The two brothers visit their old orphanage and find out from the penguin (mother superior) the orphanage is in danger. They owe $ 5000 in taxes, money the orphanage doesn’t have. So they decide to put their old band back together and organize and show that would allow to collect the money.

We travel in many sordid places in Chicago, Jake and Elwood are being pursued by cops, Nazis and another band, making the movie look like Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

If we strip the movie to these “bones”, then it’s not impressive at all, even if it does have its very funny side. But then, music comes in. For people who like some good soul / boogie / blues music, this is a delight.

Aretha Franklin is part of the cast, as owning a South Side soul food restaurant. James Brown is a preacher and there’s an amazing gospel scene, with dancing and everything. We have late John Lee Hooker performing in the street, the entire movie has an amazing soundtrack and all these musicians really bring it to another level.

It’s a “dated” movie, that’s for sure, if we think it’s been created 30 years ago. The 2 main heroes are funny and the rest of the musical cast is simply outstanding. A must see movie, especially if you enjoy that music.

Steven Spielberg is known for some pretty successful movies and this one, at least in my opinion, deserved those 6 Oscar nominations. But let’s try and recall some of the “action” and maybe see clearly what made this movie such a great experience for me.

We’re taken back in time to the World War II. Instead of seeing the war in Europe as we might be used to (at least from another Spilberg movie perspective), we travel even further, to Shanghai. Japan invaded China and the war is more real than ever.

A small smart and still “bratty” boy, Jim Graham (Christian Bale) is more interested in planes and his normal child activities than the tragedy hitting their family. While trying to flee the country, his British parents are separated from the kid. He is now alone, in a crazed crowd, learning to survive. Living alone in their rich villa, with no one to care or feed him proves to be a task he’s able to manage pretty well.

But his life will take a stranger turn, when Jim is taken to the Soo Chow confinement camp. He is able to still keep on developing as a teenager, learn and instill optimism and dignity in the people who share his destiny. It’s amazing to see how a kid can get through all these horrors without sacrificing his passion and innocence.

There are lots of lessons to be learnt for him. Treason doesn’t come always from the clear enemies, friendship can come in the most unexpected ways and a common passion can rebuild relationships an entire war tries to destroy.

We meet John Malkovich (one of the actors I love dearly) as a not so honest person .. well, to be fair, I think he is the NORMAL man who has the normal reactions an adult would have in the given situation. He’s not a kid anymore and there are values he no longer believes in.

The movie is JUST BEAUTIFUL. Excellent directic job, at least in my opinion. A very powerful movie, maybe with an easy to foresee end, but still an amazing production. It’s been years since I first watched it and it’s been a favourite of mine for quite some time. If you haven’t seen it yet, please take it as a personal recommendation to try watch it. If you know it, then please tell me if you liked it as much as I did