Blues Brothers 2000
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| 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 J. Evan Bonifant Nia Peeples |
| Music by | Paul Shaffer |
| Cinematography | David Herrington |
| Editing by | Dale Beldin |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 6, 1998 |
| Running time | 123 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Gross revenue | $14,051,384 |
| Preceded by | The Blues Brothers |
| IMDb profile | |
Blues Brothers 2000 is a 1998 musical/comedy film and 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. The film is dedicated to John Belushi, John Candy and Cab Calloway.
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[edit] Plot
Blues Brothers 2000 picks up 18 years after The Blues Brothers, with Elwood 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 (John Belushi) has died, along with their surrogate father figure Curtis (Cab Calloway), and that the orphanage the two had saved in the first film is no more; however he is told of a half brother (of sorts). The "half brother" is the illegitimate son of Curtis, named Cabel "Cab" Chamberlain (Joe Morton). Cab is a chief in the police force and refuses to reunite with or support Elwood, a habitual criminal. Elwood takes a job as an announcer in a nightclub (A strip club owned by the drummer of the Blues Brothers band, Willie Hall), where he discovers that the bartender (played by John Goodman) has singing talent, while getting 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 resolves to put the band back together once again with John Goodman's character as his new partner and a 10-year old orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant) also tagging along. The band travels to several locations shown in the first film with a depiction of how they have changed in the intervening years (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" and the police force, headed by a zealous Cab.
Finally, the band heads south to Louisiana with the intention of entering a battle of the bands held at the home of a voodoo practitioner named Queen Moussette, played by Erykah Badu. At the battle of the bands they compete against B.B. King's band. Ironically, B. B. King's character started the band only after Elwood bought a police car from him in the beginning of the film.
[edit] Cast and characters
[edit] Bands and musical guests
[edit] The Blues Brothers
[edit] Musical guests
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[edit] The Louisiana Gator BoysThe Louisiana Gator Boys is a fictional 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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[edit] Other characters
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Other members of the actual Blues Brothers band, pianist Leon Pendarvis, drummer Steve Potts, trombonist Birch Johnson and saxophonist Demo Cates, appear in the film as the Stripster Band.
[edit] Trivia
When Blues brothers ran from the graves after being noticed by Russians, Aram Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" may be heard for some seconds.
[edit] Production
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.
[edit] Casting
The film was originally intended to include Brother Zee Blues (James Belushi). But due to an already existing television deal, Belushi was unable to appear in the film and the script was altered to include Cab Blues (Joe Morton). This character was named Cabel such as homage to Cab Calloway, who passed away four years prior to the film's release (his character Curtis was revealed to have passed away 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 (the late 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.
[edit] Box office
The film was considered a box office failure, generating only a little over $14 million in box office sales[1] on an approximate $28 million budget.[2]
[edit] Video Game
Main Article: Blues Brothers 2000 (video game)
A Blue Brothers 2000 video game was released for the Nintendo 64 on November 17, 2000, almost 2 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.
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Box Office Mojo. Blues Brothers 2000. Retrieved on December 16, 2006.
- ^ Internet Movie Database. Business Data for Blues Brothers 2000. Retrieved on December 16, 2006.
[edit] External links
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