Review of The Blues Brothers (1980) by Raji K — 10 Feb 2017

Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi star in the SNL movie the Blues Brothers. Jake Blues (Belushi) recently out of prison has one objective, get the band together. They are trying to raise 5,000 dollars to save their own catholic school. He and his brother Elwood (Aykroyd), start going across different restaurants and bars all in an effort to get the band together.

Despite some resistance from some of the former crew, they assemble.

In the process, they do nothing short of enraging cops, driving through a Nazi rally and pissing off quite a few rednecks. They also have an assassin (Carrie Fischer) trying to kill them. There are quite a few musical numbers as well. They have to put it all together and give quite a performance as they manage to fill a venue of 5,000 folks. The film shows some range with a pretty respectable action chase sequence as well.

Blues Brothers is an understated and original comedy. The film never tries to be over the top and aim for slapstick, or really any other bits. The film simply presents itself and has you determine if you find it funny or not. Some of the funniest parts for the film for me were the constant assassination attempts by Fischer that failed, and the Blues Brothers just keep on going as if nothing happened. The musical numbers are never expected, but they fit the film well and include various musicians from James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles to give the film some heart and soul. Blues Brothers is a tough film to diagnose and I respected it more for the manner at which it was presented than I did the movie itself. I can't help but wonder if I would have enjoyed this film more at the height of its popularity and when the characters were more popular on SNL. In any case Belushi is so charismatic somehow, he carries the film.

-2.10.2017.