# Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

### reviewed by
Jason Bacon

    "We're on a mission from God."

While that was the catchphrase of the original film, its sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, has a new one: "The Lord works in mysterious ways." if only we could have had some sort of storyline with our movie. Anyway, Blues Brothers 2000, once again scrioted by Dan Aykroyd and John Landis(who, of course also directed ths and the first one), stars Aykroyd as Elwood J. Blues. He's released from prison 18 years after the first film, and immediately sets out to find family. He learns that both his brother Jake (the talented late John Belushi) and his stepfather Curtis (the late Cab Calloway) are now deceased from Mother Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman). Not only does she still whack him when he misbehaves, but she asks him to mentor Buster (J. Evan Bonifant), ten-year-orphan. Elwood is reluctant, but agrees to anyway. Soon, he meets Mighty Mack (John Goodman), a bartender at the strip club his former drummer owns. Elwood seeks to, like in the original film, put the band back together, but is pursued by his stepfather's illegitamate son Cabel Chamberlain (Joe Morton), the no-nonsense commander of the Illinois police, a right-wing militia group, and the Chicago affiliate of the Moscow mafia. This all culminates in a "Battle of The Bands" contest held in New Orleans at a voodoo queen's (R+B star Erykah Badu) mansion between The Blues Brothers Band and The Louisiana Gator Boys (B.B King, Eric Clapton, the list goes on and on.). In between what should be a plot is instead wonderful musical production numbers (634-5879 by Wilson Pickett and Eddie Flyod, Turn On Your Love Light, R-E-S-P-E-C-T by Aretha Franklin, Maybe I'm Wrong by Blues Traveler, and many, many more).All in all, even though this sequel didn't have the plot or comedy of its predecessor (and NO ENDING?!), the music makes one forget about the film's many shortcomings. Nowhere near as good as the first, but the music, choreography (especially by Bonifant!), and songs make up for that. Ultimately, Blues Brothers 2000, while nothing like the first film, is a car-crashing, toe-tapping classic that is a wonderful follow-up and a unique, hilarious, and outrageously wonderful cult classic.

                            BLUES BROTHERS 2000
                      MPAA CLASSIFICATION: PG-13
                            RATING: *** (out of four)
                            RUNNING TIME: 125 min.

    (c) 1998 MSTFAN Productions

                                            Jason Bacon
                                            bacon4@bellsouth.net

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