The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers. 1980 Universal Pictures.
Starring: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, Henry Gibson
Also Starring: Ray Charles, Twiggy, Frank Oz, Chaka Khan, John Lee Hooker, Paul Reubens, Steven Spielberg
The Band: Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Murphy Dunne, Willie Hall, Tom Malone, Lou Marini, Matt Murphy, Alan Rubin
Director: John Landis
Available from Amazon as a collector's edition, or the 25th Anniversary Edition.

They're on a mission from God, and they will destroy a shopping mall to accomplish it.

"Joliet" Jake Blues (Belushi) is released from prison after three years in the big house for armed robbery, and he's picked up by brother Elwood (Aykroyd) in the "Bluesmobile", a former police car. They soon learn that their childhood home, a Roman Catholic orphanage, is in financial trouble, and it will be closed unless $5,000 in property taxes is collected. After learning that their orphanage director will not accept stolen funds, Jake and Elwood visit a church service where the former has an epiphany: raising the money legitimately by getting the band back together. After the now legendary car chase through Dixie Square Mall (which is still standing, despite being totally abandoned and falling to pieces for years and years), Jake and Elwood make it back home, where they notice that there's a mysterious woman (Fisher) trying to kill them. The woman does save them from possible arrest the following morning.

Jake and Elwood track down their old bandmates, who are all working day jobs, or playing in empty hotel lounges, and recruit them back into the band, making some new enemies in the so-called Illinois Nazis, led by Henry Gibson, who has no poetry to contribute this time.

The reunited Blues Brothers have a rough reunion, playing one fairly bad gig at a redneck bar, and getting booked way out in the sticks after Jake and Elwood blackmails a promoter into giving them a show. The brothers are late to the gig, who in addition to the sold out audience, also has scores of police officers as well as the Good Ol' Boys, the country band whose show they took over at Bob's Country Bunker. After two songs, though, they are given a cash advance on the recording contract, which will cover the orphanage's debts as well as pay for the cost of the band's instruments, which were all borrowed from a pawn shop. Jake takes care of the mystery woman, who turns out to be an old flame, and everyone rushes back to Chicago, with the cops, the Illinois Nazis, and the Good Ol' Boys in hot pursuit.

This movie was filmed largely in and around Chicago, which opened the doors for the Windy City as a venue for filmmaking. Richard J. Daley had basically prohibited any kind of filmmaking in Chicago up until his death in 1976. Aykroyd said the city was "one of the stars of the movie", and added that they wrote the film as a tribute.

Highly, highly, highly recommended film, with some great music thrown in.