THEY'RE ON A MISSION FROM GOD! (The Blues Brothers (DVD))

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	The Blues Brothers (DVD)
Date:	27/10/03 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Music, Very funny

Disadvantages: Cheap imitations

"It's 110 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!"

This is one of my favourite films. In this case the old cliché is true 'one you can watch again and again'. It is extremely funny, and has a great soundtrack. Twenty years after it was first released it still seems fresh. The main performances are outstanding, the action is well paced, the comedy brilliantly executed.

THE STORY

The film follows the adventures of two brothers Jake and Elwood. Jake has just been released from prison when they decide to put together their old band in order to raise $5000 to pay the back taxes of the orphanage that they grew up in thus saving it from closure. They soon find themselves on the wrong side of the law and spend their time trying to organize a big gig that will get them the money while avoiding being arrested by the police. Along the way they also make enemies of a country and western band, a neo-Nazi group and are relentlessly chased a mystery woman intent on killing Jake.

CAST, PERFORMANCES AND OPINION

John Belushi .... 'Joliet' Jake Blues
Dan Aykroyd .... Elwood Blues
James Brown .... Reverend Cleophus James
Cab Calloway .... Curtis
Ray Charles .... Ray
Aretha Franklin .... Mrs. Murphy
Steve Cropper .... Steve 'The Colonel' Cropper
Donald Dunn .... Donald 'Duck' Dunn
Murphy Dunne .... Murph
Willie Hall .... Willie 'Too Big' Hall
Tom Malone .... Tom 'Bones' Malone
Lou Marini .... 'Blue Lou' Marini
Matt Murphy .... Matt 'Guitar' Murphy
Alan Rubin .... Mr. Fabulous
Carrie Fisher .... Mystery Woman
Henry Gibson .... Nazi Leader
John Candy .... Burton Mercer

Directed by John Landis

Writers Dan Akroyd and John Landis

John Belushi and Dan Akro
yd where products of the groundbreaking Saturday Night Live crew which included at various times, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Mike Myers. Akroyd and Belushi have made two other films together '1941' and 'Neighbours' but their on and off comic partnership was cut short when Belushi died prematurely in 1982 of drugs overdose. The Blues Brothers remains his and Akroyd best film.

The premise of the film is simple enough, it is in fact one long chase movie, and everybody ends up chasing the brothers as they ineptly struggle to get their band back together. The humour is often slapstick and the musical interludes are in true musical film style distinctly separate from the action.

One of the pleasures of this film is seeing some of the legends of black-American music form the 30's to the 70's playing excellent cameo roles. We find James Brown as the larger than life preacher Reverend Cleophus James, Ray Charles as the blind owner of the music shop where the band get their instruments, Aretha Franklin as Mrs Murph the owner of a local diner and the great 30's Jazz legend Cab Calloway as a friend helping out Jake and Elwood set up the concert. The film is worth watching solely for the musical interludes and the soundtrack makes a great CD.

1. She Caught The Katy - Jake
2. Peter Gunn Theme - Jake
3. Gimme Some Lovin' - Jake
4. Shake A Tail Feather - Ray Charles/Jake & Elwood
5. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love - Jake & Elwood/Patty Austin/Vivian Cherry/Ullanda McCullough
6. The Old Landmark - James Brown/Rev. James Cleveland Choir
7. Think - Aretha Franklin/Brenda Corbet/Margaret Branch/Caroline Franklin
8. Theme From Rawhide - Elwood & Jake
9. Minnie The Moocher - Cab Calloway
10. Sweet Home Chicago - Elwood & Jake
11. Jailhouse Rock - Jake

You can see from the casting that both Landis and Akroyd are re

al fans of the black American music pre-1980 and this apart from anything else was an opportunity to work with some of their all-time musical heroes.

This film along with Belushi's previous hit 'Animal House' (1979) shows off what a great comic talent he was and what a tragedy it was that he died so soon into his film career. The close chemistry between Akroyd and Belushi developed after many years of working together can be clearly seen. Akroyd plays Elwood as the straight man of the two, always composed and serious, while Belushi as one suspect he was in real life is the wild man getting involved in more of the slapstick. They get shot at, buried in rubble, blown up and still the laughs keep coming. Fans remember the film for a variety of set piece scenes, in fact it can be divided in to distinct sketches. Every fan will have their favourite. The mayhem in the fancy restaurant, when Jake and Elwood try and 'persuade' an ex-member of the band now working as a head waiter to re-join and the car chase through the shopping mall are tow that immediately come to mind. Personally I would pick out the scene when the Blues Brothers Band pass themselves off as a country and western band taking over a gig from the 'The Good Ol' Boys' in order to play in a 'red-neck' club. As they find their repertoire of Blues classic is not going well with the 'Cowboy' audience a point made very clear to the Brothers by the number of empty Beer bottles that rain down on them from the booing crowd. They quickly realise that they have to change their music and so improvise by starting to do wonderfully funny rendition of 'Rawhide' and 'Stand By Your Man' (unfortunately not on the soundtrack CD!) But this is only one of many magic moments throughout the film and it still makes me laugh even after dozens of viewings.

Although the famous singers are restricted to wonderful cameo performances and with each one we

get a flavour of why they are held in such high esteem by so many music fans. We also have Carrie Fisher then fresh from Star Wars success to do a fine comic turn as the Brothers mysterious stalker and small parts for John Candy and 'Laugh In' regular Henry Gibson. But the famous cameos don't stop there when you watch the film try and spot the following, Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Frank Oz, John Lee Hooker, Joe Walsh, Twiggy and a few more.

John Landis direction keeps the action flowing at quite a pace. There are lots of set piece stunts including a great car chase finale and some big explosions along the way. There are some very well choreographed musical numbers and both Belushi and Akroyd show off their singing and 'dancing' ability. To my mind this remains as Landis' best film to date.

Dan Akroyd was mainly responsible for the script (his first attempt at movie script writing), which he fills with plenty of memorable one-liners

Police officer: "Use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been approved!?"

*****

Jake: "You lied to me." Elwood: "It wasn't lies, it was just bullshit."

*****

Jake: "We're putting the band back together.

Mr Fabulous: "Forget it. No way?

Elwood: "We're on a mission from god!?

and generally provides for some very funny moments.

The Blues Brothers also gave rise to a whole cult following which meant among other things that men of a certain age could easily find a costume for a fancy dress party by simply wearing a black suit a trilby(?) hat and wearing sunglasses. Over the years members of the original film band have toured as the Blues Brothers Band, a stage show based on the film was created and even restaurants were opened named after the film.

To a younger audience some of the names might be unfamiliar
and t
he music is not what you would now consider dance but I would urge everyone to try this it is a film waiting to be re-discovered. I would defy anyone not to find the music and humour still infectious.

Many people will have come across the rather inferior sequel The Blues Brothers 2000 in which John Goodman joins Dan Akroyd in place of the late Belushi. Unfortunately John Belushi cannot be replaced and the film could not hope to capture the feel and humour of the 1980 original. If you only know the Blues Brothers from the recent movie please get to see the original and find out what all the fuss was about!

'The Blues Brothers' is a classic and I?m certain will be still be funny in another twenty years time. Recommend!

The Blues Brothers on DVD can be bought from Play.com for £8.49 delivered or on VHS from Amazon.co.uk for £5.99 (+p&p)

The Blues Brothers Soundtrack-(re-mastered) is available from Play.com for £8.99 delivered

Thanks for reading and rating this opinion.

©Mauri 2003

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