director
John Landis
screenwriters
Dan Aykroyd
John Landis
producers
Dan Aykroyd
Leslie Belzberg
John Landis
cinematographer
David Herrington
music
Paul Shaffer
editor
Dale Beldin
cast
Dan Aykroyd (Elwood Blues)
John Goodman (Mighty Mack Blues)
Joe Morton (Cab Blues)
Nia Peeples (Lieutenant Elizondo)
Kathleen Freeman (Mother Mary Stigmata)
J. Evan Bonifant (Buster Blues)
plus many, many musical legends
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 123m
u.s.
release: 2/6/98
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
other john
landis films
reviewed on this website:
- beverly
hills cop III
|
I
have to confess a certain indifference to the Blues Brothers,
both on Saturday Night Live and in their first movie --
I always thought the Festrunk brothers would've made better heroes
for an SNL comedy. The first Blues Brothers, directed
by John Landis and starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, was
little more than a string of great musical numbers and endless
car wrecks; it set the stage for Hollywood blockbusters as we
know them today -- plotless, senseless, self-indulgent mayhem,
a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Blues Brothers 2000 could be described the same way, yet,
oddly, I found myself enjoying it. For one thing, it's divorced
from all the late-'70s Blues Brothers hype; it plays as an affectionate,
nostalgic tribute. And Landis, returning as director, is clearly
relieved to revisit the characters and blues greats he loves
so much. It's his most relaxed moviemaking in years, and his
knack for contrast -- between deadpan-cool comedy and impassioned
music -- works better here than it did in the original.
Aykroyd returns as Elwood Blues, who's been in prison for eighteen
years. After his release, he learns of his brother Jake's death
(in a nicely restrained scene). Neither Elwood nor the movie
wastes time mourning Jake (or John Belushi -- Aykroyd probably
felt that John would've wanted it that way). Elwood quickly gets
to work assembling his old band members, hauling along a kid
(J. Evan Bonifant) who's been dumped on him by the nun at his
old orphanage.
John Goodman is also along for the ride, as a bartender who hooks
up with Elwood and assumes the unenviable task of filling Belushi's
shoes. As a comedian, Goodman is up to the challenge (though
the script, by Aykroyd and Landis, gives him very little to do);
as a singer, he's a passionate belter who too often throws his
considerable weight into a lyric to sell it. Mostly, I wasn't
buying.
The "plot" also involves Elwood's "stepbrother"
(Joe Morton), a cop who spends most of the movie chasing the
band until he finally "gets the calling" and joins
up. Morton, whose voice puts both Aykroyd and Goodman to shame,
should have been incorporated into the band much earlier in the
film. Of course, then we wouldn't have had the traditional Landis
car pile-up -- which is admittedly funny here; the cars just
keep piling and piling until the excess becomes almost surreal.
Landis is childlike in his eagerness to get to the music scenes,
and the presence of legends energizes him. Aretha Franklin and
James Brown return, as do the hardy group of veteran players
in the Blues Brothers Band; in the climax, the boys go up against
an all-star band whose roster reads like a Who's Who in Blues.
Problem: Aykroyd and his fellow frontmen pale next to genuine
blues greats (as he and Belushi did in the original). Solution:
look behind the Brothers and concentrate on the masters backing
them up.
Blues Brothers 2000 is probably an unnecessary sequel.
Why haul the black suits and Ray-Bans out of mothballs after
18 years? Partly because John Landis needs a hit after Beverly Hills Cop III and The
Stupids. Yet the movie isn't totally opportunistic. Dan Aykroyd
has never lost his passion for the music (House of Blues is a
life project for him), and maybe he just wanted to jam with the
greats again. Older fans, though, may feel that the Blues Brothers
died with John Belushi, and they may wonder why Aykroyd doesn't
feel the same way. |