The Blues Brothers R
The slew of Saturday Night Live adaptations to the screen would not be complete without the classic 1980s movies where the SNL cast got to act completely insane and decimate culture as they knew it. Dan Akroyd and the late John Belushi play 'brothers' who are reunited after the wild younger brother gets out of jail and wants to help his older brother raise the money to pay off the mortgage on the orphanage they were raised in. Taking place in and around Chicago, the characters reunite an old blues band, which for some reason includes pasty white leads, the brothers, who trade racial barbs with the likes of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin as though it happens every day. The outlandish road trip turned gig includes some of the funniest action chase sequences ever filmed. They drive around in a used cop car. Thirty cop cars chase them all over town. An insane ex girlfriend of the short brother, Carrie Fisher, uses several huge weapons to try and dispatch them, including a rocket launcher. This movie could literally not be filmed today. Smokey and the Bandit meets American Bandstand. But they're on a mission from God!
Review by Adam Browne
Agreed. This was an awesome movie. The idea of these two pasty white guys, doing essentially Laurel and Hardy, really classic stuff, crossed with blues musicals, madcap chases, a 'mission from God' to save the orphanage, and a cast of characters who clearly are there to have a good old time. It's one of the classic American road movies and probably the best SNL sketch ever adapted to the screen.
ReplyDeleteLike Steve Martin in 'The Jerk' the characters infiltrate the blues culture and make a mockery of stereotypes that is nicely refreshing. It cannot be duplicated today. Some old grum;ps might object to the chase scenes and destruction of stuff, but like Animal House, it tends to not really hurt anyone.
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