Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)Director: John Landis
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, J. Evan Bonifant, Joe Mortin, Kathleen Freeman and a who's who of rhythm and blues music
Kate and I went on a 20km bush walk with a group of her friends this morning. We got home after lunch with only a couple of hours before we had to leave for an afternoon tea we had to go to, and needed to recover. I flicked on the TV and Blues Brothers 2000 had just started. I'd seen it before so I knew what I was in for, but I was tired, needed not to think and fancied hearing some good music, so I persevered.
Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) is finally released from prison. After the passing of his brother Jake he is now the sole Blues Brother. He returns to the orphanage where he grew up and is enlisted by Mother Mary Stigmata (Freeman) in her mission to raise funds for the children's hospital. She also asks him to mentor a troubled young orphan, Buster (Bonifant). Elwood and Buster set about getting the band back together, with the aim of collecting the big cash prize at the battle of the bands. While gathering old faces Elwood enlists the services of Mighty Mac McTeer (Goodman), a bartender at a strip club run by Blues Brothers drummer Willie Hall (as himself), as their new vocalist. But of course, they can't help but get themselves in trouble along the way and before you know it they have the state police, the Russian mafia and a right-wing militia group on their tails.
One word review of Blues Brothers 2000: Dreadful. Now for some clarification.
The film seems determined to tell the same story. In the original the film begins with Jake being released from prison, being picked up by Elwood and taken to the convent school where they decide to get the band back together to raise the money required to keep the orphanage they grew up in open. Blues Brothers 2000 begins with Elwood being released from prison, heading to the convent where the same nun enlists his help to raise funds for a children's hospital. His solution: get the band back together. The neo-Nazis from the first film are replaced by the Russian mafia, the visit to a negro church is replaced with a stop off at a revival meeting out of town, the classic roadhouse performance from the first film is replaced with a performance at a redneck monster truck rally where they are once again mistaken for being a bluegrass band and have to improvise (this time with 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' rather than 'Rawhide'), and the car chase with a massive pile up is replaced by another car chase with a massive pile up. This film seems to have tried so hard to recreate the tone of the first that it has failed miserably.
You see that a fair bit in sequels, and it is part of the reason that sequels are rarely as good as the original. In the case of the original there is a unique set of circumstances which create a certain tone and feel in a film. Come time for the sequel, the effort of the filmmakers goes into recreating that tone and feel. It becomes a much more self conscious act of imitation that leaves you with a film which lacks the life of the original, feeling not so much like a continuation as an effort to do it again. You definitely see this in something like The Pirates of the Caribbean (after the whole Jack Sparrow thing took them by surprise the sequels became all about featuring that zany character and as a result it felt less natural and more forced) and you see it in Blues Brothers 2000. The Blues Brothers was always a bit silly, a bit tongue in cheek, a bit unbelievable, but it had a sense of fun which redeemed it. Blues Brothers 2000 is missing that fun.
There are two good things about this movie: the music and John Goodman.
Of course, The Blues Brothers was all about the music. Another feature which carried across from the original is the supporting cast of cameo appearances from an absolute who's who of the rhythm and blues world. Try some of these names on for size: Aretha Franklin, James Brown, B.B. King, Wilson Pickett, Eric Clapton, Sam Moore, Isaac Hayes, Lou Rawls, Bo Diddley, Dr. John, Grover Washington Jr., Steve Winwood and KoKo Taylor. Plus of course you have the hard-working, all-star show band The Blues Brothers featuring some very talented musicians in their own right. The music in Blues Brothers 2000 is brilliant and almost makes the film watchable. Almost.
The other redeeming feature of the film is John Goodman. Mighty Mac is effectively Jake's replacement as Elwood's singing partner. John Goodman can sing. He performed at the Oscars a couple of years ago when Randy Newman's song 'If I Didn't Have You' from Monsters Inc was nominated for an award. He is the one good addition to the sequel. He has a couple of great numbers and reinforces what a talented guy he is. John Goodman is an actor I have a lot of time for and I feel has never quite got his dues. Maybe it's a case of his size restricting the sort of parts he can land, maybe he stayed a bit too loyal to Roseanne for nine seasons.
If you loved The Blues Brothers you will find Blues Brothers 2000 a dreadful disappointment. If you hated The Blues Brothers then you would have no reason to see Blues Brothers 2000, but if you did you'd probably think it was one of the worst films you'd ever seen. As a film Blues Brothers 2000 is woeful. However as a soundtrack it is excellent. If they re-cut it as a concert movie, it'd be a classic. But they haven't.
Oh, one last comment. The film is called Blues Brothers 2000 but it was released in 1998. Why?
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