The Blues Brothers

OK, the title here is probably disingenuous. I live in Chicago, a city that doesn't allow you residence unless it can confirm that you love "The Blues Brothers" and "The Untouchables." So this review is coming with a fair amount of cultural bias out the door. So I'm just going to drop the honest part right now and tell you flatly that this is bias. It's likely the most bias review that you'll probably ever read. Franklin singing in a famous Maxwell street diner (now defunct) but still, that's pretty Chicago right there. And, of course, if you've ever lived by the L you get the joke about the trains running past you every couple of minutes at a deafening pitch. And there's the fact that I grew up in McHenry County when it was still a rural country podunk county and they still gave us the nod. It's all Chicago, and it's all Chicago with a line up of Blues cameo's that the world has never seen before and sadly will never see again, especially as the genre has faded to near obscurity with the generations after X. There's something splendid about it. It's a comedy that has never stopped reminding me of home. I can even sit down with my wife and watch this movie in our Chicago apartment and feel a nostalgia for the Chicago that used to be, for the Maxwell Street that used to be, and I can watch it when I'm out far from home and it acts as kind of a comfort piece. And, what I've found out in my life is that the love for it is international, or at least The Blues Brothers transcended borders and has a faithful following in Germany as well. It's a movie about The Blues and about Chicago, and don't listen to the nay sayers, even our home town boy Buddy Guy will tell you that the Blues aren't an exclusively Black thing, it's not an exclusively an American thing, they are an exclusively music thing. There is a reason, after all, why people say that they "appreciate" the Blues. And I don't think anyone is in a position to argue with Buddy Guy about this. So take this however you want. It's a funny musical with better music than musicals tend to have... or it's a beloved tradition that comes with your zip code. Either way it's something that only the most jaded and cynical among us won't enjoy and love.

**Remarkable.** John Landis was inspired when he decided to direct a film like this one. In addition to bringing us the excellent music that integrates the soundtrack, it brings us high doses of very good humor and a captivating, intelligent and well-written story, based on the desire of two brothers to reunite their former R&B band, dissolved after them getting into trouble with the police, and using music to raise the money needed to maintain the Catholic orphanage where they grew up. It's a plot that seems subscribed, but considering that it's a comic and quite unpretentious film, it seems within a very acceptable level. The cast is simply outstanding and is full of famous names. Each one of them does the best they can, and the result of it all, combined, is truly positive. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd manage the two main characters with panache and enormous talent, in a way that it's really hard not to dedicate all your attention to them when they appear on the scene. I really liked the absolutely serious way they say the jokes. We can't guess what will come out of their mouths. Carrie Fisher also appears here, in a smaller but quality work. And we need to highlight the enormous contributions of a wide range of immortal names in music, such as Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and James Brown. Until near the end of the film, I really thought that the actors were very similar to them, but no. On a technical level, it's a film that looks more understated than it actually is. There's a lot of money invested there, and we can see that in the special effects and the staggering amount of cars and things that are destroyed throughout the film, as the Blues Brothers leave their trail of chaos in their wake. I got to the point of thinking that the Portuguese police would be happy if they had half the cars destroyed in the film! I also got the impression that shooting outdoors, especially in an urban environment, needed to interrupt normal traffic on the streets, which is expensive. Well, I've already mentioned the soundtrack, but it's worth stressing this point again: the film has excellent music and songs, and Jazz, Blues, R&B and Soul lovers will probably love this.