Review - The Blues Brothers (1980) & Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Lately, I've been spending a lot of time rewatching two movies that my dad and I thoroughly enjoy. The first he showed me after buying it on VHS, and the second he took me to see at one of our local movie theaters. I'm talking about the 1980 musical comedy The Blues Brothers and its 1998 sequel Blues Brothers 2000. 

          The Blues Brothers opens with Jake Blues, played by John Belushi, getting released from Joliet prison in Illinois after serving three years of a five-year sentence. Jake's brother Elwood Blues, played by Dan Aykroyd, picks Jake up in a 1974 Dodge Monaco that Elwood picked up at a police auction. The Blues Brothers then head to their childhood home: the St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud orphanage in Calumet City. The brothers meet with the nun who runs the orphanage, Sister Mary Stigmata aka The Penguin, played by Kathleen Freeman. The Penguin informs the brothers that the Cook County Assessor's office wants $5,000 in tax money, but the Penguin refuses to take any dishonest money from the brothers, and forces them out. After meeting with the orphanage custodian Curtis, played by Cab Calloway, the brothers head over to the Triple Rock Baptist Church, where they get some inspiration from the Reverend Cleophus James, played by James Brown. Jake and Elwood decide the only way to raise $5,000 honestly is by getting the members of their band back together. 

       The next several days sees Jake and Elwood going around collecting the various members of the Blues Brothers Band, including Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Tom "Bones" Malone, "Blue" Lou Marini, Willie Hall, Murphy "Murph" Dunne, and Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin. With the band assembled, the brothers head to get some new instruments from a music store run by Ray Charles. All the while, the brothers evade the police, Jake's parole officer, a homicidal woman hell bent on killing the Blues Brothers, and Illinois Nazis. After one performance, which forces the band to pretend to be a country/western group, the brothers meet with their old booker Maury Sline, who sets them up with a gig at the Palace Hotel Ballroom just north of Chicago. 

         The Blues Brothers then work to draw a crowd to the gig, but run out of gas on the way to the gig. After filling up on gas, the brothers head to the gig, while Curtis and the band perform the song "Minnie the Moocher" for the antsy crowd. The Blues Brothers arrive, perform the songs "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" and "Sweet Home Chicago," and sneak out of the gig without getting caught by the police. Unfortunately, the homicidal woman from before, who is revealed to be Jake's ex-fiancee, arrives to kill the Blues Brothers, all because Jake left her waiting at the altar. Jake tries to explain, making up a number of ridiculous excuses in the process. The ruse works, and the two seem to reconcile. Jake and Elwood take off with the $5,000 in tax money, evading the police, Jake's ex-fiancee, a music group called the Good Ol' Boys, whom the Blues Brothers took the country tavern gig from, and the Illinois Nazis. 

       Upon arriving at their destination in Chicago, the car falls apart, and the brothers head to meet the Cook County Assessor, played by Steven Spielberg, who accepts the tax money for the orphanage and writes them a receipt. However, the brothers are arrested by a who's who of law enforcement, including Chicago Police, Illinois State Troopers, SWAT units, the National Guard, and even Military Police. The Blues Brothers, and the Blues Brothers Band, all end up in prison, where they perform "Jailhouse Rock" for the inmates. 

        Okay, so The Blues Brothers is an overall insane movie. However, that's what makes it so fun. The amount of obstacles that Jake and Elwood face while trying to save their childhood home is just nuts. I mean, police are one thing, but pile onto that a homicidal ex-fiancee, a band the brothers screwed out of a gig, and Illinois Nazis, it's just nuts. But, one thing that is absolutely fantastic is the performances by some of the greatest musicians of all time. James Brown, Can Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, and of course the Blues Brothers themselves. Belushi and Aykroyd are absolutely phenomenal in this movie. Other actors, like Carrie Fisher, Frank Oz, Steve Lawrence, and John Candy were all terrific. Overall, this movie is a cinematic classic, and a personal favorite of mine from director John Landis. I give The Blues Brothers a rating of 5/5. Definitely recommend checking this one out. 

        Eighteen years later, Aykroyd and Landis decided to release a sequel. Blues Brothers 2000 sees Dan Aykroyd return as Elwood Blues. Joining Aykroyd are the likes of John Goodman, Joe Morton, J. Evan Bonifant, and returning musical guests like James Brown and Aretha Franklin, as well as new musical guests like B.B. King, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, Blues Traveler, Sam Moore, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton, and so forth. 

        So, the movie opens with Elwood's release from prison. After waiting an entire day for a ride, the warden goes to inform him that his brother, Jake, is dead. Saddened by this, Elwood then goes to meet with the Penguin, who now goes by Mother Mary Stigmata and oversees a hospital after the orphanage closed down. The Penguin informs Elwood that Curtis passed away as well, but left behind an illegitimate son, Cabel Chamberlain. She then introduces Elwood to a ten year old orphan named Buster, whom the Penguin wants Elwood to be a mentor to. Elwood then heads to the offices of the Illinois State Police, where he learns that Cab, his sort-of Step-brother, is a Police Commander, who angrily refuses Elwood's offer to join the Blues Brothers Band. Buster, however, swipes Cab's wallet, giving Elwood the $500 he needed to buy a new Bluesmobile, which this time is a 1990 Ford "Crown Vic" police car. 

      Elwood and Buster then head to a strip club run by Willie Hall, who also refuses to join the band. However, after Elwood witnesses Willie being strong armed by the Russian mob, he decides to take action, with assistance from the club's bartender "Mighty" Mack McTeer. The Russians arrive, and burn the club to the ground. Elwood, with Mack and Buster, decides to put the band back together, thus solving their job problem. Elwood, Mack, and Buster then pick up Matt, "Blue" Lou, "Bones" Malone, Steve Cropper, "Duck" Dunn, Mr. Fabulous, and Murph. After the band is assembled, Sline sets the band up to play at a county fair in Kentucky, and gets them an audition for a Battle of the Bands in New Orleans, which is run by Queen Mousette. 

          The Blues Brothers continue to avoid police, as well as the Russian mob, and eventually get on the bad side of a group of militant White Supremacists. Eventually, the band arrives at the county fair, where they learn that Sline booked them a a Bluegrass band. The band then performs the song "Ghost Riders in the Sky," which causes actual ghost riders to appear in the sky, followed by a massive rainstorm. The band then piles into the Bluesmobile, running out of gas somewhere outside of Panther Burn, Mississippi. After a rousing speech from Elwood, the band walks down the road, with Blue Lou staying with the Bluesmobile, planning to get gas for the car. The rest of the band comes across a Tent Revival Meeting, which is being run by Reverend Morris, with an appearance by an old friend of Elwood's: the Reverend Cleophus James. The band joins the congregation for a rendition of the song "John the Revelator," which is interrupted by Cab, who has arrived to arrest the Blues Brothers Band. However, both Reverend Morris and Reverend Cleophus tell Cab to embrace his true calling, and Cab is swept up by a divine power, and has his clothes changed, returning to the congregation in a suit similar to that of the Blues Brothers. The band, joined by Cab, make their escape, evading the police, and head to Louisiana to audition for Queen Mousette. 

        After a successful audition, which saw Elwood, Mack, and Cab all get zombified by Queen Mousette, the band is allowed to compete in the following night's Battle of the Bands, where their competition is a supergroup called the Louisiana Gator Boys, which consists of a who's who of legendary Blues and R&B artists, like Travis Tritt, Bo Diddley, Dr. John, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Issac Hayes, Low Rawls, Clarence Clemons, Jimmie Vaughan, Gary U.S. Bonds, Charlie Musselwhite, Joshua Redman, and so many others. After both bands perform, the audience votes, and the Blues Brothers lose to the Gator Boys. The Russians and the Militia guys both arrive, and are quickly turned into rats by Queen Mousette. The police, led now by Lt. Elizondo, arrive as well, but Cab tells them he is okay, and has joined the band. One of the Gator Boys, Malvern Gasperon, played by B.B. King, recognizes Elwood from before, and the two bands decide to jam, performing the son " New Orleans." Unfortunately, Elwood and Buster are forced to flee when they spot the Penguin with members of the FBI, as the Penguin and the FBI believe that Elwood kidnapped Buster, even though that's not the case. Elwood and Buster drive off, pursued by a string of police cars, ending the movie. 

     Okay, so Blues Brothers 2000 had a lot of thing happening as well. However, the film did feel weaker due to the absence of John Belushi as Jake. Belushi, who sadly passed away in 1982, was an irreplaceable talent, and the movie clearly demonstrates this. The characters of Mack and Cab, played by John Goodman and Joe Morton, are decent additions, and J. Evan Bonifant is okay as Buster, but the absence of Jake is still noticable. 

        The random insanity, like the ghost riders appearing in the sky, Queen Mousette and her actually having mystical Voodoo powers, and so forth was neat, but it really made no sense in terms of the world that the Blues Brothers are part of. However, the strongest part of the movie is, once again, the music. These songs are all terrific, and performed by terrific music artists. All in all, I still enjoyed this one, but not as much as the first one. I'm giving Blues Brothers 2000 a rating of 4/5. 

       All in all, I love The Blues Brothers. Heck, I have their Briefcase Full of Blues album on CD, as well as the soundtrack to the first movie. These guys introduced me to Blues music, and I will always be grateful for that. This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time.