1980’s The Blues Brothers is an undisputed primary — but Blues Brothers 2000, its belated 1998 sequel? Effectively, that’s a undeniable tale altogether.
Launched 25 years ago, some 18 years after the distinctive, series star, co-creator and co-creator Dan Aykroyd threw everything at the wall in an strive to proceed the legacy, both cinematic and musical, of his first extensive-display hide hide outing with his Saturday Night Live partner John Belushi.
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Alternatively, the final consequence left audiences wishing he’d left successfully enough alone. As an different of the slick-wintry vibes of director John Landis’s first film, Blues Brothers 2000’s misplaced, foolish humour left viewers with a creeping case of the blues.
So what went scandalous?
Wanting abet, possibly it used to be a sufferer of an abundance of expectations following a movie that plot the bar somewhat excessive. Co-written by Landis and Aykroyd, The Blues Brothers stumbled on Jake (Elwood) reunited with his brother Elwood (Aykroyd) following a stint in Joliet penal complex.
After receiving a imaginative and prescient from the afterlife, Jake’s lifestyles plan is revealed, surroundings these musical siblings on a mission from God to reform their band and elevate enough money to connect the orphanage that housed them as blues-loving youngsters. What follows is an insane avenue outing the put Jake and Elwood spherical up their former bandmates while enraging Illinois Nazis, evading Jake’s bazooka-wielding ex, pissing off a bluegrass band and attracting the consideration of nearly about all of The US’s law enforcement officers.
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Then there’s its undersung cultural impact. No topic being fronted by two white male leads who showcased tune created by dim musicians, a ingredient that later resulted in accusations of cultural appropriation, Akyroyd, Belushi and Landis made definite that everything they did used to be powered by a love and admire for the blues — and its originators.
“Southern cinemas didn’t would like to display hide hide the film thanks to the African American artists,” revealed Aykroyd at some level of a 2020 interview celebrating The Blues Brothers’ 40th anniversary, “but when it was a success they unfolded and participants bought to witness it. It acts as cultural preservation.”
He persisted, adding: “We made definite the writers of the discipline fabric kept their publishing rights. John and I took performers’ rights only. Every such a songs we recorded remunerated the distinctive artists 100% resulting from album gross sales. It used to be an ethical resolution and the songwriters today time and their estates absorb benefitted from it.”
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Landis echoed the sentiment: “The Blues Brothers is a testomony to John and Dan’s passion for the blues. They took top doubtless thing about their principal person to focal level consideration on soul tune. I’m contented with it.”
Meanwhile, followers had nearly two decades to soak all of it up; years spent finding out Jake and Elwood’s dialogue verbatim, rewatching key scenes and binging its hit-stuffed accompanying soundtrack. By the level a sequel at remaining materialised in 1998, there used to be a actually excessive chance that nothing it’ll create would possibly match what it had already carried out.
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For essentially the most section, these expectations were situation on. Wanting abet at Blues Brothers 2000 because it turns 25 and its legacy is no longer only as a sub-par apply-up but one which on a accepted foundation seems on lists of the worst sequels ever.
If we’re being form, it’s no longer all defective.
Landis returns to acquire Elwood’s tale 18 years after the occasions of the first movie, correct as he’s launched from his stint in Joilett — a sentence that Jake sadly didn’t fabricate it thru. Undeterred, he sets about reuniting the former band as soon as extra, this time with a number of original people alongside side John Goodman as original vocalist “Mighty” Mack McTeer and child Buster Blues (J. Evan Bonifant).
Collectively, they raze no time replicating the manic, hot-pursuit fable of the first movie, with a complete lot of musical cameos taking medicines at some level of. It’s this home the put the film largely succeeds, with appetizing encore performances from Aretha Franklin and James Brown, and original musical numbers from the likes of Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett inhabiting the same vibe because the distinctive.
Alternatively, when it comes to the film’s humour, issues aren’t as toe-tappingly mountainous. While section one flirted with the ridiculous (can the Bluesmobile actually soar that bridge?), Blues Brothers 2000 fully embraced the goofy, full with a range of sequences which would be difficult to forgive.
Would Elwood actually be so terrified about being seen with out his shades on that he’d resort to covering his eyes when they’re removed? Is plastering your total head with shaving foam and claiming you’re having a defective reaction to treatment enough to permit you to outsmart the police?
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The cartoonish nature of this slow sequel is so amped-up that at one level, Elwood and his newly-reformed band obtain magically transformed into statues by an former voodoo witch and we’re expected to head alongside for the wander. It used to be at this level that most viewers potentially hung up their hat and shades for correct.
Looking out back, possibly Blues Brothers 2000’s staunch legacy is to attend as a stark warning for our most standard legacy-sequel-hungry movie audiences to be cautious what they need for.
Fan love for pop-tradition properties or particular sets of characters can with out a doubt be strong enough to suffer the ages — but incessantly it’s only to leave some classics undisturbed in the past.
Blues Brothers 2000 is on hand to rent or collect on PVOD.
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