You see, I fucking loved this movie. I don't have much more to say than that. It is delightful in just about every way. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd are perfect. The music is great. The car chases are gloriously over the top. The cameos are constant and delightful. Really, I'm having trouble coming off the high of watching that movie long enough to write anything of substance about it.
...
Ok, maybe it's been long enough now.
When talking about SNL-based feature films, we're really talking about an 8-year period with two exceptions on either end. From 1992-2000, 9 movies were released based on SNL characters. The first was a hit. The rest were not. The two outliers are 2010's MacGruber, which no one expected to work, and 1980's The Blues Brothers. In hindsight, it's hard to believe that it took 12 years after The Blues Brothers for SNL to give another sketch the movie treatment. I mean, Blues Brothers was so good [and successful] that I would've expected to see something the next year. I'm sure there's a reason for that. Perhaps it was Belushi's death in 1982.
I'm a sucker for shaggy dog stories, and it doesn't get much shaggier than The Blues Brothers. I feel like everyone involved in the movie figured this was their one shot at this and threw everything they had at it. There can't just be a car chase at the beginning. They need to drive through a fucking mall. There can't just be cameos. There needs to be every big name possible. There can't just be a final chase at the end. There needs to be the most elaborate, escalated, multi-phase chase possible. God damn this movie was a treat.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
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