Car crash chaos, and toe-tapping rhythm and blues, all feature in The Blues Brothers, a men-on-a-mission movie filled with memorable gags and a surprising religious heart to its grungy streetwise exterior.
The Blues Brothers follows the exploits of tall and lanky Ellwood (Dan Aykroyd), and short and scruffy Jake (John Belushi), two brothers from Chicago who lead a life of petty crime and love classic rhythm and blues to such a degree that they have their own band.
When Jake completes his prison term for armed robbery, both he and Ellwood are saddened to learn that their Catholic orphanage will be demolished unless an exorbitant tax bill is paid. Quickly this news becomes a “mission from God”, when the Almighty himself gives it his divine blessing and a clear instruction: get the band back together.
As directed by John Landis, what follows is a series of misadventures and musical numbers, as the Blues Brothers make their way to a large concert where the proceeds will save the orphanage. Landis blends the films’ diverse elements – musical, comedy, action adventure – to make for a unique and non-stop entertaining multi-genre showcase. Both Aykroyd and Belushi are fantastic, taking these characters that they created for legendary sketch TV show Saturday Night Live, and transition them into iconic movie characters.
