Review of The Blues Brothers (1980) by Jacob G — 14 Aug 2014

This thing is a helluva gem.

I'll be honest, watching it for the first time in 2014 I didn't really expect much out of it. The Blues Brothers had the same kind of fandom as, say, Ghostbusters, and that's a movie that hasn't held up much at all. (Still has value, I'm sure, as a nostalgia piece... but I don't have the nostalgia for it.).

But this! Man!

It's chock full of so much that it's hard to know even where to begin. And that chock-full-edness doesn't even overwhelm the movie like it should. Any other movie would be overwhelmed right quick.

Part of the reason The Blues Brothers succeeds is that it feels like a love letter to music. And each performance within this feels legit, from John Lee Hooker scoozing his blues on the sidewalk to The Blues Brothers rocking out with Ray Charles in a music store.

There are shades of Police Squad! humor here, though without the frenetic non-stop quality that Police Squad did.

You've even got Carrie Fisher.

Yeah. The Blues Brothers way exceeded the hype.