a5c7b9f00b Elwood must reunite the old band, with a few new members, and go on another &quot;Mission from God.&quot; Elwood, the now lone &quot;Blues Brother&quot; finally released from prison, is once again enlisted by Sister Mary Stigmata in her latest crusade to raise funds for a children&#39;s hospital. Once again hitting the road to re-unite the band and win the big prize at the New Orleans Battle of the Bands, Elwood is pursued cross-country by the cops, led by Cabel the Curtis&#39; son (and Elwood&#39;s step-brother), the Russian Mafia, and a militia group. On his new &quot;mission from God&quot; Elwood enlists the help of a young orphan, and a strip club bartender. If a sequel to the iconic 1980&#39;s film The Blues Brothers needed to be made, I would&#39;ve much rather seem John Goodman assume the role of Jake Blues, the chubby and talky half of the Blues brothers rather than watch an overlong, padded out tribute film to the group, involving the surviving half of the brothers, Elwood, desperately try to get the old band back together in an effort to keep the blues alive. There is an uncanny stench of desperation from the screenthe obligatory sequel plot takes fold and sadly consumes the iconic trail the original 1980&#39;s classic paved.<br/><br/>I recall my original review of The Blues Brothers with dread upon viewing its unnecessary sequel. I stated, &quot;there are two car chases that could very well rank in some of the best ever executed in film. Police cars topple each other, one after another, and the film knows when to start and when to end them,&quot; and conclude with, &quot;The Blues Brothers is a fun, energized comedy that starts fast and rarely lets up in terms of comedy and music. It&#39;s a Chicago classic and one of the funniest and smartest musical comedies I have yet to see.&quot; The sequel takes all the fun out of its formula and replaces it with wasted energy. There&#39;s nothing here that couldn&#39;t have been simply put on a soundtrack and left at that.<br/><br/>Dan Aykroyd reprises his roleElwood,he tries so hard to make new friendships, one of which involving a ten year old orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant), who he takes along upon learning of his rather somber roots at the orphanage Jake and Elwood were raised in and saved from being demolished in the original film. He learns that Buster has a talent for playing the harmonica and gives him a slick suit and shades to join in the revival band. Elwood also recruits Mack McTeer (played by John Goodman), a bartender from a new strip club he has just found out about, and Cab (Joe Morton), the illegitimate son of an old friend who is initially bitter and cold towards the idea of a band but soon can not refuse.<br/><br/>One of the strongest moments is the three minute long musical rendition of Wilson Pickett&#39;s &quot;634-5789,&quot; about a phone number, when dialed, will connect the lonely caller to attractive women who will provide them with a good time. If only they saw who was really working the phone lines. For every infectious dance sequence we get, we get an endless amount of stale comedy littered with unimpressive jokes and redundant banter. The musical numbers are the saving grace here but, again, that&#39;s what soundtracks are for.<br/><br/>It&#39;s hard to say exactly where Blues Brothers 2000 goes wrong. It seems to have all the working components for a sequel to the original film. It is written by Aykroyd himself and John Landis (who again assumes the director role), two men who should know the material better than any soul, and we can see they desperately tried to work around the deaths of co-workers John Belushi, Cab Calloway, and John Candy in order to make a sequel work, and John Goodman seemsgoodanyone to proudly boast the suit and glasses, yet the pieces do not fit like they&#39;re supposed to. This is more of a tribute film rather than a direct sequel.<br/><br/>I&#39;ll end this on a rather loose comparison; if the original Blues Brothers film was Hall and Oates, then Blues Brothers 2000 is the Hall and Oates cover band that&#39;s biggest gig is open mic night down at the town pub. They may not be too painful, but hell, it just ain&#39;t the real thing.<br/><br/>Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, J. Evan Bonifant, Joe Morton, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, B. B. King. Directed by: John Landis. This movie wasn&#39;t that great of a sequel. Butfor the fun factor, its a 10! The Blues Brothers were originated out of an idea that said &#39;You know what&#39;d be fun?&#39;. And that&#39;s what it was, a fun time making a funny movie. And that&#39;s exactly what they did with The Blues Brothers 2000. There&#39;s nothing to be taken seriously, and nothing that doesn&#39;t please SOMEONE. It was fun to see how everyone &#39;grew up&#39; and how they&#39;d changed after their big show from before. 9 out of 10
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