Review of Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) by Ken S — 14 Aug 2014

Sadly...they made a sequel. Part of the problem with this sequel is that the original one felt like a sequel to a movie that did not exist. It had the rounding up of the old gang, and even though we hadn't met most of them before it was written in a way where you kind of feel like you had.

This one just repeats the formula. We have to round everyone up again, but this time with just Aykroyd since Belushi had long since passed. Aykroyd was much better when Elwood said very little, as a quiet sideman to Belushi's Jake.

John Goodman does his best that he can with the role that he is given. Having a dumb kid is idiotic, and it makes no real sense in context. But the film just can't compete. It tries to bigger, but it never gets better (it topped the size of the car chase pile up from the previous film, but it wasn't nearly as much fun to watch) and it fell too far into the fantasy sometimes (like Ghost Riders in the Sky and the weird Bayou musical voodoo stuff.

..what was going on?). The film just doesn't compare to the first film, it lacks the same heart in spite of some great music. Shame Aykroyd couldn't let it lie, as he soiled the legacy of what really only worked with Belushi.