The Reel Rejects - THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

Episode Date: August 18, 2024

WE'RE ON A MISSION FROM GOD!! The Blues Brothers Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:  https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects  It's Comedy Saturday with a side of Musical as Aaron Alexander & John Humph give their FIRST TIME Reaction, Commentary, Analysis, Breakdown, & Full Movie Spoiler Review for the Classic '80s Comedy Directed by John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Kentucky Fried Movie) & Starring Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters) and John Belushi (National Lampoon's Animal House) as Brothers Jake & Elroy Blues - reunited after Jake's latest stint in prison with just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, all the while outrunning the Polce, the Army, Carrie Fisher, & MORE as they tear through Chicago. The film also features a who's who of Classic Rhythm & Blues Musicians including Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, John Lee Hooker + tons more session players & band members. Other comedic appearances include John Candy, Paul Reubens, Henry Gibson, Steven Williams, & Beyond! Aaron y Juan REACT to all the Most Hilarious Moments & Best Musical Performances including the Everybody Needs Somebody to Love Scene, Rawhide Scene, Shake a Tail Feather Scene, The Mall Chase Scene, Nazis Take a Dive Scene, Chased By the Cops Scene, Paying the Price Scene, The Blues Mobile Does a Backflip Scene, and tons more. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Then you can keep fueling up on other things like adventure, memories, vacations, daycations, quality time, and so many other possibilities. Head to your nearest Chevron station to fuel up and get rewarded today. Terms apply. See Chevron Texcores.com for more details. Aaron. You got anything else to say to the people before we sing the bloops? I'm ready for blue. Don,

I'll roll the bumper. Oh, boy. That was an experience. That was a, yeah, that was a... I'm so happy. It was a religious. experience. Seriously.

I'm so happy I do nothing going into this movie. Same. I knew not a thing. I knew that there were two guys. I knew that they wore suits and glasses and

that was literally the extent of it. Same. Same. I was thoroughly surprised and I very much enjoyed myself. This movie is so good

and it's so funny and so ridiculous. Yet it's hilarious but not in a way that is at the expense of anybody and it's just that their own stunt credit or their own like freeze for the stunts

which well deserve boy howdy yeah that's great yeah I love the music in it I loved the fact that these two brothers are just so unfazed by everything that happens over the course of the movie yeah and just the overall vibe

it breezed by that car trace Every car chasing this movie was ridiculous in the best way possible. Absolutely. I just had so much fun over the course of this two hours and 15 minutes of just pure insanity. You're madcapness. Mad capness, absurdism. And probably honestly, God music by Elmer Bernstein. On a mission from God.

Yeah. This is probably one of the hardest I've ever allowed from this channel. watching a movie there's a point where there's little tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard my face hurts for sure my face definitely hurts my face hurts I was smiling through a large majority of this movie

because I could just not get enough and yeah man this movie's great I love this awesome John what did you think I really love this too this was such a wild and special experience because yeah same it's like I knew the iconography I know Dan Akroyd

and and John Belushi, but yeah, I was not prepared for what the tone of this was going to quite be or how, I guess I don't know what else I would have expected, but at the same time, I don't really have any other touchstones to look toward for this. And I mean, I've seen other of John Landis's films, but certainly not, I don't think I've seen any that are quite in this vein. And, yeah, like, there's not a lot of stuff like this. And it certainly, I think, appealed to an absurd whimsical sensibility that I especially love

and I think you must be a big fan of as well because yeah it's like they are so steadfast in the qualities of their characters especially Jake and Elmore like they're so fixed as character it's almost kind of that it's like the anti-arch instead of them having to go through any major change it's like they remain steadfast in the face

of everything because they have a singular goal and a mission from GAD and just every it's the job of everything else in the movie to react and respond to them. And yeah like I really enjoyed the strange way in which this

had a lot of it had a lot of place to it like you really felt all the locations you really felt the vibe and just the I don't know just the air in the room of so many places that they went it feels like you're getting some

kind of you know tour of you're on like a sort of even though you're mostly just all in illinois which it looks like they shot in illinois which is cool um you know it it seems mostly like you're just going through there and yet it has this feel like you're on some kind of grand road trip of some kind yeah and uh you know you're always moving it's like oh we got to save the orphanage but then we got to put the band back together it's almost like they crashed like a whole bunch of different uh tropes together into one soup and just went from there so you Yeah, it's like, you know, the band Rise and Fall movie kind of just in our purview being our first introduction to them.

Then, yeah, it's saved the orphanage. And at some point, maybe they'll record some songs. And, you know, we got to avoid the cops and avoid the Nazis and avoid everybody. Like, everyone's coming after. Just like so much stuff. And yeah, it's like, it's got this singular goal at the center of it. And then just like so much crazy hijinks ensue throughout that. And I'm fascinated to know.

when in Hollywood visit Universal Studios Ask for Babs, I love that Yeah, like I would love to know What this looked like on paper How much of this was improvised And two like Again for it's like wacky and silly And off the walls as this is

Like there does seem to be Like almost nothing in this movie Is taken seriously Committed though all the performers are Like no one's winking too much the camera I don't think like it's clearly in the playing of these broad tones straight that makes a lot of this work but it seems like the one thing that this movie is actually taking seriously underneath the surface is music and the love of music and just like the sort of richness of you know the shared musical experience and to a degree even the culture of music and it's like you know you've got these two white dudes who are the blues brothers you know obviously not that this movie is making great amounts of commentary, but there's some comment to make on that.

And yet, you know, you go from the orphanage to the Baptist Church to the, not the deli, but, you know, like the little diner that Aretha Franklin's got and there's like a block party going on outside and, you know, you're going to all these different places with all these different musical notable figures and stuff like that and they bothered to cast all these people and to give these musical numbers.

And so, like, they did a really, nice job to my sensibility of not making that stuff a joke. Like they made the right things a joke and they found ways to let the rest of the stuff

sing. It's like there's silly stuff about the Aretha Franklin number and it's like you've got people who are eaten off to the side just completely ignoring this musical phenomenon taking place. But then sometimes they're involved

and then you've got like these random like oh Cab Calloway is singing and now they're all dressed in white and the stage is totally different and then we're going to do a reverse shot once the song is done and we're all back in the suits, you know, like there's so much silly, wacky stuff that I wonder, you know, how, to what degree it was all mapped out. But yeah, like, this is really kind of a one-of-a-kind, unique experience.

And it does, you know, make you long, it's been a long time since I've seen something that's like this wild and this unbridled and this just free to follow like a thin concept set up for a lot of sketch type scenarios and interludes and yet somehow feels like a whole movie that builds and mounts to something. It's wild. Yeah, I say this movie is an anomaly. It's so funny that we watched this because

when Greg told us we're going to be watching the movie, the Blues Brothers because I've known nothing about it and I just saw it was like, oh, it's just two guys in suits and glasses and they wear hats and presumably it has something to do with music. I wasn't, I'll be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to watching this movie,

but I was just like, all right, well, we'll watch this movie. And then just like, we get into it. And it's one of the most wild experiences I've ever had

while sitting through a film. And I think my favorite part about it, other than the ridiculous sense of humor, it's love of culture and music. And it celebrates black culture and it celebrates the history of, how like we celebrate both within like the church setting and like even even that scene it wasn't necessarily poking fun like oh look at these black people like dance in their church setting

no it was like it felt authentic in that experience and what it's like to be in like a hot church like in the south and just like they have like their big robes on and like the choir going and then like they're the uh ridiculousness or like the the the heighten flips that exactly i was going to say heightened nature of like what it's like when like people get into the zone and like they're doing their praise dancing and people doing flips because like that's like it's not that extreme but like the fact that people will just do anything during those moments of praise and worship was just so hilarious it's silly but those embellishments didn't feel like it was punching down exactly yeah and the fact that he has that spiritual moment with god like at this you know church that

is so joyous in a wash with music, you know, for his musical, you know, sort of holy vision quest. Like, yeah. And it's, it's funny because this movie came on the year in 1980. And yeah, it's so hilarious, but then we'll watch other comedies, right?

And I think, I think it's a testament to the fact that comedy is one comedy subjective overall, but like good comedy is good comedy, no matter how old the property is, whether it's something.

than like the Marx brothers or it's like the Three Stooges or it's the blues brothers, you know, like some stuff is just timeless. And then we have other comedies where, you know, they're very much of their time. As we like to say, we're like some of the stuff is very dated because they're trying to be like so, I don't even say outlandish because I think outlandish can work in a certain context like this movie. But they're trying to like push the envelope in a way that's like shocking or raunch or mean-spirited and don't get me wrong i still find some of those things funny it's just

when you have a movie like this that is funny without trying to be edgy it only enhances the experience because everybody's laughing everybody's smiling everybody's having a good time and it's not like a oh you just had to like be there to get it kind of thing like no everybody is enjoying this because this is nothing but joy these guys are trying to do a good thing and they've had some questionable ways of going about those good things but you know what we're having a good time we're going through car crashes we're living in this world that's all of the car crashes every iteration of a car crash in this movie there it I love that very early on it establishes its own rules of what reality is the fact that these guys are virtually indestructible

to any sort of adversity or or a threat that comes their way because Because they're on a mission from God. And their car is friggin' magic. The car is magic. Like, they slips into flying through the air. And they shot that stuff well. One thing my dad used to always point out watching especially older scenes involving car jumps is off and you'll see the car land. And you'll see the hood and the front end completely buckle in a way where like they'll cut and the front end is fine in the next shot.

But you know that car is on. drivable now. And like they managed to shoot this ridiculousness in ways that took your eye away from like the clear destruction unless it was the point, which obviously much of the time it is the point. But yeah, like they managed to shoot their weird little car in a way that somehow sells to you the idea that it just doesn't take on that much damage somehow. And then you get a complete like, you know, break from reality with the Nazi car that just like flies up into the air and then plummets to the ground and then the other one lands on top of it

and it just makes a complete mockery out of those characters and like it runs that spectrum because some of the stuff is funny because it's like bound to something resembling human you know earth physics and then there's stuff like that that is just like completely butt of the

joke silly and it's like you know if you're going to punch down on anybody I guess it should be Nazis yeah yeah they don't want to get punched down and who just get made to look at completely ridiculous But even that was something that I didn't expect to have be a part of this. And again, it's almost included in a way that's not all that pointed.

You know, it's not even making like a big comment other than, you know, the Nazis are out here. They won some kind of court case. And, you know, there are a bunch of people, you know, loudly and angrily protesting against them. Just sort of gives you a portrait of like, here's the Nazi party in America right now. and then, you know, proceeds to just make them another wacky, you know, a set of bumbling, you know, people chasing after the Blues Brothers. It's just taking the piss out of so many people. And then, you know, all the different, like, real angry cops who are coming at him.

And then you have this one corrections officer who's just a total dits. The John Candy character who's just, like, along for the ride. He's like a dog and he just, like, doesn't really have concern for anything. He's, like, oblivious to most stuff and just seems kind of happy to be along for the ride, whatever the ride is. He's like, let's watch. Let's sit down and see the show first, you know. This movie feels like it shouldn't work

because there's so many crazy things that happen between the cops, between the good old boys chasing them, between his girl he left at the altar chasing them, between the Nazis chasing them. The dude's showing up at random to give them a record deal and to save the movie,

to Dave X Machina the movie for you. It's like, forget about the door take and all these people we had to get, forget the fact that we somehow managed to pack this place just by riding around with our car microphone. Now this guy's come here to solve all our problems. Literally in the third act out of nowhere.

And it's just so great. It's just so fun, you know. And I don't, like, I would love to see like some sort of video as I'd study why this movie works so well. And clearly a lot of people loved it. I know it's considered a classic. I didn't even have its own show at Universal. It seems like from the end of the credits it was designed for that purpose

at least to some extent because like, oh, go check it out at university. Universal Studios. I'm sad that it's not a thing anymore that they took it out. But, man, it makes me really wish I had the opportunity to be present when it was still active. To see the Blues Brothers show. Yeah, like, a part of me is like bummed I didn't see this when I was younger, but the other part of me is so happy and grateful. I got to experience it with you, I experienced with you guys here. And just to fully witness the insanity that was on display because, yeah, it's one of those things that's like, you just have to see you to believe.

I have seen it and I still don't believe it. It's like you could you could never describe this movie properly to somebody in great detail. You would sound like a like you're going insane. Exactly. You know, and I mean, hats off too because I mean, Dan Aykroyd co-wrote this with John Landis and I'm, I'm just so, oh, and Shaka Khan's in the choir. I was going to say like the choir looked like it probably, like I bet there are a ton of additional people throughout this movie. Again, like, it's so fascinated because, like, you know, you could have one or two, but it seems like they bothered to go out of their way to, like, pack this thing with appearances and make it

like a variety show without making it obvious that that's the point of the movie, or I never saw a trailer, but, like, you know, I didn't realize that we would be in for like, oh, like, who else is going to appear? What other notable person from either just music or entertainment history is about to appear here? Who's going to be the unlikely, you know, choir leader or whoever else it might be your corrections officer or whatever and uh and yeah like from cab calaway james brown shocka con uh uh you know it's just a celebration of rmb yeah and it's like i you know rhythm and blues over over generations yeah and it manages to again because it is these these you know two white dudes at the front of it like it managed in the musical aspect to really feel like a communal

celebration of the music and these two guys just happen to be involved in the music rather than And again, not that this is going for any kind of, like, major commentary, but, you know, like, it seemed to spiritually care to kind of represent the landscape and history of the music or encapsulate that somehow across all of this in a way that. And you're in Illinois, so, you know, like Chicago certainly is a major city in America. But, you know, it seemed like we spent a lot of time in places that felt more like just authentic patches of America where some of this music, would have, you know, grown and gestated in music history, you know, God. It's a miracle that neither of us have been spoiled on this movie, like, at all. I know. I've literally known nothing about it, and I know it's considered a classic.

Yeah, and I mean, hats off to Carrie Fisher. Like, I wonder how that came about, and I love the way she played that. Like, she was so fun and such a fun, like, random thread to keep popping into the movie, a great tool for sight gags. and like there are a lot of like improv or just comedy games that are being played here because like you know her every time she shows shows up you know it's tops you know playing a game with tops what other outlandish thing is she going to have at her disposal or what other weaponry is she going to be uh you know studying next or whatever to try and you know bring hell down upon uh jake's head uh okay so steve lawrence is a singer comedian actor like like i like i'm i want to go and read all the different like like credits as to who all these different people are and I mean some of those I'm sure I mistakenly identified or you know throughout there as potential musicians or whatever when they might just be you know actors in general is Henry Gibson the dad and

walk hard that's all I want to know it's all I want to know I don't know if he is nah he must he must not be all right he was in wedding crashes though that's okay never seen that one either oh look out man you got these all to your list is there yes See, we'll see, we'll see. But yeah, like, what a cast. What an amalgam of musicians. I like that we got actual song and dance numbers. We got actual ensembles.

You know, they actually took the time to let the music sequences play out, like, real songs. Like, this seems like it would have been a fascinating movie to see in a theater and to see, you know, in that, you know, sort of, you know, just moment right when it hit, you know, to see what people would. Because I can imagine people, like, getting into it and, you know, maybe moving around, dancing a little bit. it you know i can imagine this being a very fun and communal crowd experience oh 100% you know just at the movies yeah yeah i can't i i can't even imagine like how people react at the time did they enjoy it as much as we do watching it today in 2024 were they just as blown away and like this is pure insanity did they appreciate it at the time i don't know i don't know uh americas or people's consensus with with absurdist ridiculousness of that

of the 80s. Grant, I think there's a lot of stuff that was that ridiculous. Like what? Like airplane and like, we watched Police Academy.

That was pretty ridiculous in the 80s. So, okay, yeah, I think the appetite for it was there, but I wonder how much people knew how you probably, yeah,

was going into it. You had the, definitely the rise or the, the sort of prominent rise with the spoof movie and the screwball comedy and certainly elements of absurdity, but this,

yeah, this seems like kind of a nexus point for a whole bunch of stuff. And according to Wikipedia here, Belushi and Ackroyd had created the characters for Saturday Night Live, which I didn't even realize. That's awesome. And I guess the composer, Howard

Shore, gave them the name Blues Brothers. And yeah, the Aykroyd developed the Blood Brothers backstory and character sketches in collaboration with Ron Gwynn, who was credited as a story consultant on the film. As related in the liner notes of the band's debut album,

briefcase full of blues. The brothers grew up in an orphanage, learned the blues from a janitor named Curtis and sealed their brotherhood by cutting their middle fingers with the seal string to have come from Elmore James guitar. So I guess they just, yeah, worked all this into the movie. And I got to say,

you know, and apparently Actroyd had never written a script before. Wow. And there's a documentary about the making of this. And he hadn't even read one either, apparently. So yeah, it says he put together a very detailed volume that explained the character's origins and the band members were recruited. His final

draft was 324 pages. three times longer than the standard screenplay written, not in standard screenplay format, but more like free verse. To soften the impact, Aykroyd made the joke of a thick script and had it bound with the cover of the Los Angeles Yellow Page's directory when he turned it into producer Robert Wise,

Robert K. Wise, he titled it, Return of the Blues Brothers, accredited it to Scriptatron GL-9,000. Landis was tasked with editing the script into a usable screenplay, which took about two weeks. Wowie, man. Jeez. That's funny.

That's, yeah, I bet there are tons and tons and tons of stories and trivia surrounding this. But what an experience. I would have loved it if it was called The Return of the Blues Brothers. It's just the first and only movie. That's a thing I love as well as like the random movie that's named as a sequel or clearly implying some other installments that just don't exist. Yeah, like this is a flail. Like this is a kind of movie.

this is a flavor it's like when I think of like stuff I would like to be able to make like I would love to be able to make something that feels like this that is like you know endearing and funny and lively and yet just totally WTF like what is going on right now like this is so insane and absurd and yet somehow it doesn't go off the rails like oh like I could I could go on about this like yeah this was after so many years like lots of things you know we've watched here we've heard about for a long time I've been in cold culture for a long time. And a lot of things live up to hype, but this, this just like, bold me

over. Pass. Highly yeah. Like, oh, my God, what a joy. What a, what a wild experience. And, uh, and yeah, like, I'm glad this exists. I'm glad something like this is free to exist. And I wish like,

it's funny. People often talk about like, oh, you can't make such and such a thing nowadays. And I feel like insensibility, you can make most anything now still. What you, what I think really that phrase to me means is that like nobody would pay for this nowadays you know I don't know how much this cost and part of your mind goes well how much could it cost it's just like a wacky comedy

about you know musicians but like they they went out of their way to do so much destruction and damage like they crashed so many cars they had so many extras they had so many sets to destroy they destroyed that entire mall oh my god so many cars and like I couldn't help but wonder if if they were just sitting there behind the camera going like, let's just smash a bunch of shit on the studios dime, loll. Like, let's just do what we want. What was the budget for this movie? That's a

great question. Let me see if there's any info. I bet Wikipedia will tell because, yeah, like what? Hold on, hold on. I had it Aaron. I had it. I had it. Hold on. There we go. What's the production budget on this thing? 27 and a half

million. Really? Okay. So, For that time, for inflation. For that time, 1980, I mean, that was probably a pretty handsome budget, not like a huge, huge budget, but I feel like it was probably, you know, a budget for sure. But any economics experts, feel free to correct us in the comments. Do a little trivia before we head out of here. Carrie Fisher became engaged to Dan Aykroyd during this shoot shortly after he saved her from choking by applying the Heimlich maneuver. There's a whole ass story there. John Belushi, oh goodness, disappeared while filming one of the night scenes.

Dan Aykroyd looked around and saw a single house with its lights on. He went to the house and was prepared to identify himself the movie and that they were looking for Belushi. Before he could, the homeowner looked at him, smiled and said, You're here for John Belushi, aren't you? The homeowner told them that Belushi had entered their house, asked if he could have a glass of milk in a sandwich, and then crashed on their couch. Situations like that prompted Ackroyd to effectively dub Belushi America's guest. That's great.

Dude, John Belushi, like, I've, again, only seen a handful of his performances. This being one. This is my first. It's my first time seeing him in anything else I believe so. I've seen Animal House and I've seen some older episodes of S&L. But, like, what a performer. And, you know, like, I understand he had his struggles and whatever. but like there is he is unique he is a unique presence and energy on screen and you know you see him and you assume like oh this guy's going to be a bit of a schlub and certainly there's a part of his characterizations that often include that but like we're a wiry you know energetic dude uh and uh yeah i could i don't know just given what little i know about him that fact sounds quite uh plausible some performers were not used to lip syncing to pre-recorded songs

standard procedure for movie musicals. James Brown ended up singing his number live with a recorded backing. The rest of his choir was lip syncing. John Lee Hooker's performance of boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, sorry, in the title. Oh, was recorded live at Chicago's Maxwell Street Market. Aretha Franklin's performances cut together

for many, many takes using parts where her lip syncing was actually on sync. Nice, yeah. Yeah. And then John Belushi, sorry, not Jim, was nicknamed the Black Hole because he went through hundreds of pairs of sunglasses during the production. He would do a scene and lose a pair before filming the next one.

Oh, my God. That's wild. Oh, here we go. Here's a thick boy. The following off-screen dollar amounts reflect inflation from 1979, the year of production and principal photography adjusted for 2022 when this fact ostensibly was written. Permission to film in downtown Chicago was given after John Belushi and Adachroyd offered to donate $150,000 to charity.

After filming, this comes out to $178.7-ish $1,000 in 2022, adjusted for inflation. Producers rented the Dixie Square Mall and Harvey, Illinois for the Mall Chase. It had been closed for over a year. Rumors spread that in the community, the mall was being refurbished and would be reopened after filming was complete. Universal was later sued for over $87,000, which is a, amazing. roughly $310,910 in 2022 adjusted inflation money. You get what I mean.

For failure to return the mall to its original condition, something that had never been agreed upon. After years of political wrangling, the Montgomery Ward Anchors Store and Mall power plant were demolished while the rest of the dead mall rotted. The rest of the mall was finally torn down and cleared away in 2012. Jesus Christ. Wow.

Whoa, Universal had planned a gala in Chicago for the premiere, but in 1980 in May, Universal President Ted, Ned Tannen said things threatened to get out of hand. Universal has decided instead to donate $50,000, about $178.7,000 in 2022, adjusted for inflation, to charities chiefly orphanages in Chicago. The film opened in Chicago at the Chicago Theater and 15 other Chicago area theaters and drive-ins. All the people in the concert were fans of the Blues Brothers. They had volunteered for a free concert and were promised $100,000 in cash. This comes out to $405,62138 adjusted for inflation, 2022.

When John Landis found out the film's budget was $17.6 million, he said half jokingly, I think we've spent that much already. This comes out to roughly $68,955,635,000. So roughly 70, sorry, not $1,000. 68 million. Did I say 1,000 the first time? This is great. People are going to love to listen to this.

17.5 million films budget. This comes out to, yeah, 68 million. God, 95,000, 6,000. So roughly $70 million movie. I can very much more see that. At the time, it was one of the most expensive films ever made. I can imagine that, yeah. Again, wow.

It's costing $30 million for comparison. and Steven Spielberg's contemporary film, 1941, which is apparently like a war comedy, cost $35 million, which is about $141.9 million for the time. It was rumored that Landis and Spielberg engaged in a rivalry, the goal of which was to make the more expensive film. It feels like that. It was suggested that it was amiable since they were both friends at the time and have cameos in each other's film. Coincidentally, both films featured Dan Aykroy, John Belushi, and John Candy.

Unfortunately, Spielberg ended the friendship because of a fatal accident that occurred during the filming of Twilight Zone the movie in 1983. Yep, yep, yep. That is a big black mark on John Landis's legacy. I didn't know about that. Even though John Landis was acquitted of charges in criminal court. Yeah, some children did not make it off that set due to a helicopter accident, I believe. Yeah, it was bad. B.A.D.

Got a couple spoiler cameos. After the concert, the state troopers chased the Blues Brothers back to Chicago. The scene in which several Troopers' cars crash off the highway embankment was filmed at a closed section of Illinois State Highway 53 in Palatine, Illinois.

They had trouble getting the cars to flip over when they went down the embankment, so they dug a hole in the embankment to help the cars flip over as they hit it. Nice. Singer guitarist Joe Walsh can be seen during the jailhouse rock sequence at the end. He still had long hair and a mustache at the time, and is

the first prisoner to jump up on a table and start dancing. Not bad. Heck yeah. And then, yeah, Shaka Khan's in the church choir. Frank Oz. Check in Belushi out of prison. Paul Rubens, one of the waiters. Judy Jacqueline, a waitress that Jake and Elwood meet up with Murph and the Magic Tones. John Landis is in there as well. Who's Twiggy? That's the last thing I want to know. Twiggy. Who is that? She, uh, okay, she's an English, model, actress, and singer. There we go. Dame Leslie Lawson. God damn, man. There's just so much in this. You got any final thoughts? Anything else you want to look at or say or do? Oh, no, man. That was great. I need to sit with that one. I need to tell my friends and my family to watch the Blues Brothers because that movie was incredible. And one of the best comedies I've ever seen. Oh, my God. Hold on. Agree. A world record, 103 cars were wrecked during filming. The junk man 1982 broke the record two years later wrecking 150 cars and a plane the record was held

for two decades until over 300 cars were wrecked during the filming of the Matrix reloaded Oh crap See that's the thing man It's been a while since I've seen a comedy

Go hard in the stunts department In the action department Because again like all the car chases And stuff were like Just isn't like usually an action Comedy usually goes for the comedy And skimps the action And this was like

The action certainly got Center Stage when it was time Like they were driving those cars fast. Some of those POVs are like French connection shots. Like the amount of dedication to the action here. Go back. There's one. The one that was the 200 one, the 200 one, Dan Archer with the script.

We read a little bit earlier, but that's an interesting little tidbit at the end there. Dan Aykroy's script was originally titled The Return of the Blues Brothers and was 324 pages. It was intended to be a two-part film. John Land has spent three weeks pairing the script down. Damn, and they did make another Blues Brothers movie. much later on blues brothers 2000 i think is the only one yeah um my knowledge but obviously john belushi had already passed at that point right yeah so yeah i yeah i think john goodman and some some other folks are in it um this this one's interesting the scene in which henry gibson

taunts the assembled counter protesters and leads his men in a pledge of allegiance to adolf hitler who was taken almost word for word from the california rike uh 1975 gibson introduces his nazi group as the American Socialist White People's Party, the acronym of which ASWP is diminutive of ass wipe. I was like, in the moment, I was like, there's got to be a joke in there somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. That was great. Oh, my God.

Wow. And the Blues Mobile drove under the elevated train line at 118 miles per hour. They got permission to clear the street for two 100 plus mile per hour chases. Stunt pedestrians were added after the first pass to add realism. wow buddy that's uh that's insane that's a spicy meatball we could go on all day but yeah this was this was fantastic this was hilarious crazy amounts of action and mayhem this had everything man it's had everything in a bag of chips and a coke i even cared for the romance of uh of uh jake and carrie fisher even though you know you can barely call that a romance but you know we

take what we can get all right gang that's going to do it today. Leave us your thoughts and I'll be thinking about this one and trying to talk about this one for weeks to come. Stay bluesy. Go sing some songs. Go find a place to dance or whatever and we'll catch you on the next one. Much love, people.

Mission from God.