Blues Brothers Collector’s Edition
Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review
By: The Dweeb
January 2004
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One of the all time American classics has finally come to the DVD format. This is definitely one of my all time favorite movies. Not because it features many parts of my home town, but because it just plain rocks. This movie has everything from musical numbers to gigantic car chase scenes, with a lot of cameos mixed in between. Rhythm and Blues and total mayhem, there’s an interesting combination for ya.
Of course, this film wouldn’t be anything without the two main actors in here. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi are probably in their greatest roles ever with Jake and Elwood Blues. They probably had no idea that these two yokels would have such a long lasting impression. It has to be those monkey suits and dark glasses. I could go on forever with all the quotes from these two, but you probably know them already. Its a damn shame John isn’t around anymore, he was one hell of a comedic actor and a somewhat accomplished musician. Until recently I didn’t know they did a national tour with the band before this movie came about.
Most people don’t consider this film as a musical, but it really is. Every other scene involves some sort of musical performance, with some sort of musical legend involved. This film opened a lot of peoples ears to blues music, including mine. Aside from the antics of Jake and Elwood, the music is the other main character in here. Some of my favorite numbers are the one with Ray Charles and Cab Calloway’s Minni the Moocher.
We also can’t talk about the Blues Brothers without talking about the Bluesmobile. Even though Elwood needs to fix the cigarette lighter, that car just keeps going and going and going. It could give the Dukes of Hazzard a run for their money. With Elwood behind the wheel, no one can stop them. After all, they are on a mission from God. The wanton destruction of property and car pile ups is just a sight to behold. I think at one point this held a record for most crashed cars in a movie.
Now, this version of the movie is a psuedo directors cut, because most of the original footage was thrown out, this was all Landis could piece together. It was the first time I have seen this version. It was nice to see some of the scenes were extended, and a few extra lines were added here and there. What bothered me was the completely new scene where Elwood quits his job. It doesn’t work well, it ruins the pacing of the film and quite frankly it was jarring to see Elwood without his suit and glasses on. At least now we finally see the gas station blow up, even John Landis couldn’t explain why that scene was cut originally.
The transfer for this film wasn’t too bad, which surprised me. Studios usually don’t take the time to clean up these older films and just slap them on DVD with warts and all. But this print isn’t too bad, there were few scratches and artifacts. They also remixed the sound track, how could you not? It’s what makes the movie. It works well for some scenes but not all of them.
On the added features side, there isn’t that much to choose from. There is the usual production notes, photos and an old trailer. The only redeeming extra is the half hour long interview featurette with many of the film primaries about how and why this movie got made. I think it might have originally been taken from the recent attempt at a sequel though, because they mention it a few times. I would have liked to see some kind of commentary track.
Because this is the only version of Blues Brothers on DVD, I’m going to have to give it a place on the ole shelf. It’s probably not the best it could be, but with this movie’s credentials its a definite shoe in.
Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!
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