#dan akroyd

Jake just got out of prison, and his brother Elwood picks him up and alerts him that the orphanage they grew up in is in danger of being shut down if they can't get $5000. But what can they do to help? Why, get the band back together!

This movie started as an SNL movie based on an old sketch, and in some ways it really feels like it. The plot, comedic bits, set pieces and music numbers are nearly sequestered away from one another, and can be understood thusly.

The plot. The whole thing is an excuse to have blues legends and car chase scenes, and as such the plot about the orphanage and $5000 is really only there to move things along. There is a brief moment where it turns a little more serious, but not for long, and the humor returns in all its glory.

The comedy outside the car chases is, on the whole, pretty hit-or-miss. I didn't spend as much time laughing as I was deeply amused, but I laughed plenty, and enjoyed my time doing so. Pretty much everything involving Carrie Fisher's character is something that made me laugh, and, unlike some worse comedy movies, I wasn't bored outside of it.

The music. God, the music is great! There're a great number of blues legends who are participating in this movie, and most of them get to put on a musical number of some kind. Even the country music (which is portrayed as cringe worthy) has heart and is fun to listen to. The whole thing almost works as a jukebox musical, were it not for the fact that the music has very little to do with the action happening on screen. And to top it off, John Belushi and Dan Akroyd both sing and perform highly athletic dances, the latter also adding his harmonica skills. The musical numbers are consistently fun, and the whole album is going on my playlist.

The car chases. Normally there would be under the comedy, but the movie forms a lot of its identity using the car chases and crashes. There are so many absurd moments I would struggle to fit them all here, but the final chase is a culmination of everything else that's been happening, and it's one of the most gut-busting, jaw-dropping, astounding and batshit things I've ever seen put to screen. I won't describe it here because words don't do it justice, and it's the most affectionate version of a car crash I couldn't look away from.