“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

Jersey Boys - Movie PosterJERSEY BOYS is an adaptation of the 2005 award-winning musical on Broadway, it is directed by Clint Eastwood, it stars some of the same actors as were in the play, and it tells the story of the rise and fall and rise of the singing legends, Franki Valli and the Four Seasons.

I think the movie is great, and yet it has been getting mostly negative reviews.

The criticism sometimes that I have read has to do with historical accuracy, such as a song in the movie came out after the year we hear that song in the movie, and it isn’t even a Four Seasons song.

Remember, this is not a documentary. It is the story about four kids who were poor in New Jersey, formed a band, and became wildly successful, selling an estimated 175 million records and in 1990 being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Their success was due largely to the unmistakable falsetto voice of its lead singer, Franki Valli, and here is just a partial list of their hit songs: “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Candy Girl,” “Dawn (Go Away),” “Ronnie,” “Rag Doll,” “Save It for Me,” “Bye Bye Baby (Baby, Goodbye),” “Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got),” “Working My Way Back to You,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,’ and “My Eyes Adored You.”

Granted, many in the audience might not have even been born yet when the group was inducted in the Hall of Fame, but if you were around when they were popular, you are probably humming at least one of those songs right now.

The movie uses a technique also used in the stage production with some of the characters looking into the camera and talking to the audience, and at one point Frankie says, “When everything dropped away and all there was was the music, that was the best.”

Yes, at least two of the members served time in jail for criminal activities before they became famous, and, yes, they knew and were helped in their career by people connected with the Mob.

Christopher Walken has a very memorable role as one of those people, Gyp DeCarlo, and actor Joe Pesci helped them before they all became famous.

JERSEY BOYS Boys enters my list of top movies with a bullet.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”