Wow, I have to take this moment to mention that we are now into the top 10 of my lists. Started back in March it’s been months of effort and time typing and thinking about movies before we now reach the last 10 movies. This is a musical by the name of ‘The Blues Brothers’ which is simply the greatest musical out there. Full stop. It has laughs and great music from some of the most iconic musicians and car chases that will just make you cry with laughter. Released in the wonderful decade of the 80’s (JUST!) in 1980. Produced by Robert K. Weiss and written by the legendary John Landis and Dan Aykroyd, directing duties when to John Landis alone. The film stars a whole list of names, but I will limit it to the following - John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, Henry Gibson, and John Candy. This movie was made on a budget of $30m it went on to make $5m in the opening weekend of its release and finally ended on a box office total of $115.2m which is a nice profit. Whether the critics liked it is a different matter with scores high but nowhere near as high as mine with IMDb giving this a 7.9 out of 10 whilst Rotten Tomatoes was typically a little more generous with a score of 84%. For me I couldn’t give it less than a 97%. So, there is a story in there so I will do my best to try and explain it.
Jake Blues is released from prison and collected by his brother Elwood in the blues mobile, a battered former police car. Jake is not impressed until Elwood points out the abilities of the car by jumping over a drawbridge. Elwood reminds Jake that he promised to visit the Roman Catholic orphanage once released although he readily admits that he lied and has no intention of going there. Elwood takes the high road and points out you cannot lie to a penguin. So, they go and visit Sister Mary Stigmata who tells them that unless $5000 in property taxes are paid the church and orphanage will have to close. She will not accept their dirty money, so they decide to accept their mission from god and bring their former band back together to play a gig that will raise the $5k to rescue the church. Whilst brining the band back together and booking a hall then promoting the gig also, they manage to upset so many people that they end up with a host of groups chasing them across Illinois. Including the police, a viral band, and the Nazi Party along with a random woman who appears to be trying to kill Jake. Will they get the gig booked, will they manage to get to the show and if so, how are they going to get back from the show to be able to pay the taxes of the church before the deadline of closure.
Well, what can I say about this movie? It is simply the greatest musical comedy out there. There are some truly stupid parts too it which just makes its funnier, like their home being Bazooka-ed, leaving a pile of rubble that they dust themselves off and walk away from. The car falling off a bridge and then falls forever before getting anywhere close to the ground. The car crashes and car crashes are just hysterical. With the music to back this up is just utterly amazing movie. Everyone will love at least one of John Landis’ movie I will put a list of movies below at some point which will back this up, but you will at least like one piece of his work. Somewhere down the line. Also, with one of John’s movies he will (like many other directors or even studio’s as well now) leave a little easter egg or a stamp of ‘I made this!’ in nearly everything he directs and for those that don’t know it’s the four words of - ‘See You Next Wednesday’. Often posters for other movies or on billboards or just somewhere in the background of the shots so you can go and look for yourself now. It in this one as a film poster that the good old boys crash through with a giant gorilla on it. These are normally posters in the film itself or its in the background somewhere. It appears in Schlock, The Kentucky Fried Movie, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Coming Soon, Twilight Zone (the movie), Spies Like Us, Into the Night, and Coming to America. It was in the tv series dream on which he directed and in the two Michael Jackson videos he directed as well (Thriller, and just for a second in the Black and White video). Now you know don’t cheat but try and spot them for yourself. I may give you a clue if the movies are reviewed on this list. Anyway, enough waffle I’ve mentioned the music but how about the list of musicians used in this movie include – James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Matt Murphy, Aretha Franklin, James Lee Hooker, Steve ‘The Colonel’ Cropper, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, Murphy ‘Murph’ Dunn, Tom ‘Bones’ Malone, ‘Blue Lou’ Marini, Alan ‘Mr Fabulous’ Rubin, Chaka Khan, and Joe Walsh. If that wasn’t enough there is a host of names with cameo’s in this movie including Frank Oz and Steven Spielberg in an acting role, Paul Reubens (Peewee Herman to you), did I mention Carrie Fisher and Twiggy yet already? Kathleen Freeman, Steve Lawrence, Jeff Morris, Charles Napier, Steven Williams, and Armand Cerami. With this many names its extremely easy for the story and the actual substance of the film to be lost but this just rolls with it and it does so to perfection. It’s at this point I would say if you haven’t seen it then you should, but what I am going to say is if you haven’t seen this movie what the **** is wrong with you. Go hire a copy or get it on Netflix or however you watch your movies grab a beer, wine, or soft drink a bag of popcorn and strap yourself in for a fun, rollercoaster of silly humour and great tunes. You can thank me in the comments below.
Next up is yet another 80’s movie this one is a comedy that brought some of the best comedy actors together on screen with a lady who is going to be mentioned in three of my top 9 movies, that 33% people. Who could this actress be?
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