Date Posted:14:35:07 08/31/05 Wed Author: Hugh Jazz Subject: Blues Brothers DVD
Just came out yesterday. Picked it up and watched it. Still funny, still entertaining. The real-life band members cannot act, but the film still works based on Belushi and Aykroyd. I can't believe it's been 25 years since this film was released. I also cannot believe that I thought Carrie Fisher was hot in this. I like this better than Caddyshack, which I feel doesn't hold up as well. One thing about this DVD, it is the new extended version, so it adds in a couple of scenes and extends a few others. The original version is nowhere to be found. 1 good thing is that it shows the entire John Lee Hooker guitar-playing sequence.
I had to stop watching the making of feature (50 minutes long) in the middle due to being tired, but learned some interesting tidbits nonetheless. Aykroyd delivered the first draft of the script: 360 pages. John Landis whittled it down to a workable 2 hours. The mall scene was shot in an abandoned mall. I thought I had always read that they used a real mall and lost a bunch of money trashing it. Oh well. Aretha Franklin and James Brown cannot lipsynch, because they never sing the same song the same way. James Brown had to sing his vocals live over everyone else being on tape.
