Jersey Boys Trailer thread

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

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

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.

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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.

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.

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?

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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?

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.