Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrright well its a new year, its 2014, and I thought I would start off by saying a happy new year to everyone out there. So as this first post of the year I've decided to go fer a movie and this one goes back to 1980 as its the musical comedy, The Blues Brothers. So let's get the shades and the hats on, and give it a look....
So the film begins with "Joliet" Jakes Blues (John Belushi) being released from prison having served a three year sentence for armed robbery. Jake is picked up outside the prison by his brother, Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) in a battered police car, which is their Blues mobile. Shortly after they stop off and visit their former childhood home, an orphange where they meet with Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman) who tells them that the orphanage is due to close down unless they pay a property tax of $5,000. Jake says they can get they money quickly, however the Sister refuses to accept any money they would rip off from anyone, and she chastises them when they start cursing and tells them to get out and not come back until they redeem themselves. They then meet with Curtis (Cab Calloway) who also helps out at the home and has known the brothers since their childhood, and he tells them to go to church. And they both reluctantly go to an evangelical church where Jake has a revelation that they can get the money they need by getting their back together.
Elwood afterward that night is pulled over by the police for failing to stop at a red signal, and the two police troopers check his licence and see that it is currently suspended and when they officers ask him to step out the car, he speeds off. Elwood then in an effort to escape the police crashes through a shopping mall and eventually shakes them off and arrives at his temporary abode, which is a broken down motel, when all of a sudden a mysterious woman (Carrie Fisher) fires a rocket launcher at them both and drives off, they both survive unscathed and enter the hotel. The next morning the woman comes back and sets off explosives which destroy the building but again the brothers are left not injured they simply leave to locate their band members. And enroute they stop off at different places to recruit the band, which includes Trombonist, Tom "Bones" Malone, the drummer Willie "Too Big" Hall, rythyhm guitarist Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn, trumpeter Alan Rubin, "Blue Lou" Marina the saxophinist, and lastly Matt "Murph" Murphy the lead guitarist.
However as they progress they begin to make more enemies, not just the police, but also a group of Illinois Nazis, and they play in a country bar, posing as the country and western group "The Good Ole Boys" only to be confronted by them when they leave and they drive off leaving the owner Bob without paying the beer tab. Next up Jake and Elwood meet up with Maurie Sline (Steve Lawrence) their old booking agent and they manage to persuade him to book a gig for them at the Palace Hotel ballroom, near Chicago. However as the brothers go around the city advertising the gig, they run out of gas and they eventually get there late and perform their set, after a slow start they win over the audience. But the venue is also filled with police officers waiting to arrest Jake and Elwood and during their set the two of them dance off the stage, where a record producer waits for them and offers them a recording contract deal and $10,000 upfront, which they accept as it will be more than enough to pay the debt for the orphanage, and they both leave quietly, leaving the band to play on. And from here Jake and Elwood have a massive challenge ahead of them in trying to get to the Cook county assessor's office to hand in the money as they chased by the Illinois Nazis, the Good Ole Boys, and dozens of police cars in an effort to apprehend them.....
The Blues Brothers still to this day is a very entertaining comedy and for me is one of the very few musical comedies that works really well and the tracks don't annoy or interfere with the pacing of the film, but its also helped by the fact the choice of blues song are excellent. The characters themselves originally appeared in the Saturday night live show as a musical sketch. The film itself wasn't a huge commercial success on its release although it was critically well received and later gained a cult following, especially when it was released on VHS video. It was also up to that point in time one of the most expensive films ever made as well as the budget was in excess of 30 million dollars, which is certainly shown in the film's hectic car chase scenes where Elwood wrecks a shopping mall and where an army of police and military hunt down the brothers toward the end of the film. However part of this cost was also attributed to Belushi's partying and drug abuse, which caused significant delays in filming when the actor would spend hours partying and on cocaine, resulting in many hours and days wasted in the schedule.
Performance wise The Blues Brothers is pretty good, with the late John Belushi providing his career defining role as Joliet Jake Blues, the charismatic conman, who get's his band back together to help raise the money to save the orphanage. Belushi has plenty of good lines and highlights in the film, such as the scene where Jake and Elwood dine at a fancy restaurant where Mr Big, the trumpeter is the maitre'd who they try to recruit for the band. And Jake turns to the table next to their as he spies a wealthy family and he teases the father by saying "How much for the little girl? How much for your children! Sell me you're daughters!". Also in the scene where they arrive at the orphanage at the beginning and Elwood says to him "You told the penguin the day you got out you would visit her" and Jake says "Yeah, so I lied to her" and Elwood says "You can't lie to a nun. We gotta go in there and visit the penguin." and Jake defiantly says "No fucking way!". Another funny moment is where they play at Bob's country bunker and after the audience boo them for playing their blues set, they are forced to play "Rawhide" and Jake crosses him arms in a huff, but soon finds a whip and casually sings the Rawhide chorus with Elwood and uses the whip and accidentally whips the cigarette out a girl's mouth! And another funny scene is where he finally faces Carrie Fisher's character, who was a bride he jilted at the altar in the muddy tunnel after they leave the Palace Hotel ballroom gig, and he tells her "It wasn't my fault. I had a flat tyre, my car ran out of gas, there was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! Look it wasn't my fault I swear to GOD!!!". And he takes off his shades for the first time in the film and woos Carrie into kissing her and he casually drops her into the mud and says to Elwood "Let's go!". And one of my favourite lines from Belushi is when he is at the gospel church and James Brown asks him "Do you see the light?!" as a holy light bathes the church and covers Jake and he remembers the band and he says "YES! YES! JESUS H. TAPDANCING CHRIST I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!!!". Belushi later on sadly died only aged 32 from a drug overdose.
Dan Ayrkroyd is also excellent as Elwood Blues, Jake's cool headed brother who get's Jake into a heap load of trouble by getting the entire Chicago police force on their asses, after failing to stop at a red light and also for trashing a shopping mall. Aykroyd shares the limelight with Belushi and he too has his share of highlights such as the scene where he spots the police tailing them and he and Jake share a brief but classic exchange:
Elwood: Shit!
Jake: What?
Elwood: Rollers!
Jake: No!
Elwood: Yeah!
Jake: Shit!
Also during the sequence where they advertised the Palace Hotel ballroom gig whilst driving out in their car and he says over a megaphone, which is strapped to the hood of their car "You on the motorcycle! You two girls! Tell your friends!". Aykroyd also has a nice double act moment with Belushi when they enter the restaurant where Mr Big works, and they eat expensive food and as Elwood drinks his champange he sips it noisly and they throw food into each other's mouths! And in the scene where they are chased by the police troopers and they go into a shopping mall car park and Jake says "You got us into this parking lot, pal, you get us out!" and Elwood says "You want out of this parking lot?? OK!" and he proceeds to crash the car through a toy store in the mall! Another funny moment is when Elwood tells a sceptical Jake that he traded the old Bluesmobile "for a microphone" and convinces Jake that his police car would make the perfect Blues mobile as he ramps it up over a gap of a drawbridge and he says "Its gotta cop engine, cop shocks, it was a model that was made before catalytic converters so it will run on regular gas. Would do you say is it the new Bluesmobile or what?". And when he goes to the address of a lead on two of the bandmembers, the woman who owns the boarding house asks them "Are you the police?" and Elwood says "No ma'am, we're musicians". Dan also has a funny line after so many attempts on their life by the mystery woman, where she confronts them in the muddy tunnel he finally asks Jake "Who IS that girl???". And Akryoyd's most memorable line in the film is the one he uses the most when he says to the band members as he recruits them "We're on a mission from God!" and my favourite probably is "its 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark and we're wearing sun glasses".
And in addition to the various musicians in the film, which I will get to I will also mention a few of the supporting performers such as John Candy, who provides a good performance as Elwood's parole officer, Burton Mercer. And he has a good scene where he is in the police troopers car and they crash into a moving truck, and he takes the radio and says to them "This is car 55. We're in a truck!". And in the scene where the police officers arrive at the Palace Hotel ballroom, he says "Wait a minute! I want to hear these boys sing!". Carrie Fisher also puts in an amusing performance as Jake's crazed bride to be whom he left at the altar, and her repeated attempts to kill the brothers are hilarious, which include her using a flamethrower which sets fire to and ignites a fuel tank next to the call booth Jake and Elwood are in, which sends the booth sky high! And in her last scene with Jake she explains the situation and says to Jake "And now for the good of my family, I will now kill you and your brother!". Henry Gibson is also great in his part as the leader of the Neo-Nazi party, and his best line is when he gathers his men at Wrigley Field (the false address Elwood has given) and he says "Mr Blues is gonna fuck up, and when he does, he better pray the police get to him before we do!". Charles Napier is also funny in his brief role as the leader of the Good Ole Boys, Tucker McElroy, who threatens Jake by saying "You're gonna look funny chewing on the cob with no fuckin teeth!". And lastly Twiggy, the model and singer who rose to fame in the 1980s also provides a brief but noteworthy role as a girl who stops off at the garage where Elwood and Jake are waiting for fuel to be delivered, and he chats her up, and even offers her to meet up at a nearby motel, when she considers and later on waits for Elwood at the motel, as he sighs impatiently.
As for the film's soundtrack and star musicians they provide a key part of the film's success and appeal starting with James Brown who provides a charismatic turn as the Rev. Cleophus James and a catchy number in the gospel church scene. Ray Charles also provides a good cameo as himself, as well as the owner of a music exchange store and he has a funny moment where he fires a gun near a young boy trying to sneakily grab a Fender Stratocaster off the wall, and he says "Breaks my heart, a boy that young goin bad!". And later after he plays the music number "Shake a tail feather" Jake and Elwood says they will buy some of his gear and Ray says "Naturally I will have take an IOU!". Aretha Franklin also puts in a good performance as the wife of Matt Murphy who owns a diner, as she breaks into a musical number of "Think!" but Matt walks out on her and she simply exclaims "Shit!". And John Lee Hooker provides a catchy number as he puts in a brief cameo and plays his own track "Boom boom". And last but not least Cab Calloway provides an excellent performance as Curtis and he has some good scenes, particularly his first scene where he tells Jake and Elwood about their light with the orphanage, and Jake says "They wouldn't turn you out would they??" and Curtis says "Shit! What's one more old nigger to the board of education!". And he also provides a near show stopping performance of "Minne the Moocher" at the Palace Hotel ballroom gig where he delights the audience with his scat singing.
And lastly I will quickly mention the Blues Brothers band as they also get some good moments in the film such as Wille Hall, the band's drummer first meets with the brothers he says to Jake "So you're, you're free, you're rehabilitated? So what's happenning? What are you gonna do? You got the money you owe us, motherfucker?!". And Alan Rubin as Mr Big also has some good moments such as when he speaks to Jake and Elwood at the restaurant and says to them "Come on guys, seriously the food is really expensive. The soup is fucking ten dollars!" and later when they arrive at the Palace Hotel ballroom he says "its a fucking barn, we'll never fill it!". And Donald Dunn, the bass player also provides some funny and bizzare lines such as "We had band that could turn goat piss into gasoline!" and later "If the shit fits wear it!".
Moving onto the direction John Landis does a fine job with the film, although it was a rather turbulent production due to the problems with John Belushi's drug abuse and heavy partying, which partly conrtibuted toward the film going way overbudget from $17.5 million up to £30 million, as the production schedule suffered as a result. But Landis nonetheless handles the film's comedy and musical sequences very well. The film's soundtrack is also terrific as you would expect for a blues musical, and there many tracks from different artists such as Aretha Franklin's "Think", Sam and Dave's "Hold on, I'm coming", "Shake a tailfather" featuring Ray Charles, "Peter Gunn Theme" performed by the Blues Brother's band. As well as tracks performed by the band and sung by the brothers themselves such as "Everbody needs somebody to love", "Jailhouse rock" and "Sweet home Chicago".
As for The Blues Brother's flaws does it have any at all???? Yep it does, although because the film is such a fantasy based musical comedy you can almost forgive them. But yes it has to be said the film is ridiculously preposterous and one thing that struck me right away is how the police never pulled up Elwood for driving a police car in the first place! Surely the authorities would have spotted that before he even did any speeding! Or perhaps people can just drive police cars for their own personal use in the US (well wouldn't surprise me!). The car chases themselves while they are skillfully shot they also last a bit too long and feel a bit drawn out and its only really where the Blues Brothers trash the shopping mall that adds any new dimension to something that is mundane as can be in a film anyway, as car chase scenes tend to be pretty boring. And let's not forget about how daft and how much Elwood's driving skills are as he can defy the laws of gravity by making his car do a backflip and fly over a bridge as well as jump a big gap in a drawbridge. Its fun but it really is pretty daft. I also wondered what happened with the band at the end of the film as they perform the "Jailhouse rock" number, are they prisoners aswell? Or did they just dress up in prison clothes for the number??? Perhaps the band are held as accomplices to what the brothers are doing, but that's hardly right as they were kept largely in the dark about what they were brought back together for in the first place. But again it is a comedy so logic and common sense go out the window I guess.
Right so that's it for my look at The Blues Brothers, which is still a very entertaining comedy with a great soundtrack.
And with that I shall leave you there.
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