In a marketing move that has drawn my consternation, Columbia Tristar have seen fit to release The Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000 in the one dual DVD case. The Blues Brothers is available separately for a retail price of $36.95, but Blues Brothers 2000 is currently only available as a part of this set. At a retail price of $49.95, you may wish to consider paying the extra thirteen dollars for the sequel, but I would have only done so were it packaged in its own case as part of a true boxed set, rather than in a dual case. This brings me to a list of the pros and cons of buying this two-disc set:
Pros:
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| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall |  |
This review is sponsored by
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| Category | Musical | Featurette - Stories Behind
the Making of The Blues Brothers
Production Notes Web Links Cast & Crew Biographies Theatrical Trailer |
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| Rating |  |
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| Year Released | 1980 | ||
| Running Time | 141:43 Minutes | ||
| RSDL/Flipper | RSDL (89:32) |
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| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region | 2,4 | Director | John Landis |
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Distributor |
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment |
Starring | John Belushi
Dan Aykroyd James Brown Cab Calloway Ray Charles Aretha Franklin Carrie Fisher |
| Case | In The Set: Dual Soft Brackley
Separately: Soft Brackley |
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| RPI | Individual Disc: $36.95
Dual Disc Set: $49.95 |
Music | The Blues Brothers Band
Elmer Bernstein and numerous others |
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| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0  ,
192Kb/s)
German (Dolby Digital 1.0, 96 Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 ,
192Kb/s)
Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0, 96Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
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| Macrovision | Yes | Smoking | Yes, copiously |
| Subtitles | English
French German Polish Czech Hungarian Turkish Swedish Finnish Dutch Norwegian Portuguese Danish Bulgarian |
Annoying Product Placement | Placement: Yes
Annoying: No |
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, music and captions in the beginning of the credits | ||
After a long delay, another one of my favourite films has finally made its way to the local DVD release list. The number of times I remember viewing The Blues Brothers as a boy is exceeded only by the number of times I have viewed Star Wars and Robocop, so I was especially happy to get this disc into my grubby little paws. Both as a film, and as a monument to a time when musical talent was necessary to get a record deal, The Blues Brothers is a righteous classic that not only warrants, but demands multiple viewings. Given that this is more or less a Saturday Night Live skit-to-screen translation, it could have come off a lot worse. It has granted virtual screen immortality to many of the musicians who make cameo appearances during some of the best-integrated musical numbers in the history of the genre.
Yet, for such an exceedingly successful film that remains in the memory of many a film buff, the premise that drives the film is an exceedingly simple one. "Joliet" Jake Blues (the late, great John Belushi) is the lead vocalist of a blues band that disbanded after he was arrested several years before the film's opening, which basically picks up on the day of his release. After being handed back his personal effects by a corrections officer (Frank Oz), he is met at the gates by his harmonica-playing, backing-vocalist brother, Elwood (Dan Aykroyd). After a demonstration of their new car's potential, the brothers go back to the old Chicago orphanage where they were raised in order to visit Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman), or The Penguin, as they call her. In a sequence that ends with a hilarious caning, we learn that the orphanage is about to be closed down for not paying its property taxes, a slight blunder on the part of the screenwriters since churches and church-run orphanages in America are tax-exempt. After a chat with their old mentor, Curtis (Cab Calloway) and a sermon with Reverend Cleophus James (James Brown), Jake sees the light in one of the most referenced sequences of this type ever to be committed to celluloid.
Jake has decided that his mission, as appointed by God during the light-seeing sequence, is to reform the band and play a few gigs in order to make the money they need to save the orphanage. Unfortunately, it might not be so easy since the men who used to make up the band have since found themselves more stable jobs, and the brothers soon run afoul of the Chicago police in one of the most hilarious car chases ever filmed ("Do you have a Miss Piggy?"). Also pursuing the brothers are Camille Dzunda, an enraged woman whom Jake left at the altar (Carrie Fisher), and the Illinois Nazi Party (headed by Henry Gibson). Eventually, the band, consisting of Steve Cropper, Donald Dunn, Murphy Dunne, Willie Hall, Tom Malone, Lou Marini, Matt Murphy, and Alan Rubin, are brought back together and dragged through a series of misadventures with the brothers. This is where I'll stop the plot summary for the benefit of those who haven't seen the film already (where have you people been?), but be warned: showing this film to small children may well make them want to grow up to be professional musicians.
This film held (and in all probability still holds) the world record for the highest number of cars crashed, including a total of thirteen new Bluesmobiles, one of which was specifically built [Ed. Spoiler Alert - highlight with mouse to read] just to fall apart when it stopped moving. Other musicians who make appearances in the film include Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and John Lee Hooker, so even if you dislike some of the actual musical numbers like I do, you will still be blown away by the musicianship on display. Grab a box of popcorn and dive right in, because no matter what appeals to you, The Blues Brothers will have something that can sustain your interest for a hundred and forty minutes.
The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced. If you want an excellent example of how much better a film looks when it is presented in its proper ratio, this is the disc to look at, with the proper ratio revealing all sorts of beauty that has just been discarded from the film until now.
The transfer is surprisingly sharp, with plenty of detail on offer in both the foreground and the background. Occasionally, some backgrounds became fuzzy and indistinct, but this appears to be inherent in the original photography. The shadow detail is consistently below average, with a lot of the dark sections of the image having little discernible detail, but this is another problem inherent in the original photography. There is no low-level noise. Grain, however, is occasionally a problem, with the backgrounds of Chapter 30 containing enough grain to make me wonder if this part of the film had maybe been sourced from a different interpositive. Thankfully, the rest of the film only shows this problem to a very mild extent.
The colours in most of the film are muted and drab, reflecting the gritty environment of urban Chicago, but occasionally, there is a display of bright, vivid colours. The best example of this can be found in Chapter 32, titled The Opening Act (Minnie The Moocher). The costumes worn by Cab Calloway and The Blues Brothers Band during most of this number are predominantly black and white, with both the photography and the transfer impeccably capturing each and every shade of the environment. The contrast with the costumes worn during the rest of this stage performance, combined with the lack of dot crawl, colour bleed and especially cross-colouration, drives home an important reminder of how big a compromise the VHS format really is.
MPEG artefacts were not a problem in this transfer, with yet another display of near-transparent compression for the viewer to behold. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some minor aliasing that was so occasional as to be virtually non-existent, although there is also a little camera wobble in some aerial shots that looks like it was introduced in the photography stage. Film artefacts are a slight problem, with the occasional sprinkle of black and white marks on the image, but the restoration effort kept these to an absolute minimum. There isn't much more I can tell you about the quality of the transfer, except maybe that this is one more piece of video and audio that I will never bother to watch on any analogue formats again.
This disc uses the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place in the middle of Chapter 31, just as the tanker truck pulls up at 89:32. Although the layer change is noticeable, it doesn't last very long and certainly doesn't disrupt the flow of the movie, especially considering other places where it could have been put.
There are five soundtracks included in this audio transfer: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1, with a bitrate of 384 kilobits per second; a French dub in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround, with a bitrate of 192 kilobits a second; a German dub in Dolby Digital 1.0, with a bitrate of 96 kilobits a second; an Italian dub in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround, with a bitrate of 192 kilobits a second; and a Spanish dub in Dolby Digital 1.0, with a bitrate of 96 kilobits a second. I listened to the English soundtrack, while comparing selected passages in German and Spanish for some fun.
The dialogue in this film is mostly clear and easy to understand, even from James Brown (although his vocals in The Old Landmark still require a lot of effort). Occasionally, someone would utter something that was a little difficult to understand, although these utterances were generally one or two words that didn't really have a lot of significance. Joe Cuttone's voice is still just as amusingly craggy as before, but this new remix makes him sound a lot clearer than was the case with any previous format I have seen the film in. John Lee Hooker's post-song address to the audience outside the Soul Food Cafe, which is exclusive to this DVD edition of the film, came across as slightly muffled and distorted, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is inherent in the source material, and possibly even how it was intended to sound. There were no discernible problems with audio sync, save for occasional moments where the musical performances seemed slightly out, but this is quite usual for all films of this type. At least when we're talking about real music.
The music in this film can be divided into three parts: the music contributed by Elmer Bernstein during the "see the light" sequence, the blues numbers by the Blues Brothers and their band, and finally, the numerous numbers contributed by other musicians such as Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker. The highlight of this film, in my humble opinion derived from seventeen years of repeated viewings, is The Blues Brothers Band and Cab Calloway performing Minnie The Moocher. This number is quite simply the best piece of contemporary music that has ever been inserted into a film. The music is, to a large extent, the point of the film in spite of the fact that the film manages to become something more than just a music video. This is reflected in the way that the music is perfectly integrated into the action, with the characters breaking into songs for reasons that make perfect sense in context of the story (a sad omission from the sequel). It also bodes well for the future of multichannel music if the music of this film can sound so great in 5.1 when it was originally presented in mono.
The only disappointment, and a relatively minor one at that, with this audio transfer is that the surround channels are only utilized in moderate amounts to support the music and such sounds as passing cars. Numerous opportunities for more creative surround channel usage, such as Camille's numerous attacks upon Jake and Elwood, go begging. Having said all that, however, the front channels are used quite effectively, giving far better separation between the instruments and vocals in musical numbers than was the case with previous home video formats. You will almost certainly find sounds on this disc that you never even knew were in the film, thanks to this remix. The subwoofer was also used to support sound effects and music, giving the plethora of car crashes and explosions in this film given a major boost without calling attention to itself.
The video transfer is amazing given the film's age, with only minor faults denying it reference status.
The audio transfer breathes a whole new lease of life into both the story and the musical numbers.
The extras are fairly comprehensive, although a commentary
from Dan Aykroyd or Carrie Fisher (who was apparently so
drunk during one shooting day that she got John Belushi to hit her
in order to stop her becoming ill while sleeping) would have pushed this
package into reference status.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
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| Category | Musical | Production Notes
Cast & Crew Biographies Theatrical Trailer Featurette - The Making Of Blues Brothers 2000 Photo Gallery Poster Gallery |
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| Rating |  |
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| Year Released | 1998 | ||
| Running Time | 118:33 Minutes | ||
| RSDL/Flipper | RSDL (69:24) |
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| Start Up | Movie | ||
| Region | 2,4 | Director | John Landis |
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Distributor |
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment |
Starring | Dan Aykroyd
John Goodman Joe Morton J. Evan Bonifant Kathleen Freeman |
| Case | Dual Soft Brackley | ||
| RPI | Dual-Disc Set: $49.95 | Music | Paul Shaffer and numerous others |
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| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0 ,
192 Kb/s)
German (Dolby Digital 2.0 ,
192Kb/s)
Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 ,
192Kb/s)
Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 ,
192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
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| Macrovision | Yes | Smoking | Yes |
| Subtitles | English
French Portuguese Danish Finnish Swedish Norwegian German Dutch Czech Polish Turkish Hungarian Bulgarian |
Annoying Product Placement | Yes, moderately |
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, the usual montage of band photos during credits | ||
I first saw Blues Brothers 2000 on VHS in 1999, and the first question I asked when it was all over was "what the hell was that?" or something to that effect. Many have said that the music of Blues Brothers 2000 saves it from being a total mess, but this is not the case. The musical numbers are poorly integrated into the film and have about as much oomph in them as the score from a recent Disney film. Comparisons between such numbers as 634-5789 from this film and Minnie The Moocher from its predecessor seal the fate of the latter soundtrack. The earlier film's musical numbers were well choreographed and fit into a specific part of the story, while this latter film's musical numbers are so hokey and fake that you could wrap your lunch in them. In essence, Blues Brothers 2000 is an encapsulation of everything that has gone wrong with the musical industry since the mid-1980s, but I digress: there is a market out there for this film, and there are people who will savour this film in spite of these things.
The film picks up with Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) being released from prison. He waits outside the gates for an awfully long time before being told by the Warden (Frank Oz) that "Joliet" Jake Blues died in prison, which begs the question of how the hell Jake could have died without Elwood somehow learning about it before this time. Anyway, Elwood goes back to his old neighbourhood and meets with Mother Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman), who advises Elwood that the orphanage has been closed down in spite of his best efforts (which really cheapens the original movie), and that Curtis has died. Curtis apparently had an illegitimate child who goes by the name of Cabel Chamberlain (Joe Morton), and, in one of life's little ironies, is a Commander with the Chicago Police. After taking charge of a young orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant) for the day, and learning that the hospital where Mother Mary works is in need of funds, Elwood decides to pay Cabel a visit. The way Elwood sees it, since Curtis was the closest thing to a father he and Jake had, Cabel could be considered a half-brother. Of course, this is not the way Cabel sees it, and he promptly throws Elwood out of his office, but not before Buster is able to lift his wallet. When Cabel finds out, the Chicago police are once again on Elwood Blues' tail, and so are the Russian Mafia after an encounter in a downtown strip club. This, of course, is where we meet Mack McTeer (John Goodman), who takes over the vocal duties as Elwood sets out to reunite the band for another attempt to raise money.
Again, cameos galore are to be found in this film, but they are ultimately wasted as the story lacks originality, and the musical numbers lack the driving rhythm and style that made those which appear in the original so great. Even numbers that I normally detest, such as The Old Landmark, were fun to boogie down to and fit perfectly into the original film. By comparison, numbers that I would normally get a big kick out of, such as Looking For A Fox, look and sound so flat in this sequel that it makes me wonder where all the magic has gone. The vague quasi-believability of the original film also has been thrown out in favour of ridiculousness, as is evidenced by numbers like John The Revelator, which, again in contrast to the church scene of the original, had me wanting to throw things at my display unit.
All in all, I still recommend this film as an adjunct to the original, but I must caution you that you will probably be quite disappointed. This is as much the fault of the music as the script, although you have to admit that the makers did have their work cut out for them, since the concept of the Blues Brothers without John Belushi is something like The Simpsons without Bart. John Goodman and Joe Morton make good substitutes in that they bring unique flavours of their own to the cast, but keeping J. Evan Bonifant in the film from start to finish was a mistake. I definitely recommend getting a good look at this title before committing the money needed to own it.
The transfer is sharp enough to lance boils with, with enough detail and clarity on offer to even make the film's three-year age come as something of shock. You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching a film that was just shot last week. The shadow detail is also impeccable, with plenty of subtle steps between light and dark on offer, and there is no low-level noise or grain.
The colours in this film are bright and vibrant, almost taking on a pastel-like appearance during some scenes, which is totally out of character for a movie about a travelling Blues band. Since this is really a travesty devoid of any creativity and flair, I guess the overly warm colour scheme fits in quite well with all of the other elements on offer. There are no problems with oversaturation, cross-colouration, or bleeding, so this is all fine.
MPEG artefacts were not a problem in this transfer, as you can expect from a film of this vintage. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of a lot of aliasing, generally found in any fine lines that can be found in any given part of the picture. The first instance I noticed was on the prison fence at 4:14, which wasn't too distracting. However, over time, the aliasing became extremely disruptive to my enjoyment of the film because of its sheer frequency. Aliasing can be seen at 5:35, 8:39, 10:31, 11:19, 12:42, 12:52, 16:29, 17:11, 18:58, 19:30, 20:23, 23:43, 27:44, 32:35, 34:02, 34:33, 37:52, 41:25, 42:28, 47:55, 48:17, 49:05, 49:52, and finally, 50:08. Once again, these are just the instances I wrote down before I ran out of space on my notepad, which has led me to severely lower my rating for this transfer. Film artefacts were also a tad too plentiful for a film this age, with numerous nicks, scratches, and even hairs being visible on the picture in moderate clusters throughout its running length.
This disc uses the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place during a shot of a fuel gauge in Chapter 24, at 69:24. This is a good place for the layer change, since nothing is really taking place during this moment, and the layer change is very short. The disruption to the flow of the movie is minimal.
The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at almost all times, with the only difficulties in this case being words uttered by James Brown. Pretty much every other word uttered during the course of the film is easy to make out, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how hard you're willing to work to tolerate some of the script's idiocies. Some of the lines in the film just looked so forced and out of place that it was hard to believe the same writers worked on this film. The vocals in the musical numbers are also quite clear and easy to understand, with only James Brown posing any problems in that department. There were no problems with audio sync, although the musical numbers still occasionally look slightly out of step with the audio at times.
The music of this film consists of the usual numbers by The Blues Brothers Band, but there are a few more other artists sharing space with them in this case, with Paul Shaffer getting a good chance to demonstrate why it was a good thing that he wasn't in the original. The few numbers that the Blues Brothers and their band actually perform are good, but they just don't compare with the outrageous and, more importantly, spontaneous-looking numbers of the original. The biggest disappointment is the three numbers at the end of the film, performed by The Louisiana Gator Boys and The Blues Brothers Band, and both at once. Gone is the tight, locked-together feel of The Blues Brothers Band and Cab Calloway spontaneously performing Minnie The Moocher for an impatient crowd, only to be replaced by something quite stale and bland by comparison.
The surround channels are much more effectively used in this soundtrack to support the sounds of passing cars, police sirens, gunshots, and the music. While the soundstage was still a little biased towards the front channels, there were no instances where sound effects that could have really benefited from surround channel usage went begging. Of course, this brings me to the bad news that there just aren't nearly as many such effects in this film, with barely any explosions, flipping cars, or even the well-orchestrated caning of the first film. The surround channels are well-integrated into the soundtrack, but there didn't really seem to be a whole lot for them to do.
By the same token, the subwoofer was used quite well to support the music and occasional bass-heavy effects, and it did so without calling any attention to itself. It seemed to have an on-and-off presence in the overall film, but this was a little harder to notice than the inactivity of the surround channels.
The video transfer is good, but disappointing because of the aliasing.
The audio transfer is a good reproduction of ill-conceived musical numbers.
The extras are fairly comprehensive, but are nothing
special.
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| Plot |  |
| Overall | |
© Dean McIntosh (my
bio
sucks... read it anyway)
April 6, 2001
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| DVD | Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output |
| Display | Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm) in 16:9 and 4:3 modes, calibrated using the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Built In (Amplifier) |
| Amplification | Sony STR-DE835, calibrated using the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Speakers | Yamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Yamaha NS-90 Rear Speakers, Yamaha NS-C120 Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer |