Blues Brothers
Comedy Epics (which are rarely attempted) often have to achieve the tough task of keeping the laughs coming for a longer span than the usual 90 minute running time, and it is truly doubtful that such an effort would work with today’s mostly unfunny crop of movie comedians. Of course, when said Epic is also a MUSICAL Comedy (even rarer), that means that the music has to be at least very very good along with having quality humor to work right. However, with this Immortal 1980 Classic, John Landis managed to do exactly that, crafting a piece that over a two and a half hour running time never becomes slow or boring and maintains a breakneck pace all the way up to the end, thanks in large part to absolutely fantastic editing throughout the film that keeps the action, comedy, and even the musical numbers flowing seamlessly, starting off with the legendary opening establishment shots of an Illinois steel mill. It stars SNL Legends John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues, two characters that they had created on that sketch show, but there is no hand of Lorne Michaels in THIS production, as it is much much more ambitious in scope than any of the SNL spinoff movies that have come since. Belushi’s Jake is released from prison and picked up by his brother in a customized police car. After stopping off at their old orphanage and seeing that it owes tax money to the state of Illinois (big surprise), Jake has a literal epiphany from God to put their old band back together and play a show to raise the tax money to save their orphanage and thus find redemption. And off they go, reuniting the band (all musicians from the original SNL house band, coming off as likable non-actors) and managing to piss off several people along the way, enough so that they all mount their own vendettas to come after them, which in its own way makes the film arguably the greatest CHASE movie ever as well, with several A-list actors in on the hunt, including a trio of cops (led by John Candy) on their tail after an insane chase through a crowded shopping mall; a gaggle of Nazis led by Henry Gibson seeking revenge for having their legally hard fought rally disrupted by them; a redneck Country and Western band led by Charles Napier who turned up late for a gig and had The Blues Brothers Band play there instead as they team up with the asshole bar owner who felt the band drank too much of his beer; and a VERY well armed Mystery Woman (Carrie Fisher) who shows up at various points in the film with elaborate weapons to take The Brothers out, until her motivation is finally revealed towards the end. In addition, the casting piles on the cameos from several others, including Steve Lawrence, Kathleen Freeman (getting maybe the funniest scene in the movie as the old nun who raised them), 60s and 70s supermodel Twiggy, Frank Oz, Chaka Khan, Paul Reubens, Joe Walsh, and at the end of their journey, none other than Steven Spielberg himself. And as for the plethora of R&B music on hand, the movie features appearances and performances from so many legends that it basically amounts to a Black Woodstock, including James Brown, Cab Calloway (the original one hit wonder, singing that one hit, Minnie The Moocher), Ray Charles (wielding a gun to ward off robbers), Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, Pinetop Perkins, and of course The Blues Brothers Band themselves, when they finally hit the stage for their big show, they truly set the screen on fire, making one wonder how far the act could have gone (they had already had a number one Billboard album at this point) if not for Belushi’s untimely death a mere two years later. And certainly the last twenty minutes of the film, an all out police chase that has never been topped in the years since that features outstanding stunt work, is an adrenaline rush of anarchy that one usually doesn’t get in straight up action films, all combining to make this a movie for the ages that’s never been topped (certainly not by the non-Belushi sequel many years later), featuring two main characters that as a combined unit have gone beyond being iconic for their anti-authority stance, their brush everything off and move on attitude, and their too cool for words image that ensures that this movie will endure as one of the greatest classics of all time, forever…
10/10