Amazon.com: It's hard to ignore the sad and conspicuous absence of the late John Belushi, but this long-delayed sequel to 1980's The Blues Brothers still has Dan Aykroyd--as Chicago bad boy and blues rocker Elwood Blues--to keep the music alive. Once again, Elwood's trying to reunite the original Blues Brothers Band, and this time he's got a strip-joint bartender (John Goodman) and a 10-year-old orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant) joining him at center stage. Believing that Elwood has kidnapped the kid, the cops are hot on his trail as the reunited band hits the road for the Battle of the Bands in Louisiana and the All-Star Blues Jam that ends the movie in a rockin' blaze of glory. It's a shameless clone of the first film, and nobody--especially not Aykroyd or director John Landis--seems to care that the story's not nearly as fun as the music that's used to stretch it out. Of course there's a seemingly endless parade of stunts, including a nonstop pileup of police cars that's hilariously absurd, but what really matters here--indeed, the movie's only saving grace--is the great lineup of legendary blues musicians. Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Junior Wells, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Jonny Lang, Eddie Floyd, and Blues Traveler are among the many special guests assembled for the film, and their stellar presence makes you wonder if the revived Blues Brothers shouldn't remain an obscure opening act. The collector's edition DVD includes production photos, the theatrical trailers, and a behind-the-scenes featurette about the making of the film including interviews with the principal cast. --Jeff Shannon
Great I love this movie, it's funny, the music is great & it has a great cast. The musical talent in this movie is amazing. This is a real band playing real music, no lip syncing here. If you like The Blues give it a try it's really a good movie.
The Original: 10 stars! The Sequel: 4 stars 4 stars for Effort. The best part is the speech that Elwood gives the Band when they want to quit after they run out of gas, etc. LOVE IT! 100 Stars for that speech! Very poignant. & there are alot of other fun scenes in this movie. I think that most Blues Brothers fans will enjoy this movie, but think that the original was Far superior. The worst parts: a phone-sex office scene? An excellent blues band in a strip club? Awful! I mean blues music should be fun and enjoyed, but I also feel that the roots & essence of it are highly spiritual. To me, those scenes cheapen The Music. I would also have liked it better if they "introduced" a few more lesser known Blues talents, in addition to showcasing the already famous ones. There are too many starving artists around these days, who won't sell out to the corporate ilk. Come on, Danny and John, help 'em out a little! I recently visited Memphis for a week. We went down to Beale St. on a Sat. nite, in the expectation of hearing some good live blues. Could only find ONE club that had it, an actual real live blues band, out of ALL of the clubs in that area (checked out every club in the Beale St. area - at least 25 clubs)! & the band stopped playing there at 10 PM. Everywhere else had disco, commercial retro cover/note-for-note copy rock, Rap, or "dueling pianos". & of course, there was NO live Jazz anywhere. B-O-R-I-N-G. Went to BB King's Club/restaurant: The band was playing a note-for-note cover version of "Celebration" by Kool and The Gang! It was like a Wedding band! Of course we immediately left. Shame on you, BB, and shame on you, Memphis. Doesn't Anyone care about Authentic music anymore?! Memphis advertises it's city as the "Home of The Blues"! Pathetic. & while I'm on the subject, where's The Blues music at "The House of Blues" chain/restaurants/bars, which were originally started by Danny Akroyd?? Most of them feature commercial/non-authentic-blues music. Lame. As Frank Zappa said, "Corporate Music Sucks". Right On, Frank.
Just Enjoy the Movie Leave the movie alone! All the reviews I've read so far are beating a dead horse, repeating the same thing over and over! I haven't seen this much repetition since all the reality shows! Believe it or not, despite how everyone thinks this movie is a piece of crap, this is the movie that got me into R&B. I've seen both movies and can honestly say they were both excellently done. The amount of musical talent; Aretha Franklin, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Sam Moore, B.B. King and the rest of the musical guests are at their best. Never again in history will this talent be brought together again. And the whole sequel "curse" or whatever you want to call it, is also a bunch of crap. Quite a few movies don't deserve sequels because the first movie was already bad enough and the plot so thinly transparent (Pirates of the Carribean, horror/slasher films, Elvis, etc. so on and so forth) So for the last time, leave the movie alone and go find some real crap that deserves being trashed!
Putting the band back together one more time. So what does happen after the Blues Brothers did their time dancing to the "Jailhouse Rock?" From the start this sequel starts off on a very mournful note as Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) finally gets out of prison after 18 years doing time. The world is now a very different place; brother Jake is gone, Curtis, their mentor has also passed on and the only place they called home, the beloved orphanage, has closed down. A "concerned" Mother Mary (Kathleen Freeman) with stick in hand gives Elwood the opportunity to mentor a young orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant). Elwood also learns that he does have kind of a family: Curtis' illegitimate son, Cab, (Joe Morton) works nearby...but, of all things, he's a police officer. After Elwood "borrows" some money from him, he picks up the new "Bluesmobile" with Buster in tow and is off to once again reunite the Blues Brothers Band. Along the way there comes a new partner, Mighty Mack(John Goodman) but there also follow some angry Russians and an entire police force hot on their trail. This time, the ultimate destination is a battle-of-the-bands tournament hosted by the mysterious Queen Mousette (Erykah Badu) in a Louisiana swamp as they go up against some rather stiff competition which includes the likes of B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Lou Rawls, Koko Taylor, Dr. John among others.
Granted, the storyline is considerably weaker in contrast to the first movie, and after some time, you feel like you're watching one big music video rather than a movie. What makes this one checking out is that first of all, the number of awesome blues/soul musicians present and how they play charcters integral to the story such as B.B. King, Aretha Franklin and James Brown (who both reprise their roles), Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave), Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd and of course the Blues Brothers band. All of whom are non-actors yet they do more convincing jobs at acting than some of these hack actors and actresses out there now; they don't have to try too hard yet they're still fun to watch, which is what this film is supposed to convey, I suppose.
Though it started sad, the tone gradually picks up and you can't help but be absorbed by the music. With the absence of John Belushi, who brought such unbelieveable vitality to the act, of course it is not the same, just like the saying "they sure don't make 'em like that anymore," this is proof of that: the entertainment industry saw some big downfalls especially in cinema and this one was hit pretty hard.
The other weakness of this movie is how cartoonish some of the aspects of it are, such as the 1 1/2 minute police car crash (it looks funny yet just plain silly at the same time), the Bluesmobile going underwater, etc. Much of the musical numbers are modeled after those in the first movie: Aretha now sings "Respect", James Brown, this time with Sam Moore, with a full choir lead a tent revival congregation in another uplifting, fast gospel number, and the BB band once again briefly perform in the guise of a country/western outfit. The inclusions of them are fine, but the content is what the producers and choreographers seemed to get carried away with and borderline the point of absolute oddity. To my knowledge, the Razzie award people did not even nominate this film for anything, so you know it can't be that bad.
If you are a true Blues Brothers fan, there's still much to enjoy and you'll at least appreciate it if not like it a lot.
Tight Riffs! The Plot is silly but this movie teams up the best blues & rock Musicians INTO the SAME BAND.A MUST SEE/HEAR CLIMAX CONCERT ENDING!
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