anselmdaniel
This review contains spoilers.The Blues Brothers is a feature length movie on a Saturday Night Live skit on two brothers leading a soul band. The movie begins following one of the brothers as one of them is released from prison and seeks to save an orphanage from being demolished. The Blues Brothers seeks to bring their band back together and undergo a tour to raise enough money. Along the way, the group has a series of adventures.The Blues Brothers is a fun and cool adventure. The movie has two great leads that propel the movie, Dan Akyroid and John Belushi. These leads are incredibly charismatic in their roles. The movie uses this to its advantage well by having these two characters have great dialogue. I was constantly entertained by listening to the comedy and watching the great sketches unfold on the screen. The movie has ridiculous and impossible scenes that become hilarious to watch. As the characters said, they are on a mission from God that seemingly grants them a pass from progressively ridiculous events. The movie is written to take the ridiculous approach to comedy and it works in this movie's favor.I was able to enjoy The Blues Brothers without watching any of the previous Saturday Night Live sketches. I would recommend this movie.
dannynoonan-55761
This movie is among my favorites. Although it may seem excessively goofy at some points (Example: The Nazis flying in the air), it still does not fail to reach comedy gold. The acting is outstanding, the cinematography is on point, and the most important thing, the soundtrack, is filled with great songs. The problem with this movie is that some parts are confusing, like the Minnie The Moocher scene. How did they change into the performance so quickly, and how did they change back? Another thing is the fact that they never met the goal established in the beginning. They never payed the taxes, so they failed at helping the orphanage. Over all, I think the movie is a very fine piece of cinema. 8/10
bankofmarquis
The Emagine Willow Creek movie theater near me runs a monthly "Secret Cinema", hosted by a local movie critic. You don't know what the film is until it starts but they alternate from a "Classic" (Citizen Kane, Singin' in the Rain) to a "Modern Classic" (Dr. Strangelove, Fargo). So this month, the "Secret Cinema" was...THE BLUES BROTHERSThis John Belushi/Dan Ackroyd (directed by John Landis) joint from 1980 has grown in stature since it's debut 37 years ago and watching it with fresh eyes on the big screen (and 37 years older than my 19 year old self) has certainly given me a different appreciation of this film.Rather than this being an "above average" comedy, with some pretty good car chases and crashes, this film holds up as an homage to the great Blues talents of the past. Ackroyd and Belushi were determined to get some of the greats on screen - and they succeeded. Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin show up and "do their thing" - and they do it well. But, for me, the highlight was seeing John Lee Hooker as a street musician and the great Cab Calloway doing "Minnie the Moocher" (hi- dee, hi-dee, hi-dee, hi), I am glad these performances have been captured for posterity.And...of course...the Blue Brothers Band is a "who's who" of Blues musicians of the time - "Blue Lou" Marini, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Matt "Guitar" Murphy were welcome sites and Ackroyd and Belushi more than held their own on the musical side of things - especially during my favorite musical number - the "Theme from Rawhide" number at the country bar.It's a good thing the music is good for the plot of this film is flimsy (at best) really just put together to get from musical number to musical number, populated with some fun cameos: John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Artie Gibson (as a Nazi!), Kathleen Freeman, Frank Oz and even Steven Spielberg all get in on the fun, trying hard to keep up with Ackroyd and Belushi in their prime.Complementing this is some of the "funnest" auto chases and crashes in movie cinema history. It is said that Director Landis has stated that this film sets the record for most cars crashed in a film - and I can believe it. Car after car after car is demolished as the Brothers complete their quest.An interesting entry in the "Secret Cinema" series. Certainly one that I wouldn't have chosen, but that's the beauty of this series - it forces me to revisit films on the big screen that I wouldn't normally check out. I can't wait for next month's entry. In the meantime, check out THE BLUES BROTHERS on line (or watch for it to show up on cable - it is there often).Letter Grade: right on the border between A-/B+8 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (OfMarquis)
