Jersey Boys MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

Christopher Walken, Francesca Eastwood, Written by Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice. Drama/musical. Directed by Clint Eastwood.

FILM SYNOPSIS: Clint Eastwood directs this film about four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons.

PREVIEW REVIEW: Based on a Broadway play, Jersey Boys is musical, violent and quirky. With its ingredients of Goodfellas-like hostility, backstage egos running amuck, and on-the-road adultery, Jersey Boys offers just about what you’d expect from a Hollywood depiction of a ‘50s clean cut boy band as done by Dirty Harry, himself.

There’s few genres Mr. Eastwood has not been able to conquer as a film director, including the musical (Bird). But the enjoyment factor for Jersey Boys is helped mightily if you’re a fan of the falsetto singer Frankie Valli (Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, and Walk Like A Man). Because after all the trimmings of dealing with money troubles and squabbles among the group, elements we’ve seen in countless bios of the famous, we’re still left with someone singing like Frankie Valli.

DVD Alternative: That Thing You Do (1996). Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Tom Hanks (also writer & director). Lighthearted fare about four musical lads in the mid-sixties as they rise to the top with their one hit. That Thing is downright upbeat. PG (1 obscenity; a couple mild expletives; a scene in a bar has the lead inebriated, with a very friendly waitress coming on to him, but there are no sex scenes; other sexuality is implied rather than forced onto the audience; a rock & roll song is recorded in a church, but no disrespect is shown - in fact, a verse is quoted, revealing at least one band member to be familiar with the Bible).

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: Warner Bros.