Netflix Free Trial 
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Take 2 crazy guys, a lot of cars crashing, too much dancing and music and put in the mix some amazing musicians with some superb music. This is The Blues Brothers.
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.
Would you like to talk about it?
While these reviews represent our personal opinions, we welcome your views and reviews. So take a minute to leave a comment to let everyone know what you thought of this movie/tv show.
Please feel free to comment and thank you in advance for joining the conversation. (PS: the links are "dofollow" too.)
This is one of my favourites. I love Dan Aykroyd and after seeing this I loved John Belushi too.
One of my favourite quotes – ”
It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.”
=D
Yes, Olly! That’s a great quote.
There are so many weak movies based on musicians and some sort of reason to “get the old band together,” but this one came before all of them. It’s a great story with some excellent acting to boot.