Reviews

Were it not for the pathetic provincialism of movie-goers from Chicago, this awful movie would rate about a 3 or 4 at most. The premise is rather lame, especially given that Belushi and Aykroyd are terrible singers--two white guys calling themselves "the Blues Brothers" is an insult to any real blues singers! The movie's plot is slap-dash, seemingly thrown together to exploit a throw-away sketch from SNL. This movie started the long trend of bad movies based on throw-away sketches from SNL. I realize it is meant as a live-action cartoon, but so many seams are left showing that suspending one's disbelief becomes a chore. Many people love this film because they can't watch it objectively. They see only their favorite comic actors from the past. It's like that Top 40 hit you loved from high school that just embarrasses you now when you hear it. I saw it when it first came out, and it was over-hyped then and hasn't aged well at all. Most professional movie critics see _The Blues Brothers_ for what it is: a mediocre star vehicle that crashes like an old Chicago police car flying out of lower Wacker Drive.

While the mystery of "what the hell is going on here" lingers through the first two or three character studies, this film soon falls apart. None of the characters are very sympathetic (most are actually quite deplorable), so one never really cares about them. And the plot is full of holes, especially in the filmmaker's poor manipulation of time. In at least three of the parts, but especially Frank's part, the characters simply don't have enough time, meaning time has been slowed down so they can make their marks.

Overall, this was a very disappointing movie. Not even the acting redeems the plot problems.