Review – The Blues Brothers

I saw this movie during its original theatrical release, and at the time I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. Of course I was in my early teens back then. Upon recent re-viewing, the scenes that stood out were almost exclusively the performances by actual musicians rather than John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. The Cab Calloway fantasy performance of “Minnie the Moocher” is a high point in director John Landis’s career, and the Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles sequences are also excellent. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the picture is silly, SNL-worthy screwball comedy (especially the self-parodying car chases). I still enjoyed watching it, but 30 years ago I probably would have given it a higher rating. Mildly amusing