| Blues
Brothers 2000
John Landis USA
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| The image of the dude in the porkpie hat, shades, white shirt, white
socks, black tie and black suit is so engrained in popular consciousness
that many people think this has always been the standard garb for blues
musicians.
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| In fact, the outfit was dreamed up by Dan Aykroyd and John
Belushi when they first formed the Blues Brothers during their Saturday
Night Live Days in the mid-1970s. Their inspiration came from old jazz
album covers. The get-up may seem a little on the sober side but it has
its points – when you're dressed like an undertaker, the law tends to leave
you alone.
It's 18 years since the original Blues Brothers movie was unleashed on the world. The initial reception was lukewarm, but a cult quickly grew up around the movie, which grossed $80 million domestically and became an enormous worldwide hit. The stated mission – to help revive the blues – was successfully accomplished. Thanks to Aykroyd and Belushi, a new generation discovered the music of John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin et al. Although Aykroyd and director John Landis believed there was more mileage in Jake and Elwood Blues, the untimely death of John Belushi in 1982 put paid to any immediate thought of a sequel. Gradually, though, as the years passed and Aykroyd started playing with the band again, he reached a point where, as he puts it, he could "finally sit down and write the next chapter in Elwood's life." The mix is much the same as before – show-stopping musical interludes from an array of stars (everybody from James Brown and Aretha Franklin to Junior Wells, Bo Diddley and BB King) interspersed with noisey, Keystone Cop-style slapstick. The film begins with Elwood fresh out of prison. He tracks down a half-brother he never knew he had (a strait-laced Illinois cop played by a pained-looking Joe Morton), persuades burly barman Mack (John Goodman) to step into Belushi's shoes and reassembles the band. He also contrives to provoke the wrath of the local Russian mafia hoods. In no time at all, he and the rest of the musicians are roaring across America in their customised car with the cops (led by Elwood's brother) and the hoods in hot pursuit. Blues Brothers 2000 is packed full of spectacular set pieces. Most of Hollywood's best stunt drivers seem to have participated in the extraordinary demolition derby of a pile-up (the producers claim the car crash sequence, which lasts only a couple of minutes but took four months to film, is one of the biggest in movie history.) When the band play a warm-up gig in front of a yokel audience, they rechristen themselves The Bluegrass Brothers and perform a rousing version of Ghost Riders In The Sky. To accompany the music, the special effects crew cook up thunder, lightning and even huge ghostly cowboys. Despite the music and stunts, Landis insists the new fim has soul. "I think this movie has a lot more heart than the first one in that it's made by middle-aged people as opposed to kids," he claims. "We all have families now and a different take on things than we did when we were making the first film." Landis is known for packing his movies with celebrity cameos. The finale to Blues Brothers 2000 takes this tendency to mind-boggling extremes. By the time the Blues Brothers perform at Queen Mousette's Battle of the Bands, we've already heard the Louisiana Gator Boys, a huge R&B outfit comprising some of the best-known names in blues history. It's not often that you see Dr John, BB King, Eric Clapton and Isaac Hayes on the same stage. Geoffrey Macnab |
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