not (necessarily) this film. The trailer looks rushed, thrown together, superficial, and derivative. I'm sure a better trailer could have been edited for this film that helped it look like less of a cookie-cutter production. At least I hope.
Jersey Boys Official Trailer

Updated On: 4/19/14 at 06:27 AM

[ggersten]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 7:52am

I had the same trouble with that thread. Since I have not seen the Broadway show, I can only go by the trailer. And, it did not create any interest in me to see the film. I like the Four Seasons, but I don't really care about the back story. And nothing in the trailer made this seem different than prior biopics about singing groups. There was nothing that set this film apart from what has come before. There was nothing that screamed "event" or "major" - I didn't even get a sense of the "struggle" to make it. This just looks pedestrian. So, I wonder whether the trailer is going to attract people to see the film who are not fans of the stage show.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 8:58am

I did see the show on Broadway with the OBC (minus Young, who was out on vocal rest). There was a lot of excitement in the theatre, but having also seen the OBC of Dreamgirls, the show felt like "Dreamgirls Light" to me. Even if it was based on a true story (and let's face it, so was Dreamgirls), it didn't have the dramatic impact of its predecessor, nor did it have the brilliant staging of Michael Bennett, although certain numbers reminded me of Bennett's earlier staging.

As for this trailer, I tried to watch it without bias, because I have seen "somewhat good" stage shows turned into "very good" films, and as a movie trailer this just felt like all-too-familiar territory.

Knowing the material is going to evoke recent film bios of singing groups (fiction or non), they should have steered clear of cutting together a trailer that looked and felt like everything we've seen before. I think there is a better, more enticing trailer in the material than this one.

As for the sound mixing, I hope it comes off better (and I hope Young sounds better) in the movie theatres with big speakers.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 10:37am

Of the three guys in the movie who were in the show, I actually saw them all at different times (Bergen in SF and Vegas, Lomenda in Washington DC and Young on Broadway), and they all seem to come off really well in the trailer. JLY sounds way better in the trailer than he did when I first saw him in 2007; more like when I saw him when he returned to the show in 2012, and I felt like I finally saw what everyone else had seen.

The movie itself looks like it'll be a little less glitzy and slick than the stage production, which I didn't expect, but we'll see. I was overall still impressed.

(Something happened in that thread similar to what happened in the Malaysian airlines thread on the OT board. Wonder what.)

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 10:56am

I like the film filters. Shooting the whole film with the Polaroid look will give it a very unique presentation.

I am still mixed about all the characters talking to the camera. Not so much because it looks stagey, as I had worried before, but because that is a convention of such a distinct type of character and film today- the unreliable narrator in a crime-and-corruption film. Think of the people who talk to the camera. Frank Underwood, Ian McKellan as Richard III, Ferris Bueller, Don Cheadle on House of Lies. The list goes on, but it always has one thing in common: trustworthy characters who are doing the right thing don't do it.

Granted, the Four Seasons begin as hoods, but this isn't a mob movie.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 11:10am

The list goes on, but it always has one thing in common: trustworthy characters who are doing the right thing don't do it.

This is perfect for Tommy DeVito, though.

(I know, there are three other guys, too.)

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 11:15am

It's a serviceable trailer. What you see is what you're going to get: The story of one of the greatest singing groups in rock history. I liked it very much.

[carousel94]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 3:55pm

"Granted, the Four Seasons begin as hoods, but this isn't a mob movie."

I suppose not, but they do have strong mob ties throughout the course of the stage show too. *Spoilers(I suppose?)* It's part of where they come from and who they get involved with in Belleville. Some of them are in and out of prison at the start of it all, end up there again after success and spend a good deal of time trying to bail Tommy out of the debt he racked up to pay off the loan shark. Certainly not everything is about illegal activity but it is a story about a singing group with just enough mob connections and shady dealings for this to look like a cross between "Casino" and "Dreamgirls" mixed with a touch of "Wolf of Wall Street." I don't think that's a bad thing either.

Lizzie: When you mention the film not looking as slick and glitzy as the stage production, do you mean the overall look and design of the picture or something else? From what I can see, it strikes a good balance of grit and polish, but maybe we are expecting different things.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 6:18pm

Yeah, I think I mean look and design. But maybe that's an inherent difference between film and TV. Or maybe the difference between such a minimalist stage and film?

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 8:27pm

I remember seeing photos and the trailer for the "Hairspray" movie and thought the costumes looked drab and subdued.

Then I saw the film, and I thought they looked great and colorful and completely appropriate. A little color goes a long way on the big screen. I'll bet these threads look fine once you see them in a movie theatre.

[BroadwayStar4]

Posted: 4/20/14 at 6:19am

The movie looks like it's gonna be good. So I don't get the negativity here. What exactly did you expect from a Jersey Boys movie anyway?

[bryan2]

Posted: 4/20/14 at 8:53am

I don't recall him sounding so "helium baloonish" on stage...sounds very funny here...

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 4/20/14 at 2:57pm

I liked it. Only thing I noted was the logo is pretty low-key compared to the stage version, and that's just me being picky. :-p

There was one user on youtube who left the following comment: "this looks like Dreamgirls with white guys, so why should I care?" Oh dear.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 4/20/14 at 10:26pm

The logo surprised me too. I wasn't expecting them to change it at all.