Les frères Blues 2000

Blues musicians don't get much national exposure and the Blues Brothers did finally awaken some rock audiences to who these men and women were. Lord knows Chess Records tried in the late 60s and early 70s. Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf were suddenly doing albums that sounded more like rock music, they did an album together then they did albums with British rock musicians. Muddy lived long enough for the major success after those failed efforts. The Wolf did not.

Fast forward to the late 90s where the musical climate was boy bands, pop like Oasis, No Doubt, Blur, Blink 182, Spice Girls, hip hop and nu metal. This movie comes out and everyone's reaction is the same because John Belushi's been dead for years. The people who think that missed the point of the original premise.

This movie while it could have had a better story (maybe a memorial service fot Jake would've worked or an attempt by Elwood to have Jake's name ring out like Robert Johnson's? The conflict comes from trying to convince him how asinine that is. Disrespectful yes but that makes for good comedy too. That conflict might have been a funny excuse to bring all the blues musicians to rock out), it still is supposed to be about the music and more so than the original, this one is a who's who for surviving Blues musicians, most of whom are long gone now 22 years later. BB King, Lonnie Brooks, KoKo Taylor, Eddie Floyd, Charlie Musselwhite, Bo Diddley, Dr John, Aretha Franklin reprising her role, James Brown reprising his role, my personal favorite is Junior Wells (HooDoo Man is a classic) and thats to name a few. The original had John Lee Hooker briefly, Cab Calloway, James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and maybe 40 minutes of car chases and crashes like a Hal Needham movie. I dont remember the comedy duo having too many good scenes together either but thats because the point is the music. This movie gets that point and seeing those I mentioned perform is what got me watching this and kept me watching.

When "Blues Brothers 2000" came out, it got some of the worst reviews that I'd ever read (I don't remember whether this stemmed from the absence of John Belushi or not) and lasted about two weeks in the theaters. But it had a truly great soundtrack, starring just about every blues and rock 'n' roll singer alive at that time. Maybe the car pileup was ridiculous, but it was pretty funny. Overall, it was good that they didn't try to have different people play Jake and Curtis (and John Candy's character). New additions John Goodman and Joe Morton add interesting dimensions. As Dan Aykroyd reminds us several times throughout the movie: "The lord works in mysterious ways."

I have to admit that some parts of this movie were clever indeed. It was cool that they tied in the deaths of John Belushi and Cab Calloway into the movie's plot, making the characters they played dead as well. If Jim Belushi took the part of Joliet Jake, that would have been a disaster. Still, the plot of this movie could have used some serious work. For instance, in the original movie, the Blues Brothers (a) were actually brothers and (b) were on an actual "mission from God". Their goal was to make some honest money to save an orphanage from shutting down, while trying to flee from the police at the same time. The movie brought back blues legends such as Aretha Franklin and James Brown back into the spotlight, and it helped contribute to the death of disco. Eighteen years later, Jake's dead, Cab Calloway's dead, the orphanage has been shut down, so why are they being chased by the police? Because a half brother of Elwood got p***ed off at finding his real past? The kid, I must add, was a nice touch, and it was cool to see twice as many blues legends in this movie, including some new artists like Johnny Lang and Erykah Badu. But there should have been a better plot, because it seemed as though the Blues Brothers Band were going from event to event for the hell of it. Where's the plot in that? Police, leave these guys alone. The big mistake in this movie was its attempt to outdo the original movie. The music was great, and I highly recommend buying the soundtrack. However, don't expect to see a plot in this story. Otherwise, enjoy.

Dear John Landis,

I have just watched Blues Brothers 2000. I am a fan of the original movie and didn't expect much from the sequel (no offence).

It's good that you made no effort to change the plot from the first one and just rehashed the first movie. Also I was amused by the way that one of the highlights of the film was a hugh car crash with several minutes of cars flying over cars flying over cars etc (it's good to see film-making has come so far since Smokie and the Bandit!).

In fairness to you, you managed to get a lot of good artists together and a lot of good songs. So here's my suggestion for the furture - whenever Dan Akroyd wants his next career boost and asks to do a BB3 - why not just record a pile of good songs and release a CD instead?

That way I won't need to sit through another poorly plotted, overdone, messy copy of a much better film.

What a mess! Hang your head in shame (but tap your feet to the beat!)

yours sincerely,

Bob the Moo

Okay, I have read most of the reviews here for this sequel and I, like most of the people who have responded with reviews of their own, LOVED the original and John Belushi, and I really have no problem with people trashing the film, or John Goodman even, but when someone like this one dude trashes The QUEEN OF SOUL because she's gained weight over the years or because she sings one of her most famous standards. "Respect," that shows NO R-E-S-P-E-C-T at ALL. The woman is STILL the greatest singing voice of the Twentieth AND Twenty First century and it is her VOICE that is the best ever, and that song remains the most beautiful anthem of R&B, blues and soul... and to trash that destroys any credibility you had up to that point as a worthy critic of ANY kind. John Belushi, John Candy and Cab Calloway are dead and nothing can be done about that, but to say this film is totally without merit is silly and so is comparing it to the original Blues Brothers movie, which, by the way, has plotholes you could drive a CONVOY of trucks through. For instance, what the hell were the Good Ole Boys country band p****d about? Didn't they arrive AFTER THE BAR WAS CLOSED EXPECTING TO PLAY? That should have had their cabaret and union license taken away right there, and it's their OWN damn fault. And then the comments about Dan Ackroyd's bald spot. Didn'[t they guy wear a hat the whole time anyway? SO THAT'S a pretty lame critique too. Look, the music was phenomenal, the speech that Dan makes about the Russian mob is classic, inspired Dan Ackroyd writing... and the kid had some decent moves and could play the mouth harp with the best of them (assuming he really DID play the thing) and I loved the "Ghost Rider's In The Sky" rendition done by the band. So don't compare it to the original. It's an homage, for cryin' out loud, though I do wish John's brother Jim Belushi had been in it, but it had something to do with contractual stuff, I believe, anyway. The film is not gold but it's not crap either.