WhenI moved to NYC in the mid 90s they had a summer movie festival at Radio City and showed Blues Brothers. Akroyd filmed an intro from the set of BB2000. The audience treated it like a concert by singing a lot of the songs and applauding after every musical number. It was awesome.
" Rollin ' , rollin ' , rollin ' / keep them doggies ' rollin '/ though the river's swollen/ Rawhide !"
Cocaine 'was almost like coffee': John Landis, Dan Aykroyd talk John Belushi, frantic 'Blues Brothers' shoot as film turns 40
Easy answer is drugs as that's what killed Belushi but clearly were a large part of the first film. I find this an odd film in that it really isn't very good but is so "out there" that it works perfectly. To make a sequel was always going to be impossible!
One of the reasons was that Jim Belushi, who stepped up in the live act as brother Zee Blues wasn't available due to other commitments. And yes, he's no John and yes, comparisons would be made but Jim is a fine front man and singer for the actual band and is a fine actor himself. The original script also touches more on Elwood's grief and loss, which would be interesting to see on screen. That is actually my biggest complaint with the sequel; after learning about Jake's Death, Elwood almost immediately does a full 180 in personality and 10 minutes later he's dancing and singing in a strip club. It feels so out of character. Throughout the movie he only shows a tiny bit of grief when people acknowledge Jake's passing when they first see Elwood. John Goodman does a good job in the movie. He's always a solid hand in a comedy and he has a fairly nice singing voice. Joe Morton does fine in this movie (guy can sing as well) but his character feels stuffed in. The kid is another case of too much stuffing (and probably studio interference to make it more kid friendly, since the whole gritty tone of the original is gone as well) I like the general idea of the movie with them revisiting the same characters quite a few years later. It's just a shame that the script is just mirroring the original movie so much. Most of the scenes just mirror the original, from visiting Aretha's diner/Mercedes dealership to getting to a venue where they suddenly have to perform country music. Hack, they even have those recruit the band-skits again. Put these characters in new situations. Most of the band members aren't great actors but they sure worked in the first movie and they could have done more interesting things with them. BB2000 is a lot weaker than the first but if they did something different with the characters it wouldn't be so obvious. That being said. I am glad the movie got made. It has a few fun scenes and the soundtrack is simply great with another all-star cast of guest musicians as well as the very, very solid Blues Brothers band. A great tracklist, from the various versions of John the Revelator to BB King's How blue can you get as well as a few nice Blues Brothers covers like the one of Ghost Riders. If you hate the movie but loved the first one, you should at least check out the soundtrack of BB2000.
Is it just me or did John Landis have problems with his endings in his films? What’s with all of the car crashes as well?
The speech "Elwood" makes at the Briefcase Full of Blues show, that all applies to me. I happen to be the right age for them to have been my first significant exposure, if not my first exposure at all, to all the artists and music in the movie, and I watched it enough times at a young enough age that it was a huge influence on my musical education. A lot of my friends would never believe me if I said Paul Shaffer was a bigger part of that than, say, Chuck Berry, but he put together one hell of a band, and if the band wasn't so good the act might not have worked.
I'm not sure which film was released first in 1980 ...... Blues Brothers or Smokey and Bandit 2. So was one film trying to top the other on the destruction/damage to vehicles?
Cheap plug time for the Drive-In where I work. If you're near Albany, NY, then come up to Hathaway's Twin D.I. in Hoosick Falls for a double feature of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and THE BLUES BROTHERS starting on August 14th. A full night of tunes on the big screen. Invalid excuses not to show up: I ran out of gas! I got a flat tire! I didn’t have change for cab fare! I lost my tux at the cleaners! I locked my keys in the car! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts!
This is a movie I like but do not love. I’m not sure why as it was incredibly popular with my friends, but I’ve always been kind of middle of the road about it.
A movie with loads of fine scenes, but as a whole it's uneven and all over the place...and still that why I have a soft spot for it.... I know I contradict myself, but there we are.
James Avery (who was Uncle Phil in the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air) is one of the dancers in the Shake A Tailfeather scene
One of my all-time favorites. “Yes! Yes! I’ve seen the light! Jesus Tapdancing Christ, I’ve seen the light!”
All of the above pretty much. It suffers heavily on the sequel-itis as do a lot of comedy sequels. It rehashes so much of the first movies plot points that a lot of it isn't original plus they feel the need to force in as many of the memorable characters from the first movie as they can. Speaking of that I am surprised they didn't get Ray Charles for this given they got pretty much everyone else from the first movie who hadn't passed during the 18-year gap between movies. For me, Goodman is the best of the new Blues Brothers by far. Sure he isn't Belushi (who is) but I would take him over the possibility of them casting Jim Belushi who I know had performed with The Blues Brothers but I have just never liked him in anything and at least Goodman can be entertaining even in bad movies. As for Joe Morton he feels forced in to have a reason to have Curtis somehow tied into the story other than that he just sort of there and I find the whole scene where he ascends during the church scene and becomes a Blues Brother so stupid. I know the first movie had some stupid things but it was mainly how crazy the car stuff was it wasn't like we had magic religious powers or voodoo nonsense. As for the kid well I have no idea why they felt the need to add a kid. I doubt there was a large Blues Brothers fanbase that was young in '98 and the first movie was hardly aimed toward kids either I admittedly saw the first movie in 2001 when I was 8 but I saw a lot of movies at that age that I really shouldn't have been watching. Even though it is less gritty and vulgar than the first it's still hardly a movie for kids. I guess that really was a Universal decision.
Classic country bar scene of The Good Ole Blues Brothers Boys doing “Rawhide” and “Stand By Your Man”, which I can never again hear Tammy Wynette’s original recording without this version popping into my head and literally laughing out loud.
