Blues Brothers 2000

I figured I'd hate Blues Brothers 2000 as much as I disliked The Blues Brothers. Not only was that 1980 flick unfunny (John Belushi was too jacked on drugs at the time to do more than grunt and grimace), but it reduced one of the most powerful legacies of African-American culture to a caricature -- those goddamned fedoras and sunglasses.

But Blues Brothers 2000 is a modern shocker: a musical-comedy that actually works. The visual humor's not bad at all, including a car crash that's a parody of Hollywood action-movie excess (and the first Blues Brothers picture). Dan Aykroyd, thinned down and back as Elwood Blues, does a solid deadpan turn and delivers some first-rate one-liners. John Goodman's an aptly lumpen replacement for Belushi, and outsings Aykroyd, for what that's worth. The plot's thin. Elwood gets out of prison, where he's been since the last film's destructive finale, and determines to put the band back together. He promptly crosses the Russian mob, an orphan kid (J. Evan Bonifant) gets thrown into the mix, and Elwood mightily pisses off his half-brother Cable (Joe Morton), who's now a tough cop bent on putting him back behind bars.

The film really cooks when its great blues and soul performers are on screen. There's B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, the late Junior Wells (resplendent in a bright yellow suit with matching derby), Eric Clapton, Charlie Musselwhite, Dr. John, Jimmy Vaughan, Koko Taylor, Erykah Badu, Lonnie Brooks, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Sam Moore, and others doing their thing in top form. Even the soundtrack tunes (with Paul Butterfield and other Chicago and Delta blues favorites) are terrific. Only Aykroyd's "Cheaper To Keep Her" is tuneless and badly dubbed and Jonny Lang's quick vocal turn (he grimaces as if he were getting a painful rectal exam) limp along. Otherwise, this movie's heart is its musical soul. At the Harbour Mall, Holiday, Showcase, Tri-Boro, Westerly, and Woonsocket cinemas.

-- Ted Drozdowski