Category: Comedies - Comedy - Comedy Video - Feature Film-comedy - Pop
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DVD The Blues Brothers (Widescreen 25th Anniversary Edition)
After building up the duo's popularity through recordings and several performances on Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd--as "legendary" Chicago blues brothers Jake and Elwood Blues--took their act to the big screen in this action-packed hit from 1980. As Jake and Elwood struggle to reunite their old band and save the Chicago orphanage where they were raised, they wreak enough good-natured havoc to attract the entire Cook County police force. The result is a big-budget stunt-fest on a scale rarely attempted before or since, including extended car chases that result in the wanton destruction of shopping malls and more police cars than you can count. Along the way there's plenty of music to punctuate the action, including performances by Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, and James Brown that are guaranteed to knock you out. As played with deadpan wit by Belushi and Aykroyd, the Blues Brothers are "on a mission from God," and that gives them a kind of reckless glee that keeps the movie from losing its comedic appeal. Otherwise this might have been just a bloated marathon of mayhem that quickly wears out its welcome (which is how some critics described this film and its 1998 sequel). Keep an eye out for Steven Spielberg as the city clerk who stamps some crucial paperwork near the end of the film.--Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD The Blues Brothers (Widescreen 25th Anniversary Edition)
New Edition Garbage
Thank you to the people out there specifically rating the edition. The "new" features really do suck. Let the movie companies know you're sick of this re-issue, new edition garbage, and everyone out there keep on giving bad reviews to these crappy "new" editions. Let the weasely bean counters in accounting know that their greedy grab for a profit margin will ultimately turn consumers off from buying their products period. It's certainly given me pause when it comes to buying a new DVD.
"And God bless the United States of America!"
"The Blues Brothers" is a very interesting movie. I enjoyed it, and I can see why some people consider it a timeless classic, but it's not one of **my** timeless classics. It's too deeply flawed.
The most common criticism of this movie has always been that it relies too heavily on the car chases. And it does. They are necessary to the plot, and they could have been amusing up to a point, but Landis goes much too far with them.
This film is very ambitious in trying to do several things at once: be an SNL spinoff comedy movie, present rhythm and blues music to a new audience, and achieve some kind of epic social significance concerning life in the Chicago area. It achieves all of this, but in fits and starts.
There is too much emphasis on the car chases and other elements at the expense of the two main characters and their relationship. We never feel that they have the affection for each other that Aykroyd and Bill Murray convey between their characters in "Ghostbusters", even though Belushi was Aykroyd's best friend in real life. Perhaps the Blues' emotionally stunted childhood rendered them incapable of expressing much affection for each other, but there could still have been a few more moments like the very sweet scene where Elwood pulls the blanket up over his sleeping brother.
That scene in Elwood's tiny apartment next to the El, and the Aretha Franklin scene in the diner, touch true greatness. (Indeed, Aretha Franklin is the best actor in the movie.) Too much of the rest of the movie falls short. Economy in the storytelling is sacrificed not only to the car chases but also to the musical numbers. For example, it's no surprise that the John Lee Hooker number was shortened in the original theatrical release, given that it has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever. And the explanation for Carrie Fisher's vendetta against Jake is, in my opinion, insufficiently spectacular or funny. How much better it would have been if the Blues Brothers were supposed to perform at her nephew's birthday party and didn't show up, or if she simply didn't like their music!
I do love the ending, and the comically thrilling abruptness of the transition to the final number. Belushi's singing is wonderful, as always -- how many viewers realize that's him singing "She Caught the Katy" over Jake and Elwood driving away from the prison at the beginning? "The Blues Brothers" deserves to be a beloved classic, but it could have been a much greater film with a better-conceived script.
GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I WOULD I SHOULD GIVE IT MORE STARS BUT I CAN'T, I SHOULD GIVE IT A BILLION GAZILLION ILLION STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THIS MOVIE HAS EVER MOVIE TYPE IN IT AND MORE SO MUCH MORE! IT IS A COMEDY, ACTION, MUSICAL, MYSTERY, RELIGIUOS, AND IS FILLED WITH GREAT CAR CHASES!!! I RECOMEND TO EVERYONE WHO LOVES GREATNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Related DVD's The Blues Brothers (Widescreen 25th Anniversary Edition)
It's hard to ignore the sad and conspicuous absence of the late John Belushi, but this long-delayed sequel to 1980's The Blues Brothers still has Dan Aykroyd--as Chicago bad boy and blues rocker Elwood Blues--to keep the music alive. Once again, Elwood's trying to reunite the original Blues Brothers Band, and this time he's got a strip-joint bartender (John Goodman) and a 10-year-old orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant) joining him at center stage. Believing that Elwood has kidnapped the kid, the cops are hot on his trail as the reunited band hits the road for the Battle of the Bands in Louisiana and the All-Star Blues Jam that ends the movie in a rockin' blaze of glory. It's a shameless clone of the first film, and nobody--especially not Aykroyd or director John Landis--seems to... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Dan Aykroyd - John Goodman Director(s): John Landis DVD Release Date: Released the 04 August 1998 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Ever caught yourself wondering what exactly "Noonan" means? To avoid further embarrassment, every golfer--hack or scratch--must tee it up at Bushwood Country Club for the golf classic Caddyshack. Harold Ramis directs a who's who of 1970s and 1980s stand-up and sketch comedy: Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield battle the forces of greed, golf, and gophers in a film that has become a comedy classic.--Richard M. SeanorMore Info about this DVD Director(s): Harold Ramis DVD Release Date: Released the 04 April 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This is one of those movies that works for all the wrong reasons--disgusting, lowbrow, base humor that we are all far too sophisticated to find amusing. So, just don't tell anyone you still think it's a riot to watch John Belushi as the brutish Bluto slurp Jell-O or terrorize his less-aggressive fellow students. This crude parody of college life in the '60s spawned many imitations, but none could match the fresh-faced talent or bad taste of this huge box office success. (Remember all those toga parties in the '80s?) The first of the National Lampoon movies, this was originally released as National Lampoon's Animal House. Keep an eye out for a very young Kevin Bacon in his first credited screen appearance. --Rochelle O'GormanMore Info about this DVD Director(s): John Landis DVD Release Date: Released the 26 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humor is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from the lunkheaded Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Cleavon Little - Gene Wilder DVD Release Date: Released the 29 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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