| Blues Brothers 2000 | |
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Promotional one-sheet poster. |
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| Directed by | John Landis |
| Produced by | Dan Aykroyd Leslie Belzberg John Landis |
| Written by | Dan Aykroyd John Landis |
| Starring | Dan Aykroyd John Goodman Joe Morton James Brown Aretha Franklin B. B. King |
| Music by | Paul Shaffer |
| Cinematography | David Herrington |
| Editing by | Dale Beldin |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 6, 1998 |
| Running time | 123 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $14,051,384 |
Blues Brothers 2000 is a 1998 American musical comedy film that is a sequel to the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. Directed by John Landis, the film featured Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman, with cameos by many musicians.
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Blues Brothers 2000 picks up 18 years after The Blues Brothers with Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) being released from prison, this time a rather high-tech private prison rather than the old Illinois state prison depicted in the first film. He learns that his brother Jake has died, along with their surrogate father figure Curtis (Cab Calloway), and that the orphanage the two had saved is no more.
However, Elwood is told of a second brother (of sorts). The "brother" is the illegitimate son of Curtis named Cabel "Cab" Chamberlain (Joe Morton) who, until Elwood enters his life, had no knowledge of being Curtis's son. Cab is a commander in the Illinois State Police. He angrily refuses to support Elwood, a habitual criminal, but Elwood steals his wallet and buys a used police squad car at a lot owned by Malvern Gasperone (B.B. King), who is leaving the business to move to New Orleans.
Elwood takes a job as a master of ceremonies in a nightclub owned by the drummer of the Blues Brothers band, Willie Hall. There he discovers that the bartender, Mighty Mack (played by John Goodman), has singing talent. He also gets on the bad side of the Russian mafia who have been demanding payoffs from the nightclub.
After the Russian mafia burns down the club, Elwood puts the band back together. Mighty Mack is his new partner, with a 10-year-old orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant) also tagging along. The band travels to several locations from the first film with a depiction of how they have changed. (Bob's Country Bunker for example is now Bob's Country Kitchen, a family restaurant.) As well as upsetting the mafia, Elwood also falls foul of a white power group (led by Darrell Hammond) and the Illinois police force, at least until the zealous and ruthless Cab "sees the light" and becomes a Blues Brother.
Everyone heads south to Louisiana with the intention of entering a battle of the bands held at the mansion of a voodoo practitioner named Queen Moussette (Erykah Badu). They compete against the Louisiana Gator Boys, a band fronted by Gasperone.
Cops, criminals and various others are dealt with, after which Elwood and young Buster once again hit the road.
The movie is dedicated to John Belushi, Cab Calloway, and John Candy.
The Blues Brothers BandMain article: The Blues Brothers
Musical guests
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The Louisiana Gator BoysThe Louisiana Gator Boys is a blues supergroup created for Blues Brothers 2000. They face The Blues Brothers in a battle of the bands. The band comprises:
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Following its predecessor, The Blues Brothers 2000 made a record in the Guinness Book of Records for the biggest car pile up, a record previously held by the original film. Approximately 60 cars were used in the scene after Elwood says to the band "Don't look back." Inevitably, they look back and see the massive pile-up.
The film was originally intended to include Brother Zee Blues (James Belushi). But due to an already existing television deal (Belushi had been cast in the ABC drama Total Security), Belushi was unable to appear in the film and the script was altered to include Cab Blues (Joe Morton). This character was named Cabel as an homage to Cab Calloway, who died four years prior to the film's release (his character Curtis was revealed to have died in the film along with Jake.)
The band's original keyboardist, Paul Shaffer, was committed to Gilda Radner's one-woman show on Broadway and was unable to appear in the first film. He was replaced by actor-musician Murphy Dunne. However, Shaffer appears in Blues Brothers 2000. He took a week off from Late Show with David Letterman in order to film his role as Marco, Queen Moussette's aide (Warren Zevon took his place that week on the show). During the Funky Nassau number, Marco asks to cut in on keyboards, which Murph allows. This marks the first on-screen time that the Blues Brothers Band plays with their original keyboardist.
Several cast members from the first film reprised their characters, including Frank Oz, Jeff Morris, Steve Lawrence, Kathleen Freeman, Aretha Franklin and James Brown.
The film is considered a box office flop, generating only a little over $26 million in box office sales[1] on an approximate $28 million budget.[2]
It was screened out of competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.[3]
Blues Brothers 2000 received mixed reviews, averaging a 45% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[4] Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars, saying that "The film is lame comedy surrounded by high-energy blues (and some pop, rock and country music)."[5]
A Blues Brothers 2000 video game was released for the Nintendo 64 on November 17, 2000, almost two years after the film's release. The plot of the game involves Elwood as the main character going through different chapters and levels while trying to save the kidnapped members of the band one by one.
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