Blues Brothers 2000

Infobox Film
name = Blues Brothers 2000|

|
caption = Promotional one-sheet poster.|
director = John Landis|
producer = Dan Aykroyd
Leslie Belzberg
John Landis|
writer = Dan Aykroyd
John Landis|
starring = Dan Aykroyd
John Goodman
Joe Morton
J. Evan Bonifant
Nia Peeples
music = Paul Shaffer|
cinematography = David Herrington|
editing = Dale Beldin|
distributor = Universal Pictures|
released = February 6,1998|
runtime = 123 min.|
country = USA|
gross = $14,051,384
preceded_by = "The Blues Brothers"
language = English|
imdb_id = 0118747|

"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.

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.

Cast and characters

Bands and musical guests

The Blues Brothers

*Dan Aykroyd as Elwood Blues – harmonica and vocals
*John Goodman as Mighty Mack McTeer – vocals
*J. Evan Bonifant as Buster Blues – vocals and harmonica
*Steve Cropper as Steve "the Colonel" Cropper – rhythm guitar and vocals
*Donald "Duck" Dunn as Donald "Duck" Dunn – bass guitar
*Murphy Dunne as Murphy "Murph" Dunne – keyboards
*Willie Hall as Willie "Too Big" Hall – drums and percussion
*Tom Malone as Tom "Bones" Malone – trombone, tenor saxophone and vocals
*Lou Marini as "Blue Lou" Marini – alto saxophone and tenor saxophone and vocals
*Matt Murphy as Matt "Guitar" Murphy – lead guitar
*Alan Rubin as Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin – trumpet, percussion and vocals

Musical guests

*Junior Wells as Himself
*Lonnie Brooks as Himself
*Blues Traveler as Themselves
*Jonny Lang as Custodian
*Eddie Floyd as Ed
*Wilson Pickett as Mr. Pickett
*Aretha Franklin as Mrs. Murphy
**Esther Ridgeway as Mrs. Murphy's Friend
**Gloria Ridgeway as Mrs. Murphy's Friend
**Gracie Ridgeway as Mrs. Murphy's Friend
*Sam Moore as Reverend Morris
*James Brown as Reverend Cleophus James
*Paul Shaffer as Marco/Himself
*Erykah Badu as Queen Mousette
*Jeff Pilson as Himself

The Louisiana Gator Boys

The 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:
* B. B. King as Melvin Gasperone – Vocals and guitar
* Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – guitar
* Gary U.S. Bonds – vocals
* Eric Clapton – vocals and guitar
* Clarence Clemons – vocals, tenor saxophone and tambourine
* Jack DeJohnette – drums
* Bo Diddley – vocals and guitar
* Jon Faddis – trumpet
* Isaac Hayes – vocals
* Dr. John – vocals and piano
* Tommy "Pipes" McDonnell – vocals
* Charlie Musselwhite – vocals and harmonica
* Billy Preston – vocals and synthesizer
* Lou Rawls – vocals
* Joshua Redman – tenor saxophone
* Paul Shaffer – director and vocals
* Koko Taylor – vocals
* Travis Tritt – vocals and guitar
* Jimmie Vaughan – vocals and guitar
* Grover Washington, Jr. – baritone saxophone
* Willie Weeks – bass guitar
* Steve Winwood – vocals and organ

Other characters

*Joe Morton as Cab Chamberlain
*Nia Peeples as Lieutenant Elizondo
*Kathleen Freeman as Mother Mary Stigmata
*Frank Oz as Warden
*Steve Lawrence as Maury Sline
*Darrell Hammond as Robertson
*Michael Bondar as Russian Thug 1
*Slavko Hochevar as Russian Thug 2
*Igor Syyouk as Tstetsevkaya
*Victor Pedtrchenko as Ivan
*Wally High as Russian Thug 3
*Richard Kruk as Russian Thug 4
*John Lyons as Russian Thug 5
*Jeff Morris as Bob

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.

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.

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 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.

Box office

The film was considered a box office failure, generating only a little over $14 million in box office salescite web | title=Box Office Mojo | work=Blues Brothers 2000 | url=http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=bluesbrothers2000.htm | accessdate=December 16 | accessyear=2006] on an approximate $28 million budget.cite web | title=Internet Movie Database | work=Business Data forBlues Brothers 2000 | url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118747/business | accessdate=December 16 | accessyear=2006]

Video game

A "Blue 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.

oundtrack

Footnotes

External links

*
* [http://www.bluesbros.us EG Blues Brothers]
* [http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com Blues Brothers Central]