House of Blues
The Blues Brothers: 25th Anniversary EditionUniversal
“They’re not gonna catch us,” deadpans Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd), before leading state troopers on a car chase that obliterates an entire mall. “We’re on a mission from God.” While invoking the Lord’s name on behalf of a stupid endeavor is nothing new, even the Crusades didn’t cause as much mayhem as Elwood and his just-paroled brother Jake (John Belushi) in this hybrid of musical revue, demolition derby and Road Runner cartoon. But, 25 years on, this super-sized DVD, complete with a making-of doc and two cuts of the film, is essential owning both as an homage to passed legends and as the first—but sadly, not last—SNL-born film. But don’t blame this for A Night at the Roxbury’s sins.
The plot, such as it is, concerns Jake and Elwood’s attempt to reunite their R&B band and raise $5,000 to save the orphanage where they were raised. But all this is merely an excuse for a series of set pieces featuring the late John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway (as well as up-and-comers Aretha Franklin and James Brown), before climaxing with a beyond-ludicrous chase involving the greater Chicago area police force, the Nazi party, paratroopers and a mustachioed Steven Spielberg.
Aykroyd co-wrote the screenplay with director John Landis as a three-hour road show, but attempts to restore the movie to its original length for DVD posterity were dashed—Universal unceremoniously tossed the outtakes in 1985. This edition has an extended cut with 17 minutes not included in the original. And while that translates to 17 more minutes of property destruction and soul classics, the film’s most effective moment is its quietest: Jake tries to calm his machine-gun-toting ex (a post-Star Wars, pre-rehab Carrie Fisher) by removing his sunglasses for the first, and only, time.
