The Blues Brothers: Classic Musical Comedy

If you're of the generation who grew up with the "Not Ready for Primetime" players, also known as the original talent on Saturday Night Live, you can appreciate this movie. Seeing the Blues Brothers on the big screen is awesome. It started as a musical skit by Dan Akroyd and John Belushi playing Elwood and Jake Blues on SNL. What a talent Belushi was. What a waste that he died so young. In the movie, which is a who's who from the R&B world, Jake has been released from the prison. He and Elwood take it upon themselves to raise $5000 to pay off the tax debt of their childhood orphanage. This becomes a "mission from God." The brothers want to reunite their band. En route to convince the various band members to rejoin Elwood and Jake, they make enemies with the Illinois State Police, as well as a group of neo-Nazis. There's also a mysterious woman (Carrie Fisher) who appears often trying to launch attacks on the brothers, unsuccessfully. The musical talent in this movie is fabulous. James Brown plays a choirmaster. Aretha Franklin sings "Think." Cab Calloway performs "Minnie the Moocher." The Blues Brothers play an array of songs, and more. Not only are you entertained by the comic antics of Akroyd and Belushi as the collect their bandmates, and the all the trouble which follows them, the soundtrack itself can stand on its own. There's a hysterical scene where the band ends up at a country western bar with a discriminating audience. They're a blues band, and they don't play C&W. Luckily they start playing the theme from "Rawhide," before they're physically assaulted for offending the clientele. "The Blues Brothers" is very silly, but highly entertaining from a musical and comedic perspective. I loved the deadpan, straight-laced Elwood Blues character, and Belushi was great as the take charge Jake Blues. It's also fun to see the many cameo appearances throughout the movies. See if you can name them all.