The first 1/3 of the film almost felt like "Goodfellas", and I was really digging the tone (excuse the old saying). And of course all the scenes with the music were really well done and catchy. There were even a handful of clever laughs thrown in. 
 
 
 
 The film's biggest problem is maintaining 
 
 The first 1/3 of the film almost felt like "Goodfellas", and I was really digging the tone (excuse the old saying). And of course all the scenes with the music were really well done and catchy. There were even a handful of clever laughs thrown in. 
 
 
 
 The film's biggest problem is maintaining a single tone throughout, especially in the final act. The tempo just hits a wall when it choses to focus more on Frankie than the band, and the enjoyment of the movie suffers because of it. 
 
 
 
 The movie is very well-made and 2/3 of it are good. But that other third is slow and borderline boring. Guess we get a little bit of both of Eastwood's directing signatures: when its good its good, but when its slow, oh boy is it slow. 
 
 … ||||| "Jersey Boys" isn't just a movie set in the '50s and early '60s. It looks like a movie from that time, too. 
 
 The muted color palette is pure Ektachrome. Several of the houses and streets are clearly studio mockups. When the characters go for a drive, you'd almost swear it was bad back projection. 
 
 It's lovely. 
 
 And then those songs kick in — "Walk Like a Man," "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry" — and the years melt away. 
 
 But as deliberately, consciously old-fashioned as it sometimes is, Clint Eastwood's "Jersey Boys" is also often fresh, with a self-aware sense of fun that concludes with the whole cast dancing down one of those studio back-lot streets. 
 
 If you never saw the Broadway musical — and at this point, in this state, that might be grounds for expulsion — it's the story of the Four Seasons, the Garden State boys who survived bad business decisions, breakups and the Beatles, to sell records to several generations. 
 
 Like the show, the film also has its characters telling their own stories — often directly to the camera, with a wink, a shrug and a whole lot of Jersey attitude. 
 
 If you have seen the musical, though, you'll recognize many of the actors. Bucking the usual Hollywood practice, most of the parts have been cast not with stars, but with performers who've already played the roles either on Broadway or on national tour, the standout still John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli. 
 
 The chief exceptions to the original-cast philosophy are Christopher Walken, who shows up as real-life mobster "Gyp" DeCarlo, and Vince Piazza of "Boardwalk Empire," who gets the crucial role of the wheeling, dealing (and disastrously gambling) Tommy DeVito. 
 
 Walken is wonderful, as always, although the role is really superfluous — he's there chiefly as a symbol for the Jersey mob. But Piazza is terrific — his character is the first narrator we meet and even when he's off the screen he dominates the film. 
 
 And although the script is far too fanstruck of the Four Seasons' prime movers, Valli and Bob Gaudio — their only sins, it seems, is that they just cared too much and worked too hard — Young does another fine job making Valli warmly, audibly real. 
 
 The music helps him, too. There are one or two off notes — the brass section behind "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" is a little tinny — but it's a fun and faithful score, and you'll be surprised at how many of these songs you know, even if you were never a big fan. 
 
 And while some of the songs are shoehorned in (and having Valli croon "My Eyes Adored You" to his kid is just creepy, especially since the second line is "Though I never laid a hand on you...") the soundtrack still manages to cover the group's long, varied history. 
 
 Of course, the movie is a little long too, and overly reverent. But natives will love the Jersey references (including someone playing Joe Pesci, a DeVito pal and early Four Seasons' booster). And if you stay for the final, closing-credits curtain-call number — and you should — no one will blame you if you join in, just a little. 
 
 Ratings note: The film contains strong language and substance abuse. 
 
 'Jersey Boys' (R) Warner Bros. (134 min.) 
 
 Directed by Clint Eastwood. With John Lloyd Young, Christopher Walken. Now playing in New Jersey. 
 
 ★ ★ ★ 
 
 
 
 MORE JERSEY BOYS COVERAGE 
 
 • Frankie Valli remembers Newark home as 'safe haven' 
 
 • Ahead of 'Jersey Boys' film, 10 tunes from The Four Seasons 
 
 • 'Jersey Boys': Cast revels in journey from stage to screen 
 
 • Renee Marino: a Jersey Girl stars in 'Jersey Boys' 
 
 • Clint Eastwood on 'Jersey Boys,' taking risks and a life well lived
– What do you get when you mix Clint Eastwood and a Tony Award-winning musical? That would be Jersey Boys, the film version of the Broadway show starring John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli and Christopher Walken as a mobster. So will you be singing along or dozing in your seat? Critics aren't wildly impressed, with the movie scoring a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 54 on Metacritic. "As deliberately, consciously old-fashioned as it sometimes is, Clint Eastwood's Jersey Boys is also often fresh, with a self-aware sense of fun," writes Stephen Whitty at the Star-Ledger. While there are "one or two off notes," he adds that Broadway star Young "does another fine job making Valli warmly, audibly real." Seen the Broadway version? You'll find that the film "adds dialogue and subtracts music," writes Mark Jenkins at NPR. It may be "undercooked," with "little sense of context, either social or musical," but Jersey Boys is also "engagingly lively, if not always graceful, and often surprisingly comic," Jenkins notes. At the Globe and Mail, Geoff Pevere calls it a "flat-as-a-platter adaptation." Granted, it's not all bad. "The movie perks up somewhat during the musical numbers" and the cast is "pitch perfect." But "trust me, you've watched condominium lobby channels that are more exciting than this." Oh, and the hair pieces "look like freshly fallen squirrel pelts." So is Eastwood entirely to blame? Well, according to Joe Williams at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "the worst thing about this multifaceted failure is the Oscar winner behind the camera." Taking a stab at Eastwood's empty chair gag, he notes, "Where there ought to be a director, there's nothing but an empty chair." If you were planning on seeing Jersey Boys, "Fuhgeddaboudit."