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The Blues Brothers

1980

John Landis

Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Henry Gibson, Carrie Fisher ...

7.2

35,648

Comedy. Musical Upon Jakes release from prison, the brothers are reunited and visit the orphanage they grew up in--only to discover that it is in danger of being shut down by the county for failure to pay taxes. With a little help from James Brown as a revival preacher, the Blues Brothers are divinely inspired to raise the 5,000 US dollars that the orphanage needs to stay open. On their mission from God, they must reunite their old band and raise the ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"One of the intriguing things about this movie is the way it borrows so freely and literally from news events (...) A surprising amount of grace, humor, and whimsy (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Martin Chilton Telegraph	"[It has] some of the finest car chase scenes in the history of movies (...) One of the most memorable comedy films of the late 20th century (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"The humor is predicated on underplaying in overscaled situations, which is sporadically funny in a Keaton-esque way but soon sputters out through sheer, uninspired repetition."	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"The stunts are still awe-inspiring, and there's plenty of laugh (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Kim Newman Empire	"It's surprisingly tight (...) Funny as hell with lots of cool action and lots of cool lines (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Variety	"Film’s greatest pleasure comes from watching the likes of James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and especially Aretha Franklin do their musical things (...) Landis manages to keep things reasonably controlled"	POS
United States	Gary Arnold The Washington Post	"The scanty material might be forgiven if the highlights were irresistible. Unfortunately, Landis' direction is so consistently inflated yet inept that they never have a chance."	NEG
United Kingdom	John Ferguson Radio Times	"One of the best musical comedies of modern time (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Tom Huddleston Time Out	"Landis takes things to a tiresome extreme. Still, the film retains a huge nostalgic kick, thanks in large part to Aykroyd and Belushi’s easy rapport, a smattering of daft, shaggy humour and some truly iconic musical sequences (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	R.L. Shaffer IGN	"An immensely enjoyable, truly original film that plays almost like a concert experience brought to the big screen. There are several wonderful cameos"	POS

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