Movie Project Review: The Blues Brothers

Posted to movie project blog on:  24 Feb. 2011.

• Title:  The Blues Brothers
• Director:  John Landis
• Date:  1980
• Studio:  Universal
• Genre:  Comedy, Musical
• Cast:  John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, John Candy, Henry Gibson, Steve Lawrence, Twiggy, Steven Spielburg, Frank Oz, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin
• Format:  Color, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC (Expanded Ed.)

"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses."  -- Elwood
"Hit it!" -- Joliet Jake

"They're not going to catch us, we're on a mission from God."  -- Elwood

"Well, this is definitely Lower Wacker Drive..." -- Elwood

The Blues Brothers is a classic comedy, but it is also filled with great music and excellent musical numbers with some impressive choreography.  The film is a farce or screwball comedy in the best sense -- from small, tiny events, things just snowball, and thus it gets funnier, and funnier, and funnier, as the plot gets more and more outrageous.  Simply, Jake is picked up by his brother, Elwood, from the Joliet State Prison in Illinois, after serving three years for we later find out armed robbery.  The first thing they do is visit The Penguin, a nun.  From her, they find out that the orphanage where they grew up needs $5000.00 to pay back taxes.  Jake and Elwood need to raise the money honestly, so they decide to get their blues band back together and do a few gigs to get the money.  From such tiny events...  First, the boys must find their band mates, who are now mostly in "straight" jobs, or married, or whatever.  Accomplishing that they must find a few gigs.  But, in the mean time, they manage to cross an awful lot of people who end-up wanting them dead, including the police, Jake's ex-girlfriend (Carrie Fisher), the Neo-Nazi party of Illinois (led by Henry Gibson), and a Country-Western singing group called the Good Ole' Boys, who's gig they stole.  This results not only in a triumphant musical number, but quite possibly the best, and the funniest car chase ever filmed.  The film crew bought an entire year's run of retiring police cars to trash in the film.  They also made a deal to film in and destroy a condemned shopping mall that was scheduled for demolition before it was destroyed.

The vast majority of  the film was filmed in and around Chicago, including Waukegan (North of Chicago), and Joliet State Prison (South of Chicago), and a small portion was filmed in Milwaukee.  The final car chase down Lower Wacker Drive, LaSalle Street and Daley plaza is not only fantastically filmed, shot, and executed -- but actually shows off that part of the city well.  (And some of the same locations were also used in Batman Begins / The Dark Knight and are recognizable, esp. if you know downtown Chicago).  The bridge scene, where Joliet Jake manages to avoid driving off a very high expressway bridge, back up, and flips their car, to avoid the Nazis -- and the Nazi's fall right off the bridge, was filmed in Milwaukee.  That's the Horn Bridge (at the time under construction, when I lived in Milwaukee from 1995 to 2002 it had been completed), the tall white building behind the falling car is the First Star Building.  There's a noticeable jump in the film where it moves from Milwaukee to Chicago (you can tell it's Chicago when you spot the Hancock building -- that's a black building with slanting/angled sides).  By the bye, the Sears Tower is the square, black, stacked building -- you can spot it several times in the film.  But what is also special is the shots of  the people, especially in the scenes in Maxwell Street.  And then there's the music.

Credited Music
Shake Your Tail Feather (Created as "Shake your Money Maker")
Soothe Me
Hold One I'm Comin'
Boogie Chillun
Let the Good Times Roll
Your Cheatin' Heart
Anema & Core
I'm Walkin'
Ride of  the Valkyries
Minnie the Moocher -- Performed by Cab Calloway

Uncredited Music
Peter Gunn Theme (Instrumental)
The Old Landmark -- Performed by James Brown
Boom Boom
Think -- Performed by Aretha Franklin
Shake a Tail Feather -- Performed by Ray Charles
Theme from Rawhide -- Performed by The Blues Brothers
Stand by your Man -- Performed by The Blues Brothers
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love -- Performed by The Blues Brothers
Sweet Home Chicago -- Performed by The Blues Brothers
Jailhouse Rock -- Performed by The Blues Brothers

That's more music than the average traditional musical, also the film is almost completely scored, so the film is filled with music.  Great music!  And of course, it's quite enjoyable, funny, fun, and a wild ride from start to finish.

Recommendation:  See it!
Rating:  5 of 5 Stars
Next Film:  Breakfast at Tiffany's

Movie Project Review Breakfast At Tiffany's

Posted to Movie Project blog:  27 Feb. 2011.

• Title:  Breakfast at Tiffany's
• Director:  Blake Edwards
• Date:  1961
• Studio:  Paramount
• Genre:  Drama, Romance
• Cast:  Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Mickey Rooney
• Format:  Technicolor, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

I bought Breakfast at Tiffany's as part of a three-pack of  Audrey Hepburn films, but even though it's regarded as a classic, it's actually my least favorite of  the three (my favorite being Sabrina).  The problem with the movie, for me, is it's not really about anything.  There really isn't much of  a plot.  The film doesn't even have much of  the standard romantic comedy plot, though romance is an important thread that runs through the picture.  Hepburn is Holly Golightly, a party girl, who gives the impression there isn't a brain in her head.  She's looking for a rich husband, and going through New York society to do it.

George Peppard is Paul Varjak, a struggling writer, and "kept man" who runs into Holly when he moves into the apartment above hers.  The two have an attraction, especially as they keep running into each other over and over again.  But she wants a rich husband, not someone who loves her, she says.  And she's cruel about it.  When Paul ends his relationship with the woman who's supporting him (Patricia Neal), Holly throws him out as well, announcing her intention to marry a rich Brazilian she met at one of  her fancy parties.  At the end of the picture, she even abandons her cat, "Cat", on the cold, rainy, New York streets in an attempt to convince Paul she doesn't care about anything.

Paul, who's a much more sympathetic character, loves Holly.  Or he keeps saying he does.  But somehow, it seems skin deep.  This film doesn't have the realistic built characters, like, say The Apartment does, when we are sympathetic to Bud and Fran.  Neither is the plot of a man being exploited by a designing woman and trying to get away, fully realized as it is in Sunset Blvd (where the writer fails).  Rather, Breakfast At Tiffany's  just sort of meanders along, never reaching a goal, even the end doesn't feel satisfying and happy like your typical romantic comedy.  I liked Paul a lot, and Hepburn looks stunning as usual, but overall, not my favorite Audrey Hepburn film.

Recommendation:  Skip It
Rating:  3 of 5 Stars
Next Film:  The Breakfast Club

Movie Project Review The Breakfast Club

Posted to Movie Project Blog 5 March 2011

• Title:  The Breakfast Club
• Director:  John Hughes
• Date:  1985
• Studio:  Universal
• Genre:  Comedy, Drama
• Cast:  Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, John Kapelos, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
• Format:  Color, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

Five characters in search of an exit is a format for a play that's pretty simple:  take a group of characters with nothing in common, and stick someplace they can't escape, and watch what happens.  The Breakfast Club does that by sticking five students with nothing in common with each other in the school library for a Saturday detention.  The students each represent a clique or group in a typical high school:  an athlete, a Princess, a brain, a criminal, and a basket case.  Nowadays -- the athlete would be called a Jock and the brain -- a geek, but overall the movie doesn't even look dated, because teenagers are still teenagers.  The movie was also one of the very first to not romanticize being a teenager, but to portray teens in a realistic way with real problems.  But one of the best things about the film is that it evokes sympathy and empathy for all the characters -- even the mysterious "basket case".  The Breakfast Club challenges audience members, especially teens whom the movie was meant for -- to see beyond the stereotypes they hold about each other, and see what they have in common, or to at least understand that someone else might have problems too.  Each of the teens in the movie has issues:  problems with their parents, problems with their friends, problems with their image --and the film addresses those issues and problems and gets them in the open.

Scene not to miss:  The lunch scene -- each of them have a lunch that represents their group on a plate.

Overall, it's a great movie.  This is a teen movie that means something.  Which is why it became so iconic.

Recommendation:  See it!
Rating:  4
Next Film:  Bringing Up Baby

Movie Project Review: Bringing Up Baby

• Title:  Bringing Up Baby
• Director:  Howard Hawks
• Studio:  RKO Radio Pictures
• Date:  1938
• Genre:  Classic, Romance, Comedy
• Cast:  Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant
• Format:  Black & White, Standard
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC, 2-disc Special Edition

Bringing Up Baby is a classic and very funny "screwball comedy".  It's a simple joy to watch.  Cary Grant plays a "zoologist" (Considering he's building a brontosaur skeleton for a museum, he's more likely an archeologist, anthropologist, or paleontologist -- Zoologists study living animals) who keeps running into Susan Vance (Hepburn) -- an heiress who seems to never stop talking or take five seconds to consider the consequences of  her actions.  Grant is also due to get married -- something Hepburn foils by keeping him busy on her Aunt's estate in Connecticut.  Though there is very little plot, the film is brilliantly funny -- from Hepburn and Grant walking out of a very fancy restaurant pressed close together to hide the fact that Hepburn has lost the train and backside of  her skirt -- to various shenanigans chasing her pet leopard, Baby, the film is laugh out loud funny.

Cary Grant plays an out-of-his-depth professor perfectly -- confused and confounded throughout - until he finally realizes how he feels about Susan.  Whereas, Katharine Hepburn is at her screwball comedy best, talking a mile a minute without ever making sense.

The dialogue in the film is fast and furious, and frequently overlaps -- working to add to the pace and the hilarious nature of  the film.  Truly, not a film to be missed.

Recommendation:  See it! -- What are you waiting for?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Next Film:  Broadcast News

Updates - Where I've been

Hi all,

As you can see -- I've finally updated and cross posted my recent movie reviews from my Movie Project blog.  Sorry to be out of touch.  Last Tuesday (March 1st) I came home and was promptly sick.  I threw-up so violently that I had blood pouring out of my nose.  Since I never get nosebleeds - that scared the living daylights out of me, and I ended-up in the E/R Tuesday night.  I came home with a diagnosis of  Flu Type A, and a perscription of TemaFlu (or whatever -- a very strong anti-viral med) after having had a breathing treatment (asthma & flu -- bad combo).  I spent the next two days home sick in bed -- sleeping.  I didn't even really feel like watching a movie or anything.  That Friday I did go in to work, but I was exhausted when I got home.  Over the weekend, I slept a lot, and today has been the first day I've felt even remotely better, even tho' I got home kinda' late.

--Olivia