Film

The Blues Brothers

Cert: 15

Description: When Jake Blues is released from prison, he and brother Elwood pay a visit to the orphanage where they grew up and learn the building is under threat of closure due to non-payment of taxes. So the siblings concoct a hare-brained scheme to raise the money by reuniting their old band and staging a concert. En route, they cross paths with a deranged bandleader, the cops and a host of famous faces in cameo roles.

Derek Malcolm's rating

Reader rating

Your rating

Click on a star to rate

Dir: John Landis.

Cast: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown

Country: US.

Year: 1980.

Duration: 132mins

The Blues Brothers lay waste to Chicago once more

Cult film: Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in The Blues Brothers

Western masterpiece is back on the big screen

Western masterpiece is back on the big screen

By Derek Malcolm
24 Jul 2009

I have never been quite sure why this $30 million comedy made by John Landis in 1980 became such a cult.

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd practically lay waste to Chicago in the effort to raise money for their old orphanage.

They are supposed to be soul brothers but the black cast members � among them James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin � seem a good deal more authentic.

Maybe the music does the trick for its fans.