‘The Blues Brothers’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey
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Which I don't feel good about, but I'm happy to do here at the Ringer Podcast Network. CR, The Watch. You can find that on the, what is it? Ringer-TV YouTube channel. And you can also find it on The Watch. What are you cooking up over there? We're talking a lot about modern medicine. Oh, exciting. Because of the pit. Yeah, sure. Doc? Yeah. You're watching Doc? I have not fired up Doc yet. That's a little gift to myself. They're saying it's like regarding Henry crossed with a doctor show.

That sounds really, really good. That's good. Looks great. Well, this movie is a classic and we'll explain why we're doing it in a second. The Blues Brothers is next. John Belushi, Jake Blue. Dan Akron, Elwood Blues. The Blues Brothers.

They smell bad. You're such a disappointing pair. You contemptible pig. He better pray the police get to him before we do. Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, The Blues Brothers, a musical comedy rated R. Now playing at a theater near you.

All right, so when this runs, this will be SNL 50 week. This was the first SNL movie, Blues Brothers, a movie that we've been saving for the right time. I feel like this is the right time. I love this movie. I don't know how it stands for people under 25. I know how I feel. Yeah. It's an OG.

I saw it in Chicago in 1980. Get the fuck out of here. And we walked out and Daily Plaza was there and my head almost exploded. That is a true story. I was on a baseball park trip with my dad and we saw Blues Brothers and we were in that theater and we came out and I was just like, I was like in the Matrix. And then a bunch of Nazis were also there. They pointed guns at us. How old were you? 1980, so I was 10. Wow. So even back then,

at 10, you would already... Were you just obsessed with Belushi? Yeah. So the Belushi thing for me, he was my first favorite. But it started... They used to rerun the SNLs in primetime. Yeah. So I think it was season four. And that's when I started seeing it because I wasn't allowed to stay up late. And then...

I think somewhere around there I started watching a little bit, but Belushi was the one. I mean, especially if you were a kid. In 75, when they started the show, how did you become aware of it if you weren't allowed to stay up? Didn't know about it. Okay. I didn't really know about it until season three, season four. Okay. And then anecdotally, just people like my parents' friends doing the, well, then crazy guys and stuff like that. But you almost didn't know what it was and it was on so late. It was like, someday I'll stay up late and watch SNL.

I think season four was probably when I snuck up a couple times. But them rerunning the primetime stuff was huge. But this was, I mean, I was looking at some of the ratings numbers for this show.

And it's just massive. Like, season four, 13.1 rating, 39 share, and it was getting 25 million people an episode. Yeah. Which is like, there's no sporting event that gets that now except the Super Bowl. Airing at 11.30. Yeah. Because there was the Saturday Night Live part of it, and then, like, the Belushi thing was really interesting to read about this movie and read either contemporaneous pieces or, like, pieces that were written just about its legacy. And just to try to wrap your head around, like, how big he was and what he meant to people and...

the practicality of his stardom because so much of his legend is like, and then Belushi closed the bar down. Yeah. You know, which is like a kind of celebrity thing that if people are doing that now, like it's almost going to be a problem because they're going to get in so much trouble. But, you know, Belushi was really literally like he was America's guest. Right. Yeah. One of a kind. The guy that didn't jump off the show initially because Chevy Chase did. But then when Chevy Chase leaves, then Belushi and Aykroyd kind of take over the show.

And then season three was their big year. And then they started dabbling around with the Blues Brothers and eventually led to them leaving. There's been great books written about SNL. And especially like this was the first test case. Chevy was the first one. And then these guys of like when you outgrow the show and Hollywood comes calling, but then there's cocaine too, which became a big part of the legacy of this movie.

They talk about it and everything you'd ever read about this movie, it was about how much cocaine was involved. They're so candid about it. Yeah. It's weird how much this movie is instrumental to his legacy too because he just didn't make very many movies. Yeah. You know, it ultimately, when you look back on his career, like the body of work is pretty small in part because he died so young, but

He just didn't, because he was on that show from 75 to 78, he was just on the show. Yeah. That was one of the big problems with season four for him, the last SNL season, was he started filming 1941 at the same time. He was flying back and forth.

And, you know, doing a ton of drugs and his performance started to fade. But yeah, I remember seeing Neighbors in the theater that was after Blues Brothers. And it was just so disappointing. They switched roles and Ackroyd was the crazy one and Blue Sheep was like the straight man. And then near the end, like his eyebrow goes up and he got... But it just...

This was kind of the movie that became... This and Animal House were the two that became the Belushi movies. But that Animal House wasn't a Belushi movie. He was in it. It made him a star. Yeah. So I think for somebody like me, when I see...

I don't know, Chris Farley, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, like all of the guys who are in the lineage of what Belushi started or carved out. Do anything for a joke. Yes. They're like super physical, like very emotionally animated, but also kind of like balletic and had like theater background. You know, like that weird combination of this guy's a maniac, but he's a real artist at the same time. And charismatic. Super charismatic. So when he hit, were people like, there's never been anything like this before? No.

I mean, that's, as a little kid, that's certainly how I felt. But I think Hollywood felt that way too. He was such a phenomenon. I mean, well, there's so much to talk about, but he did the Triple Crown in 78. He...

Had the number one movie, hit the number one album, and he was on the number one most important show at the same time, which is like never. I don't think anyone's done that again. I don't think so. People have done two or three. The Weeknd is going for it. With the idol and the album and the movie coming out later this year. But between the show and then Animal House, he hit some level of stardom that just I don't think is, you can't compare it to anything now because it can never happen.

especially when we had so few TV channels and programs and fame was just completely different back then. But I think the thing that you feel in this movie with him was he was just so talented. Like he's actually a really good musical performer. Like for what he is, when you feel like he's an actor, think of all the actors we've had moonlighting as singers. And this guy is like commanding, you know, they toured with Steve Martin in 78 after I think season three.

And Steve Martin was at the height of his fame, right? He's doing like nine nights in LA. And the Blues Brothers are opening up for them? Can you imagine having a ticket for that? That Universal Amphitheater show, the first one that they did with Steve Martin, became that album that you're talking about and sold almost four million copies in 1978 of just them doing the Blues Brothers review for an hour. And then Aykroyd was kind of a freak too because he was smart enough. He loved Belushi, defended him, stuck up for him.

But was also really talented in his own right and was the perfect straight man for him. Like didn't really care if he got the credit. It was all about kind of platforming the two of them together, but also pushing John. Kind of uses him as a, like a vehicle to get a lot of his ideas expressed, right? Because like a lot of the stuff that's in Blues Brothers is directly from Ackroyd and Ackroyd's interests and,

all the stuff like of these are the musicians that we need to feature and the songs that need to be featured. I just cannot believe this worked. I know. I can't believe this is... That was one of the first things I wrote down. A movie that shouldn't have ever worked

Probably didn't totally work and yet became one of the great pop culture documents of this entire era. Like you're, the people you're getting in that you're getting Belushi and Akira at their peak, you're getting James Brown and Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. And then all of these randos like John Candy and Carrie Fisher. It's like an amazing document. Right place, right time. I still don't.

I have some theories as to why it was a success, but I don't think not being there takes it away. Because to me, the success of this movie and Belushi's power...

is a little bit like hearing Orson Welles is the greatest dark hero of all time. Someone tells you that, someone tells me that when I'm 12, and I'm like, well, that just must be true. There's a kind of received wisdom about the greatness, and this is one of the only documents we have of the greatness. But then when I think about the movies that were really popular in the 70s, and I'm like, okay, so Smokey and the Bandit,

Cannonball Run, before that Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Some of those weird Burt Reynolds movies. Those movies are like this movie where it's like cool person pops up every five minutes. You got a musical number, car chases, car crashes. It's like a variety show. Yeah. And it kind of has all the pieces that you're like, yeah, this is kind of what movie going was like. And it had the two stars from one of the biggest shows of that era. So it does make sense in that way. And an incredible amount of cocaine. Yes. And that's the thing that kind of jumps out is like,

Everything about this movie is 1970s, but the bloat is pure 80s. Like the excess. It bridges the two decades. It's made in 79 and released in 80. Yeah. I don't like musicals. Okay. This is my favorite musical.

By far. I don't even know what's second. What's your favorite musical? Singing in the Rain. I love The Wizard of Oz. I really love classic musicals. I am almost allergic to modern musicals. Yeah. I think that this is a cool version of a musical. I think the people who made it, what did they describe it as? Oh, as a musical in camouflage, one of the producers said, which I thought was a cool way of describing it, which is like, yeah, there's a lot of musical numbers here, and the movie is basically a series of set pieces, like you said. Yeah.

but no one breaks out into song to explain the story. Yeah. Which is something that a lot of people who don't like musicals tend to blanch at. What's your favorite musical? It's a little bit of a cheat, but All That Jazz. Oh, that's a good one. More about choreography than it is about music, but it has a lot of... Also about drugs. Yes, and also about drugs.

Going back to the Belushi thing, because you're asking like, what was it like? Like what it had, how was he perceived? Because you think of all the lineage of the guys, especially Farley. Farley became like the son of Belushi and just talked about him constantly and was from Chicago. And, you know, it was almost in some ways seemed like he just wanted to repeat Belushi's fast life and quick death. The only thing I can compare it to is like athletes.

When you like somebody comes in and like Dr. J comes in and it's just like, whoa, you can do that. Like, I just don't feel like Belushi is,

He was like a complete original. And even in the first SNL, he's the first person you see. He's doing the one where he's like, I'd like to feed you fingertips to the Wolverines. But I remember this skit that I saw when I was like, who is this guy? It was when he played the Incredible Hulk in the Superman sketch. And he blew out the bathroom. And it was one of the first SNL sketches I'd ever seen. I was like,

I was like, what's going on? What world is this? Can I just go into this world? But that was it. He just had it. Some people just have it.

Some stars are, they're inconceivable. Like you can't really imagine being around them. Like Julia Roberts, like for something like that, where you're like, I would never see this person in any place that I would ever go. They exist on another plane of existence. And Belushi is like the Olympian of the funniest guy in every bar in America. And the fact that, tragically I guess, but he truly was like a man of the people. Yeah.

It's a kind of stardom that I just don't think we have that much anymore where it's this idea that people would have like, oh, I was out at 1 in the morning, 3 in the morning, and John Belushi came in with like 15 people and they took over the jukebox and they bought the entire round for the entire house. And I think that that has something to do with his charm. And they said he was like the all-time, all-time king of the city in Chicago. Yeah.

Like, just kind of just moved around. Probably never had a wallet. Could, like, hail a cop car to take him home from the bar. People were just putting cocaine in his pocket. Yeah. I think what, when you think of how, like, short Belushi's career actually was, like you mentioned, he really didn't make that many movies. And not that many good movies. He was only on SNL for 80 episodes, you know? But I think part of the legend and the stuff that I used to love when I was, you know, in the 80s after he died, and it was, like, one of the first really sad deaths for me. It's like, oh, man, I fucking love, but he's dead?

But a lot of the legend was all these stories and just these larger than life and people trying to save them and people trying to help him and

You know, he was just like this comet that wasn't going to last. It was kind of part of the point of him. I feel like his iconography, though, is a little bit of an inaccurate representation of what kind of a performer he was, though. Yeah. Because he's actually a much more serious actor in almost everything that he's done. And even in this movie, this is not a Chris Farley performance. I mean, he's dancing, but... It's almost more...

Will Ferrell's more applicable because it's the idea of playing something deadly serious that's so absurd. Yes. But he's not pratfalling. Yeah. You know? Yeah, the best... He did some really good stuff on SNL, but the best one, one of the most famous sketches they ever had was that Star Trek one when they cancel Star Trek and it's Kirk. Yeah. And it's like a nine-minute sketch and he's just like grating it. But he could basically do anything. One thing that I always thought with him...

after the fact was like the, all the movies he didn't make, uh,

You know, like, because About Last Night came out in 86, which is a movie CR and I love. And Jim Belushi played the part that was supposed to be the Belushi part. There's this whole other era where he's just, like, randomly, he's the rom-com buddy in one movie. He's, like, a sports GM in another. Like, he just, I feel like his career could have been great. Obviously, that's part of the appeal of that. Yeah, you wonder what his aspirations were. You know what I mean? I don't know. Like, could he have played, he couldn't have done Raging Bull, maybe, but, like, you could see him playing, like,

you could see him playing. Like how Jamie Foxx almost did that turn when he was in Ali and all of a sudden started... I don't know what...

I think you can see it even in... I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen Old Boyfriends. Yeah, Talia Shire. But that Talia Shire movie, which is directed by Joan Tewksbury, written by Paul Schrader. Yeah. And he has like a... It's a funny part, but it's a really serious part. You know, like he obviously was drawn to a kind of intense pathos in the characters while also being able to be Blutarski. You know, like he could do both of those things. So I guess... I think he would do a lot of serious stuff. He's just...

trained theater actor. The documentary was excellent about him. The best Belushi story was that one, they're like in the Hamptons and they're up at 5.30 in the morning and they're like, the party's way over and it's just like Ackroyd and somebody else and they hear this like splashing and they look out and Belushi's just doing like cannonballs off the pool and Ackroyd looks at whoever was with them and he's like, Albanian oak. Because Belushi was Albanian. It's like pure Albanian oak. So you can feel some of that

Even when you watch this, I'm sure there's scenes when he's just zonked out. He's got sunglasses on the whole time. But when he turns it on, he turns it on. Sounds like a hard production. I can't wait to talk about that. From an SNL standpoint, these guys pop on the show twice. They're on for the fame. First of all, they were a warm-up act. Then season three...

March 78, April 22nd, Steve Martin's the host. This is still considered the best SNL of all time. And they're the musical guests. And they did Hey Bartender and I Don't Know. And people are like, what's going on? These guys are on the cast. That led to the summer and everything after. Then they were on in November again. They did, for Carrie Fisher's show, they sang Soul Man. So when you look back at Belushi's 78,

where he's on the biggest show. He's opening for Steve Martin, who's the hottest stand-up comedian. Animal House comes out in late July, becomes a phenomenon, is going on magazines and stuff. Then they come back for season four, and they're like, they've transcended the show. It happened to Eddie Murphy, too. But then in December, they put out the album from the live thing, and that sells out and goes platinum.

And it all happens in, like, nine months. And I don't think, you know, he couldn't handle it. There's a thing with SNL where, obviously, like, it's like, is it funny or, you know, like, what sketches you like? But I think, and the movie Saturday Night tried to get at this. A lot of the discussion about SNL at this point has gotten at this where it's like, it's also this club you want to be a part of. Yeah. And, like, this cool club. So the idea...

of these guys being like what we really like is 60s soul and blues right and so we would like to like form the greatest bar band of all time and like we'll gig around and we'll warm up before but like maybe you can find a spot for us here or here or here that that actually is part of the snl mission as much as like weekend update or maybe right like the you you want to see like this weird

like cool club that you want to be a part of. Like it's that idea of New York City, that idea of like. Yeah, they build a blues bar and then all of a sudden it becomes one of the hot places in New York. Yeah. Yeah. I think also it just underscores that Saturday Night Live at the beginning was a variety show. Yeah. It wasn't 14 sketches consecutively. It was something a little different than that. And that something like this, which isn't

Like, there are no jokes. It's weird because it's neither funny nor the best version of this music. Right. And yet there's something kind of entrancing about what they're doing where you're almost like waiting for it to be something other than them just singing a Sam and Dave song. But then you get to the end and you're like, that was cool. As a kid though, I loved when Boolushy would do the somersaults. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

I loved Ackroyd with the briefcase where they'd unlock it. I liked how he danced. It's just all the stuff they were doing. It had like bits inside of it that you were trying to figure out what they were doing and why they were doing it. But it was also really, because of Ackroyd, it was so sincere. Yeah. I mean, he really like,

just loves the blues and blues history. Like, really loves it. That was one of the cool lessons from this whole thing. Like, these guys did it and they actually did it. Like, and part of it was because Blue, she was so charismatic, but they went and got some of, like, the best, the best backup people in America. They took it super seriously. They really tried to, like...

you know, figure out their performances. It wasn't like some vanity thing. No, Steve Propper and Doug Dunn are in the Booker T and the MGs. One of the great bands in American history. Hall of Fame sidemen. They're in the conversation for the best sidemen guitarists of all time. So by the end of 78, Belushi's the most important finding person. He probably took the title from Steve Martin. It's probably them in the finals at that point. The other interesting part with Belushi and Aykroyd together is like there's just not a lot of great tandems.

Because I feel like if Belushi stays alive, these guys probably make 15 movies together. Like Damon and Affleck, we saw there's a trailer for another movie with them. That looks great. Rip. I can't wait. But there's not a lot of tandems. You think like Laurel and Hardy a million years ago, Martin and Lewis. Yeah. Adam Costello. Yeah. There's a long, there's a lineage of it in American comedy before that. But not like the last 50 years. Yeah.

Like Farley and Spade made two movies and weren't some SNL sketches. There have been a couple of examples. Steve Martin and Martin Short have done a bunch of stuff. But it's not as common as it was. Because of vaudeville, it was a thing that vaudeville really pushed where you were coming out for teams and teams had routines that you liked that they did for years together. And they're riffing on that.

Well, that's, you said that earlier about this, this is like something that belongs to the seventies in some ways. Those were a lot of the shows that I watched as a kid. Like I love Flip Wilson. That was one of my favorite shows.

Donny and Marie had a show. Captain and Tennille had a show. All variety shows. The Osmonds. Crocket and Tubbs. Mary Tyler Moore had a variety show. These shows where you do sketches, but then you would also sing. They kind of made sense in that context. I don't know how many SNL movies we've had since. I think it's eight since this.

And probably pieces of other ones or characters. But like based on characters that are in the show, I think it's nine total. So it opened the door for at least like, oh, they're making a Wayne's World movie. All right, I'll try it. Do you think this is far and away the best Saturday Night Live movie? I think Wayne's World is really good. I think Wayne's World is more of a coherent movie.

It's weird because I think this is a better movie, but Wayne's World is funnier. How about this? Which one would you rather order as a 4K Blu-ray? Well, I'll take both when they issue Blues Brothers on 4K. Are you going to do an update on your habit? Yeah, you're slipping down the rabbit hole. I watched this Blues Brothers movie on 4K Blu-ray. Did you? Yeah. And? How did it look? Fantastic. Can I make a case? Okay, so I'm glad you brought this up. Really good. Obviously, you know I love to talk about this.

I watched the movie on Blu-ray. I don't own it on 4K. And then I watched the bonus material like I always do when we do these pods. And the bonus material was all converted from VHS. Yeah. And I was like, it looks better this way. This is interesting. This is a movie. Now, not all movies from the 70s and 80s are like this, but this is a movie that feels right to me in VHS. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah.

I don't feel that way about Predator. Some people would say, oh, Predator is like that. I saw it on VHS for the first time. No, but I feel that way about Trading Places. Right. There's a griminess that I think works for... The cinema of John Landis is really appropriate for VHS. It is a VHS cinema, for sure. That's the only time he was a true powerhouse in the industry. Farrell and Riley. Yeah. I guess have been a couple, but nobody thinks of them as a tandem necessarily. They kind of fell out, right? Yeah. So, the Chicago movie Renaissance is another piece of this CR. One of your favorite topics. Sure.

79 and 80, we have My Bodyguard, Blues Brothers, The Hunter, Steve McQueen. Solid movie. And Somewhere in Time with Chris Reeve. Oh, wow. And then it was because they had a new mayor, Mayor Daley. And she's like, let's grab some of that Hollywood. So eventually that leads to 1981, Continental Divide, big chunks of Escape from New York. Filmed there. And a movie called Thief.

by the one and only Michael Mann. And then we're off. Risky Business, Sixteen Candles, Streets of Fire, Code of Silence, Class. We're just off. But Booze Brothers is one of the first ones. And I think probably the one that, probably the biggest Chicago love letter, I would guess. Like they even figured out a way to put Wrigley Field in there out of nowhere. Yeah. Ferris Bueller is a pretty good one. Yeah. But I don't think there is a Ferris Bueller without Booze Brothers. Yeah, I agree. I agree. We also have musical numbers from James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ruth Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker.

We have cameos from, or extended parts from Carrie Fisher, John Candy, Henry Gibson, Twiggy, Steve Spielberg, Joe Walsh, and Frank Oz. There's a Jerry Orbach cameo in the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, that's like, I do kind of miss that vibe in movies. Yeah. Where it was like, this guy showed up for a day. That's the guy who does Miss Piggy and then there's a Miss Piggy joke 20 minutes later. Yeah, we should do, we should have like, Paul Thomas Anderson should appear as a clerk in more movies. I would love that. Yeah.

famously troubled production, as Sierra alluded to. Ackroyd, six months to write the script, and it was 324 pages, and incoherent. And then they had to whittle it down. He had never read a script or written a script, and wrote a 300, yeah, it was like a Bible book.

With like just tangents and his thoughts about like Catholicism and weird shit in there. Did you guys go into depth on Ackroyd when you did Trading Places? Did you have like an Ackroyd segment? I don't know. No, I don't think so. We talked a lot more about him. He's so interesting. He really is. He has this crazy brain and this amazing career and he's still alive and he's still showing up in Ghostbusters movies and he's still selling Crystal Skull vodka.

And he's clearly a one-of-one. I mean, there's never been anybody like him in movies. He is a Canadian. But, like, he also...

Women loved him, by the way. Which is really weird. Stickman? When you watch... Landed Donna Dixon, which was like, no small feat in the early 80s. She was a goddess. When you watch the Reitman movie, he's got Dylan O'Brien playing him. He was a young, handsome guy. And it's legit. He's kind of the hunk of that show. But we know him as, I don't know, Ray from Ghostbusters. Goofball nerd guy. What happened, all of a sudden, he was Tommy Boy, the big, portly, carsome... Yeah, it's...

I mean, he was so young when he was on SNL. I think he was like 22 or 23. And then just does the Belushi. It's always... I think he was a little more... A little more Randy in the late 70s, early 80s. And maybe Belushi gets too much credit for it. And Akron, I think they were definitely running mates from time to time. But I think everybody was like that back then. And also, like, there's still an era where...

you know, the people who wind up on television or in movies have had a life before that. And he's like got a bar in Toronto and he, you know, is just obsessed with this music and has all these like, he's invested in all these cool things. Almost as like a public intellectual in some ways, but it's just translating it into the most absurd,

But he's in that, he's in a great lineage of kinds of SNL guys that I love. Like, like Hater, like Phil Hartman. Could write for themselves. Had their own idea, had their own characters, were good at impressions, and were like, their brains were traps. And really, really good partners. And also sold people. Like, would do Straight Man, but also would do Julia Child. You know what I mean? Like, he could do, he could do all that. He's so interesting to me. He created the prototype for Hartman, Hater, all those dudes. He was the first one. And,

Um, there's only a few people that have been on the show where everybody else was like, the guy was like a fucking genius. Um, he just was, it was clear he was going to outgrow the show and do something else and do more stuff. Anyway, he ended a 324 page script and there was no budget. And, uh, and it was a mess from the beginning car crashes. The downtown scene at the end costs 3.5 million. Um,

Akroyd worked cocaine into the budget because they had so many night shoots. Yeah. People were cool with that because it was 1979. I actually got that done for this show too. Just a heads up. Blue Shoes Party like the maniac. I was going to do cocaine before we did categories. Is this the closest you've ever been to cocaine? Because you famously were like, I've never been in a room with cocaine. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, this is, you can feel the cocaine oozing off the Blu-ray when you put it in. You're like, oh, oh yeah. If you could have, you would have done the line off of the Blu-ray. Belushi could have talked me into it. There was so much drugs and partying that they opened a bar on the set called the Blues Club for themselves, crew, and friends. This is, why don't we have a private bar called like the, the war room, like the draft war

room or something called the trade machine drugs and alcohol yeah the trade machine is the ringer speakeasy people would line up like a bar in the basement of this building at Spotify they don't have to know Daniel doesn't have to know Daniel

Well, it ended up being a $27.5 million budget, which was like a kajillion dollars in 1979. That's a lot, yeah. That's like a Fast and Furious movie now. There's a lot of Lou Wasserman being completely pissed off about how much and calling and killing guys day after day about how the budget spiraled. They just kind of lost the control of this. Yeah, and like...

It sounds like there was documentation of the fact that this was going out of control and that Belushi was kind of out of control, but not in the TMZ. We have this on Filmway. It was more of a like urban legend. Did you hear Belushi closed down the old saloon last night? Well, it made $115.2 million. It was 10th overall in 1980. It's still to this day the sixth biggest musical of all time. Hmm.

It was released on the same day as The Empire Strikes Back. What a movie theater day that was. Incredible. That has to be one of the top. I remember we did that once about the best day in a movie theater. That's got to be up there. They launched a Blues Brothers concert tour the same day. Do you know it was right above the Blues Brothers that year at number nine? What? It also had the word blue in its title. The Blue Lagoon. Oh, yeah. So funny how some movies are remembered and others are forgotten, you know, in that time. I think that movie's been canceled. It has been canceled.

LA Times, Charles Champlin. Great critic. Called it a $30 million wreck, minus the laughs. Mixed reviews on the Blues Brothers. Pretty savage, because people knew it cost a lot of money, and they launched a tour the same day, and I think people were doing the whole ego's gone awry kind of thing. Didn't matter. Yeah, and then the movie did. The champs of it were Ebert and Siskel. Siskel loved it. Ebert gave it three stars.

He said the Blues Brothers cost untold millions of dollars, kept Thornton and Grohl completely out of control, but director John Landis has somehow pulled it all together. Belushi and Akra had come over as hard-boiled city guys, total cynics with a worldview of sublime simplicity.

There's even room. They're on a mission from God. Pulling a fantasy there, yeah. There's even room in the midst of the carnage and mayhem for a surprising amount of grace, humor, and whimsy. Raj. He must have loved Belushi. Yeah. You know Belushi probably turned up the charm of them at some point. So yeah, we forgot to mention that, or I forgot to mention the Landis directed Animal House and they got him for...

Blues Brothers, and they were pretty tight. Landis in the middle of an amazing run of movies. Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House, Blues Brothers, Werewolf in London, Coming Soon, Trading Places, and then obviously Twilight Zone. Coming to America. Yeah. Of the top ten movies that you're talking about this year at the box office, seven of them are comedies. That's very different than how things are now. Landis as a director, any movie nerd notes? No.

master of the comics at peace from that period of time. Obviously, his career is seen in a completely different light because of the tragic events in the Twilight Zone movie. But I think he often, despite not having the nicest reputation as a person, got the best out of complicated comedy figures, including Belushi, including Eddie Murphy. Like, he really got... Chubby. Chubby. He got really, like, their best movie performances most of the time. You know, Three Amigos. Like, he really...

captured something very special in them. And I think part of it was because he created a lot of chaos. And those people are good in chaotic environments. It's a bummer that Craig's not here today. But it's one of those things where you're like, is what Landis does best? Is that what's aged the worst? Does anybody find 80 car pileups entertaining anymore in that way? In this movie...

He takes it to an art, like a level of art. It's absurd. That is so funny and exciting. But. Well, it's almost like they're making it like a comic book or something. Totally. And it, but like through the first half of the movie, there's a part of me that is like,

this is kind of boring. And then, like, just to make us sit through, like, yet another car chase. But then, by the time the car goes into the truck, I'm like, this is genius level stuff. You know, like, I've never seen this before. So I think it's pushing it, like you're saying, like the pushing of the envelope is part of what makes him good at what he was going for. One of the deleted scenes, they leave the gas station after Twiggy drives away.

And Belushi's smoking a cigarette and he throws the cigarette and it blows up the gas station. I was like, why'd they cut that? 90 other terrible things. There are jokes in this movie or like things that happen in this movie that he was lampooning in Kentucky Fried Movie like a couple of years before. But it's almost like, no, this is what happens when you give this guy. Yeah, when you make a real movie. Like $30 million. Yeah. We're going to take a break to the categories.

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On Max. What's the exact perfect age to see this movie? I thought about this long and hard. I think it's like late teens. It's like 18, 19. Yeah. I would say. Want me to tell my relationship to this movie? Yeah, go. When I was 16 years old, my uncle was an executive at Seagram's. And Seagram's was owned at that time Vivendi Universal. And 1998 is the year of Blues Brothers 2000.

And unfortunately for my 16th birthday, Chris has heard me tell this story many times. He, he, he lived in California and he flew me to Los Angeles for my 16th birthday. He was my godfather. And we went to the premiere of blues brothers, 2000.

and went to the after party, and I met the entire cast. And that was the moment when I was like, I have to move to Los Angeles. Like, I have to be here. I was already obsessed with movies. And I watched the Blues Brothers like five times before seeing Blues Brothers 2000. So I was like, I got to get ready. Like, I got to prep. Just in case Aykroyd is like you. Yeah, you never know. But, you know, I was just really, really excited. And we didn't know that Blues Brothers 2000 was going to be such a fiasco. Like, there was kind of anticipation for it.

And it's a sad one. The movie is really rough, but you would never know at the after party at the after party. It was like we did it once again. Another masterpiece from Dan Aykroyd and John Landis furthering this legacy of this franchise. But so I got the movie in my bloodstream because of that. And I was 15 going on 16 when I was watching it and getting obsessed with it. So that was going to be my answer for that question. Hmm.

I have 16. I think it's a great age because you would be just getting into maybe like other kinds of music outside of pop music. So you'd be interested in like soul music. And this is what it was case for me is like that was right when, you know, like Otis Redding box set was coming out. The stack singles box that was coming out around then.

And then you're also like, I like car crashes and I like watching things blow up. Yeah. The correct answer might be 10. Cause I really love this movie. And I was texting, I'm on this text story with a couple of my best friends from high school and the guy they went to college. And I was just like, Hey, we're doing blues brothers. And they're just like orange whip, orange whip, three orange whips. And all of a sudden they're just texting lines. New old mobile, old mobiles are out. Um, the, uh,

It's just one of those movies. And I think, like, Stripes was like that. Caddyshack. There's just a couple from the early 80s that they just lived on for four and a half decades now. I think it's probably a little tough to watch this after 30 for the first time. For the first time. Yeah. That's also, like, what's the wrong age to watch this movie for the first time is an interesting counter question. I don't know if, like, if you're 30 years old right now watching this, I don't think you can...

correctly capture the impact of like James Brown and Aretha and Ray Charles at that point of their career. Where it just felt like a huge deal that they had all those people. They were still functional. I didn't know who Jeremy Hooker was. They were still like working musicians at that time. But many of them were on an ebb.

You know, they were like at a lower... But it was just amazing that they were in the movie. Because it was like this whole genre of music that was like, holy shit, this is just like an SNL sketch. It's also so cool too because they're characters. So it's like there's the reverend, there's the waitress, there's the pawn shop guy. It's like they are being brought into the story rather than, hey, we just happened upon a James Brown concert. Yeah. Most rewatchable scene. I mean, the opening...

When Jake gets out of jail and they hug and the way they shoot it with the two things. Yeah. And all of a sudden we're listening to Mule to Ride. Day I get out of prison, my own brother picks me up in a police car. We're just off. And then we do the bridge jump. Like we're just coming out of the gate. Really good opening. Reverend James Brown. Cleophas. Yeah. I've got Jake's epiphany written down here. I feel like that's...

an iconic moment from the epic James Brown, epic Belushi. Jesus tap dancing Christ. Yeah. Think stunt double for some of the somersaults for the, yeah, for the handsprings for sure. The band. Um, this is going to be a finalist for me. The, uh, the first real car chase in the mall, the mall. Yeah. Fucking kills me. Dixie square mall. Here when imports baby clothes, this place has got everything.

New World's Mobiles are early. It's a good... Just like they're all dead panning and it's just people are running for their lives diving. That is what malls looked like though. I do feel like malls are simultaneously exactly the same and completely different. There's something really janky about malls in the 1980s. They're not like that anymore. Baby clothes. Belushi's like so zonked out. He's like, this place has everything. Yeah.

It's so good. I also love any scene in a mall from like 19... Like Fast Times had this too. It's just so funny to see the malls back then. It's just not like that car chase needed to go up a level and they're like, what if we just drove through a mall? It's great. That's what I had for the Dan Campbell skill for holy shit, are they really going for this right now? I think this is like at least an eight and a half. Ches Paul. God, I love this scene. I think is my favorite scene when they just destroy the French restaurant. Yeah. How much for the women...

How much for the little girl? The women? How much for the women? What? Your women. I want to buy your women, the little girl. Your daughters. Sell them to me. Sell me your children. May I? May I?

Paul Rubens. The shrimp cocktail. One of the criticisms I'd have of this movie is you probably needed two more scenes just to unleash Belushi. They really like unleashed Belushi in this scene and I wish they had just done it two more times. So I guess in Aykroyd's quote unquote script, there was eight individual plot lines for the recruitment of every member of the band. Yeah.

And it was like, this is probably not like a functional story, but like, right. It probably doesn't need like a five minutes. Yeah. But it probably would have been a lot more like just let Belushi cook in this venue. Right. They compress it where you've got like all of a sudden the fry cook comes out of the back in the restaurant and it's like, he's in the band too. They, we didn't get the individual origin stories. Your woman sell them to me. Who else is pulling that scene off? Uh,

I mean, he's asking the guy at the next table if he can buy his eight-year-old daughter and it's fucking hilarious. And he's like eating the, eating the wedge salad that they have. Yeah. We're going to come back here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Soul Food Cafe. That whole scene where we start, we just get some John Lee Hooker. Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom. What movie is that? What's the other movie that that's from? That's like, is that Risky Business?

Boom Boom Boom is it? I don't know. I mean, his song... That song's prominently involved in a movie we love. I think it's Risky Business. I always think of him with I Need Some Money from Blue Chips. That's like a very famous scene. That's a good one too. That's John Lee Hooker's song, yeah. And then we get Aretha, Dry White Toast and Four Fried Chickens. We got two honkies out there dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants. Say what? They look like they're from the CIA or something. What they want to eat? The tall one wants...

White bread, toast, dry, with nothing on it. Elwood. And the other one wants four whole fried chickens and a Coke. And Jake, shit, the blues, brother. The dried white toast bit throughout the whole movie always cracks me up. She sings You Better Think, and we get some of the best acting of all time from Macintosh.

who just kind of has to move along. He's so pretty, confused. And you know they're filming takes for 10 hours and he's just wearing an apron. There's a lot to discuss about the quality of acting from the backing band in this movie. It's tough. But Aretha's great. It's so cute to see what you're doing to me. You better think, think, think about what you're trying to do to me. I don't think, think, think that your mind will let yourself be free. Oh, freedom! Yeah, freedom! Freedom!

She had to lip sync, I guess. There's some stories about she had a little trouble with the lip sync. Maybe they could have let her belt it out. John Lee Hooker was recorded live and I think he was the only singer who was recorded live for the entire movie. That makes sense. The song's really good. I really enjoy it. It's just so much fun to watch that. Then we go right

To Ray Charles. Yes. We go from Aretha right to Ray Charles singing and we're at Ray's Music Exchange. This is my favorite scene in the movie. This has the best dancing, the best like, this is the best musical number. Excuse me, I don't think there's anything wrong with the action on this piano.

Well, I heard about the fella you've been dancing with all over the neighborhood. So why didn't you ask me, baby? Didn't you think I could? Well, I know that the Bookaloo is out of sight, but the shingles ain't the thing tonight.

choreographed dance sequence right in front of the L train. And the dancing in this scene is, I did not know or it didn't occur to me before, they just do this dancing during Twist and Shout and Ferris Bueller. Yes, the same choreography. Basically the same choreography and all the jumping up and down and stuff. You think Baby Kane was like, what the fuck? That's a good question. What soul stars were like, what? I'm right here. Bob's Country Bunker. Got that too. Rawhide.

Read it in the stand by your man It's really good Galush is just like Move him up Move him out Would you live pod from Bob's Country Bunker Absolutely In the Chicken Wire Andy and I were actually doing our Landman recaps I was just gonna say This is perfect for Sheridan recaps Exactly They're just throwing beers at us Minnie the Moocher Yeah Palace Hotel Both Blues Brothers songs Carrie Fisher in the Tunnel The Iconic Line

It's 106 miles to Chicago. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes. It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it. Boom. Let's hit it. And then the final car chase highlighted by the...

the nazis falling to their death for like two miles yeah yeah it's not a pinto the blues the blues mobile collapsing which i used as a joke in columns for like the next 20 years and then uh all the guns pointed to them at the end what do you got most rewatchable scene

I'm going to say Ray's Music Exchange. Okay. And here's why. I think Ray Charles is the best actor who's not an actor in the movie. And he has comic timing, which we later learned watching Pepsi commercials in the 90s. And I love...

I love... That is like... That feels the most like a musical sequence. Not just because of the dancing that you're talking about, but because they really do need instruments from him. Like, it's central to the movie plot. Now, it's not as fun as the car chase stuff, but I love the song that is played, I love the dancing, and I love the comedy. So, that's my pick. Yeah. I have Shay Paul as the funniest scene in the movie, and this is my favorite scene in the movie. So, I don't know what's the most rewatchable. I have Shay Paul or The Mall. The Mall kills me. The Mall's good. Um...

The okay motherfucker award for the exact moment when the movie goes up a notch. Is that the same as the Dan Campbell scale? We really got to, maybe I got to pick one. I think they've won both of those. In the church with Ackroyd or whoever's like, and God bless the United States of America. We're ready to go? Yeah. What's the most 1980 thing about this movie? Would you go with the 1970s police cars that are just getting destroyed left and right or expensive suit being $10?

I think probably the, well, I have other ones, but I would, I have that the other executive who was the rival, uh, from Paramount who wanted this movie and didn't get it was Don Simpson. Oh, Jesus. Which I don't know if anyone lives through production of Don Simpson is running it. Yeah. A production where they already had cocaine in the budget. Yeah. Yeah. And the other one was being so famous. You just decide you're a musician. Yeah.

Like, being so popular and so beloved that you're like, you know what we gotta do? Make an album. Yeah. Mine is related to that, which is just an R&B musical car chase movie about two white felons. Like, I don't think that would get made today. On a mission from God. Yeah. That's not the, you know, that reminds me of 1980. Yeah. What's aged the best, Belushi and Akarad?

Elwood's Crappy Apartment, if you've seen this movie enough times, you really got to study it when they're in there. It is like 8 by 10. I got some incredible takes about that one. I've decided that I do want to talk about that. Okay, we'll save it. We'll save it, yeah. What's aged the best? Shitting on white supremacists? That's a great one. That's a great villain. Yeah. Learned that from Spielberg. Yeah. Calling a head nun the penguin? Yeah. That was really funny. I don't think I got that when I was a kid.

Carrie Fisher's hair salon was called Curl Up and Die with a D-Y-E. It's so good. Also, just like her bit of being like, I am learning advanced weaponry to kill this guy. Such a perfect thing to happen the year of Empire Strikes Back. You know, she's not the damsel in distress. She's the destroyer. Her being in this is what's aged the best. The, uh,

We see a wide shot of Chicago and there's a movie theater and the three movies are Escape from Alcatraz, The Warriors, and Up in Smoke. Ooh, that's a sick line. Just sounds like a fucking unbelievable triple header. We used to really make stuff here. That's a good trio. Definitely not a triple header for a date. I'm not working today. I think I'll go see three movies in a row. The boys brought a six pack into the movie theater. Ray Bans, Blues Brothers and Risky Business, Supercharged, Chicago Movies, and Ray Bans.

You mentioned Colleen Camp's Playboy magazine poster, which was also featured in Apocalypse Now, that they carefully put in Elwood's apartment, I think as a tribute to Apocalypse Now. Were you able to like kind of... Do you want me to do it now? Yeah. I don't know why I clocked that, but watching it this time, I did clock it that the poster that is in Elwood's apartment is Colleen Camp from Apocalypse Now. She plays one of the Playboy bunnies. But in researching this, excuse me, that I was researching this, in researching this, I learned, and I don't think this is apocryphal, I think it's true, that it was Linda Carter...

from Wonder Woman, who was originally cast in the role that Colleen Camp was cast in. In Apocalypse. In Apocalypse Now. She went to the set of the movie, and she filmed scenes, but Hurricane Olga hit during the production of Apocalypse Now. So she had to leave because they closed down the production because the production closed down many times during the making of that movie. She goes back, and when she goes back, she gets cast in the TV series Wonder Woman. So she's not available anymore.

to be in this movie. So Colleen Camp gets recast in this part. Thing is, by the time they recast, they had already done the Playboy photo shoot with Linda Carter. So a very, I learned all this last night, I promise you. A very rare piece of movie memorabilia is the original poster of Linda Carter in the centerfold

And Colin Camp is also shot in the exact same pose, background, styling, everything in the centerfold that appears in this movie. What's the Linda Carter centerfold going for on eBay? It just said sold on the site that I found. So I don't know. But Bill, if you want to try to contact me. Sold to me.

I thought that was a great movie arcana. That certainly answers the piece of memorabilia you would want from this movie. So that's a more important Linda Carter picture than the Philippine Shakey's photo? I guess so. One of the great photos of all time. Shakey's like the pizza place? She's wearing a Shakey's pizza shirt, but it says Philippine Shakey's. Oh my God. Yeah. Let's just say she doesn't not look awesome. There's a lot of Linda Carter prop memorabilia stuff out there. All time. What a legend.

of Chicago for what's aged the best. It just uses a lot of it. And I really appreciate it. What else do you have, CR? Conducting meetings in saunas. Oh, yeah. The reveal that the entire band is in the sauna with them. And the way Belushi's like, how's Mrs. Slime? Okay.

I love that scene so much. And then, yeah, I had Curl Up and Die. I had the making of the movie being better than the movie itself. Just stuff like that. I think also just SNL converting characters to movies. Yeah. It really paved the way for a huge thing that became a big part of the show in the 90s. Also, this is pretty basic, but this music, like the 60s R&B soul is...

arguably the best music America's ever produced. Never expires. And it's just like when you hear them... That's one of the big things for this movie, I think. The music has aged perfectly. Yeah. I don't know if this is a what's aged the best or what's aged the worst, but when Phil Hartman did the Sinatra group sketch and Mike Myers as Steve Lawrence...

And he, they're just, and him and Edie Gourmet are just sucking up to Phil. And he's like, you tell him chairman. Is it Jan Hooks? Who's Edie? Yeah. Wait, was it Jan Hooks? Who played Sinead? No, she played Jan Hooks. Okay. Somebody else was playing Edie. Cause he's like cue ball. But at some point Sinatra gets mad at Steve Lawrence. Like, shut up guys. You're just swimming in my wake. And he's like, what's wrong chairman? And,

And for some reason, anytime I see Steve Lawrence, I think of that now. We should do a rewatchables for Phil Hartman sketches. Oh my God. That's my number one favorite. He's the best. That was the chunks of guys like you in my stool. Great shot, Gordo.

Most cinematic shot, Jake's footsteps when they're leaving prison, they go underneath for the shot up. Yeah. But I really like the very end when it scales back and there's 300 people pointing guns at them, that one shot. That's good too, yeah. It's really good. What do you got, anything else? I got the trooper going into the truck. Yeah. Okay.

Kid Cudi Pursuit of Happiness Award Best Needle Drop I don't know if the songs count when they're built in numbers so maybe John Lee Hooker I had Boom Boom just because it's not one of their songs and it's also just so sick the way they shoot it and like see him okay I agree the Chess Rockwell and Brock Landers Award for Best Character Name I mean Elwood Blues is pretty good Juliet Jake Blues Juliet Jake Blues I like Matt Guitar Murphy so I had Matt Guitar Murphy and Blue Lou Blue Lou Maroney yeah

Macintyre, Marfago. All right, CR, flex category. What do you got? When would I have died? I'm taking this from usually thriller and horror movies that we do. But one of the things you have to wrap your mind around when you're watching this film is just how many times you would have died. So I would have probably gone when Carrie Fisher detonated the SRO hotel and the entire room caves in. Or I would probably be shopping for worker furniture at Dixie Square Mall.

and got hit by an old Spookio. We're like, oh, we can just put this right outside. That's a nice piece. That's a good one.

The Vincent Chase Award for Are We Sure This Character Was Actually Good at His Job. The Clarion Records head who just sees one song with his convicted felons. Here's a bag of $10,000 cash. And I'm also going to aid and abet your felonious escape. I know everyone's looking for you guys, but here's $10,000 cash. Yeah. There's a few people who are eligible for this award. Also maybe for the next award. But let me ask you this. Are the Blues Brothers good at blues music? They're good at

R&B? Yeah. When do they, do they ever sing a blues song? No. Not really. It's more like 70s blues, I think is the gimmick. Yeah. I know it's like electric blues, but they're not singing Muddy Waters songs really. They're singing like Sam and Dave songs. They're singing. Yeah. Well, and for the most part, they dance a bunch and do like speeches. Which is obviously not what blues musicians do. You know, Sean, they're entertainers. That's fair. They just, they called themselves the Blues Brothers. Well, that is obviously your Butch's girlfriend award for the weak link of the film. Yeah.

I guess so. Yeah. I guess it was, are they good at their job? They were good at entertaining. Yeah. Were they great at blues music? Are we sure that Burton Mercer was good at his job? The parole officer? Well, I was going to say, are we sure the penguin was good at her job? It doesn't seem like a huge tax bill. How about this? Nobody was good at their job in this movie. Good point. My weak link though is wanted fugitives trying to sell out a benefit concert that they're headlining. Just seems like a bad idea. Yeah.

Let me raise awareness for this thing that the cops are immediately going to find out. It's a flaw in the movie. Yeah. I think that there's probably one too many antagonists. So my weak link is maybe we could have consolidated some of the various people chasing. The Nazis, the rednecks, and the cops? Carrie Fisher and the cops. Yeah. Right. Could have made it just all three of them, you know, redneck Nazi cops. Carrie Fisher, Nazi cop. Right. Yeah. That would be good. What's aged the worst?

You go. I have some. Manual steering. You usually see these guys fishtailing around a lot. It makes you appreciate just a responsive steering wheel. I tried once when I was in high school, end of high school.

I saw a must like a 68 Mustang, like sold being sold out of a garage in Vermont. And I got my dad to let me like try and test drive it. Cause it was only like five grand. I'm sure it was an absolute lemon, but I got like 10 feet before I was just like, why isn't like, I don't know how to, how do you get this thing to respond to anything? And he was like, that's how cars used to be. He's to fucking turn it all the way to go like two feet to the left. Yeah. No Paul Schaefer in this movie. And there's a backstory to it where, uh,

They have the Blues Brothers, they're about to film the movie. Lorne Michaels is doing this Guild Alive project with Gilda Radner, who's the other biggest star in the show, and Paul Schaefer is the one who's working on the concert album for it. Concert album's terrible. They're all upset about it, so they decided instead of trying to do it again, they're going to do a live Broadway show and that will be the concert album and they need Paul Schaefer for it. So Paul Schaefer tells Belushi,

I'm out for the Blues Brothers movie. I can't do it. And Belushi flips out. It's like, you're out of the band. Yeah, you're dead to me. SG style. I'll hit you with my car. I can totally identify. I'll hit you with my Blues Mobile. Yeah.

I'm gonna fishtail you into a lake. But Paul Schaefer would have been, he would have been like the... He put the band together. The Murph guy? He landed on his feet. Yeah. It's just so fun to have him in the movie. It's a bummer. He would have been the keyboardist. But he's like, you know,

he clearly with with Ackroyd they handpicked all the side guys you know it's sad that he's not in it but it turned out fine is it what seems the worst is it Howard Shore being like you guys should be the Blues Brothers and then not being a part of this right going forward he did okay for himself ultimately but yeah I had for what seems the worst I wanted more SNL cameos like

Like, I just feel like Bill Murray could have been in this. I feel like Steve Martin could have had like a minute. Yeah. I think if they're doing that, knowing everything we learned in the 90s and 2000s, they would have probably. Like Lorraine Newman could have been. Yeah, they just sort of worked in a couple people. We love when Hartman shows up in So I Married Next Murder, right? Right. Everyone here calls me Vicky. Imprisoned Pa Lance, that was his bitch. Blues Brothers 2000 I have as a What's Aged to Worst. We've all agreed not to talk about it anymore.

Here's a great story. I gotta say, I don't know if I saw it. It's a tough sit. It's bad? Yeah. So, the most powerful theater chain was Mann Theaters?

ted mann was the guy that ran it and landis tells this whole story about um he basically said i'm not booking this i'm gonna play this in compton no white neighborhoods at all like this will not be in brentwood um he didn't want black patrons going there to see the film he didn't think white people would want to go see a film that had all these black musical stars in it and the movie gets released and it has half as many theaters as it normally would have

And yet still did really well. But yeah, not great. That's a definition of a what's aged the worst. It's just dumb as hell too. We're already coming off of like Car Wash and movies like that that obviously a lot of people went to go see. So I don't know. But you have to think of the era this was when you think about who was on TV, who was in a movie. There were so few black stars. I mean, there was like real racism back then. Yeah, of course. So it makes sense that it was like, no, unless it's like a stir crazy type of movie with...

Pryor and Gene Wilder like I'm not putting it in Brentwood yeah you could get it if it wasn't John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd you know it's not it definitely hurt the box office um

The Ruff Lohan and Ruben O'Partridge overacting award. I have one candidate. I don't feel great about it, but did you have one? I mean, it's blasphemy to say it, but it's Aretha Franklin talking about blasphemy. Like her one hammer line. Oh, that's good. Yeah. I like that. Don't you blaspheme in here. I think the entire band is...

a little over their skis here. But that's underacting. Yeah. They're not acting. I guess so. Matt Guitar Murphy. Sean's choice, flex category, what do you got? I already fired off my Playboy magazine postcard

poster for the criteria orgasm which I just you know I'm happy to share another criteria orgasm here on the show I'm really honored you know I just had one how did it look yeah it was typical of a criteria orgasm I was quaking yeah but yeah I just can't I couldn't believe that poster was on that wall in Elwood's house the CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford hottest take award

I have a good one. I think that Belushi's cocaine problem and Aykroyd's script probably led this production into disarray, but I wonder whether this would have come in under budget if they just cut the Carrie Fisher plot, which does not really have a whole lot to do with anything. It's just like this chick chasing John Belushi for one joke in a tunnel at the end. I love having her in the movie, though. It's great, and it actually does... It basically serves as a transition for each part of the film where she blows something up so that they can go off to do something else, but...

Yeah. There's some holes in Julia, Jake, and this lady who owned a beauty salon apparently were engaged for three years. And then he no-showed the wedding. I mean, it's hard to imagine Jake being engaged to anything or anyone. But Carrie Fisher's dating Ackroyd at the time. Right? One of the many people he was engaged to.

The sequel invalidates this movie's standing as the greatest SNL-related movie of all time because Wayne's World 2 is solid and Wayne's World is great. Okay. That's my hot take. And honestly, MacGruber's in the conversation, in my opinion. Wow. MacGruber! Would you ever do MacGruber? Yeah. It's on the list. My hottest take. Cocaine continues to be underrated. Pfft.

This is a great era. In what specific ways? But you don't know, like, okay, go ahead. Some of the stuff in the 70s and 80s is just so... Can you say cocaine is overrated? Underrated. Underrated, okay.

As a creative slash cultural force that wreaks so much havoc and ruined lives and careers and killed people and all that stuff, it led to some fucking crazy great shit like this movie that I just don't think is made if everyone wasn't on cocaine. They're just like, yeah, let's have Carrie Fisher. Oh, do you know her? Yeah, I'll write in a part where it's Jake's crazy girlfriend. He's just...

shooting grenade launchers at him. And like, this would just never happen in any other window than 1978 to 1986. Do you regret not having a cocaine era for yourself? Me personally? I think it would have been bad. How, how, how? I could barely handle Vegas. How good would your columns have been? Yeah, can you imagine your draft diaries? Up until 5 a.m. I would have been like fucking Taylor Sheridan cranking out

Cranking out 9,000 words a day. No, but it just, it led to movies and TV shows and choices that would just be inconceivable unless everybody around you was on cocaine. You should just get into it now. That would be funny. When you're an empty nester. But nobody knew any better. Back then, it was like if we thought coffee was cocaine. Yeah. We're like, oh man, Sean's had two coffees. A little concerning for me.

Sir, I'm sorry, but you've been using coffee your entire life. Casting what ifs. Actually, let's take a break. This episode is brought to you by Viore. I love sports. I know you do too. I also know that lots of you exercise, but if you're like me and my wife, the beloved sports gal,

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I'm just playing. Get the Angel Reef special at McDonald's now. I'm participating in restaurants for a limited time. Casting what ifs. Tough to find good ones. The only one they wanted, Olivia Newton-John, to be either Twiggy or I think the Twiggy part, but she was unavailable because she was working on Xanadu. Tough beat. Right after Grease. Yikes.

So the idea with Twiggy is like just we're going to get Elwood and love interest, right? I'm trying to think what the equivalent now of Twiggy is. It's like a Kardashian, not even like Kim.

It's like having Kylie Jenner in the movie. Like a professionally famous cute girl? It was an it girl from seven, eight years ago who wasn't even really totally an it girl anymore. I think it's more like an Addison Rae type or something. You know, like a TikTok star. Did you see Julia Fox made it onto the Charlie XCX performance at the Grammys? I did. It was her birthday, I learned, on that telecast. The studio wanted younger acts. They weren't happy with Aretha and Ray Charles and James Brown, and were trying to get...

Rose Royce from Car Wash to get in there. Seems kind of like, didn't you guys know what you were buying? You know, of all the things that I think went wrong, it's probably, it's in the title. Best that guy. Charles Napier doesn't count, I don't think, because he's Charles Napier. He would, this would be his third or fourth victory of that guy. I think when you win three times, you're not allowed to win anymore. I was like retired. But he does have the same scream that he does when Lecter's coming at him. Oh,

When the cars, when that giant Winnebago is about to go in the water, if you look in the driver's seat, he's like, ah!

That scene is so needlessly complicated by the whole union thing. Where it's like, have you paid your union dues? That whole layer to it. Henry Gibson to that guy or no? That's who I had. If you're a movie fan, like a hardcore movie fan, he's not. I think he's probably a that guy. I have an incredible that guy for this. Go for it. The young kid who tries to steal from Ray's guitar shop.

Oh, yeah? Who's that? He grew up eight years later, was the chauffeur in Die Hard.

Deveree, whatever his name is. Yeah. No way. I recognized his face. I was like, I've seen that guy. Yeah, it's the Die Hard chauffeur. Oh my God, dude. That's a great one. What a fucking combo for that guy. I don't know if... It's a great CV. I don't know if a lot of great things have happened in his life. Okay, that's not good. I think he's got some issues. There you go. I had Kathleen Freeman. Oh, it's the Penguin. Yeah. I feel like she's been in a ton of stuff.

Well, she's also eligible for the Dion Waiters Award, along with James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Carrie Fisher, Steve Lawrence, John Candy, probably a bunch of other people we could mention. Who do you got, CR? Spielberg in this? He can be in it. I have an Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles tie.

Is Henry Gibson in it too much? Yeah, he's in it a little too much. Because he's going for it. Yeah. In a big way. I think Aretha and Ray Charles just deliver. You know? Like, you're like, wow. Paul Reubens? As the waiter? He's barely in it, though. He gets one scene, but he communicates the entire Paul Reubens experience that we will soon be getting in America. I would go Aretha Franklin.

recasting couch director of city just paul schaefer just cgi i'm in here as the band leader can i do a recasting director idea yeah i think if john landis directs 1941 and steven spielberg directs the blues brothers they're both better that would have been a good how to say this is actually my my possibly unanswerable question is if spielberg directs 1941 and goes right into blues brothers and blues brothers goes out of control does he ever direct raiders

Probably not. Does he ever direct Poltergeist? I mean, how dare you? Please, respect Toby Hooper, please. Half-assed internet research. They used 13 different Bluesmobiles cars that were all bought at an auction. And then 60 other police cars cost $400 each. They had 40 stunt drivers. They had over 500 extras for the next to last $3.5 million in Dilley Center. Um...

The final chase scene, they dropped a Ford Pinto from a helicopter.

At an altitude of 1,200 feet. It's amazing. And the FAA had to give them a special certificate to be able to do it. Again, back to my cocaine theory. This just doesn't happen in any other decade. The FAA is on cocaine. They're like, great idea. Let's do it. This was a time too when directors were like, I don't care. I'm doing it. Yeah. And you couldn't stop them somehow. Yeah. Like they would just spend and spend and you couldn't stop them. Well, think about it. There's no texting, emails, cell phones.

So you could just lose communication with somebody for 18 hours. Well, also every day, my favorite piece of research, a lot of the behind the scenes stuff comes from this Vanity Fair article that was written about the making of the movie. But the chain of screaming that would happen every day when Lou Wasserman would wake up and find out what he spent the day before on Blues Brothers. Yeah. And then he would call Ned Tannen and yell at him.

And then Ned Tannen would call Sean Daniels and yell at him. And then they would call Landis and yell at him. And then finally it would be like down to Ackroyd who was responsible for getting Belushi to get to the set every day. So I read the Bob Woodward, Wired, all the Blues Brothers parts. Very controversial book. Yeah. The SNL people were all like really upset about it because they were working on the SNL book by Hill and Weingrad about the first 10 years. And they were like 80% through it. And then Wired came out.

And was just like a Belushi cocaine hatchet job book. Although it's not as bad as I think it was represented, but it definitely dwells on the drug stuff. But there's a lot of Blues Brothers stuff in that. And that, the Vanity Fair thing was basically a lot of that rehashing wired. But, but that's a fun reread.

Because it's just like, we're on the set, and then Belushi disappeared. And then we had to go find him, and he was doing this. Turns out he was at this guy's house, like two miles away. It's like you almost could have made a movie about Belushi making this movie. It could have been the movie. Don't give anybody any ideas. Yeah, seriously. They destroyed 103 cars, which was a record. Matrix reloaded in 2003. Wrecked 300 cars. Broke it.

There's a whole thing about how Belushi got hurt on a skateboard near the end and Lou Wasserman had to get the city's top orthopedic surgeon. Maybe this would be in the movie. He basically patches together his knee enough to hold up for the end of the film. The guy I'd just like to work on Mitch Kupchak or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. What would the movie be called? It would be like singing the blues. Just blues. Yeah, that's good.

It would be a movie that just made people mad, whatever it was. So they filmed the big musical numbers was at the Hollywood Palladium, but they made it seem like it was Chicago. And then... You know, one thing to add about that, the crowds are just great. You know, like in some movies you're watching, these crowds are not selling it. But they're really selling how much they love Jake and Elwood in those sequences. People are standing up. The only thing I don't like is that they weren't into it

the beginning of the first song. They kind of no-sold it. You guys came all the way out here. It's $2. You weren't excited at all? Dan Aykroyd said, many theaters in the American South refused to show the film because there are too many blacks in it and that it would have done better if not for the racism in the American South. Okay. And then Elwood, his data readout, I freeze-framed it, 116 parking violations and 56 moving violations. Okay.

And then it said arrest driver and pound vehicle. 56 moving violations is a lot. Yeah. I don't even think I had that in college. How many moving violations were you ever carrying at once? I mean, I almost lost my license. Speeding?

I had, it was like a point system. Yeah. And I had to go and it was, I was going to be at 10 points. So I had to go fight the ticket and I had to drive to like freaking middle Connecticut somewhere. Did you represent yourself in court? Yeah. I was just going to, I was going to say they had like a faulty radar thing. I'm out of order. You're out of order. The cop didn't show up.

Cop had like something and didn't show up. And I would have lost my license for my whole junior year. Maybe he recognized a future takesman in you and he didn't want to take it away. So you're saying he was a coward, that man. He wouldn't show up. He wasn't expecting it. You've been in a car with Bill. What do you think of that? I mean, I find the seatbelt thing distracting. But I think you're a pretty good driver. Your eyes just went very wide. 329 from Vegas, Texas.

To Burbank. Three hours and 29 seconds. We're speed brothers. Three hours, 29 minutes. Vegas to Burbank. Dropping off Corolla at his house. Yeah, but you wear a seatbelt. I do wear a seatbelt. And he's a big hangs a U-turn in the middle of Wilshire guy. Or he was. Listen, there's two ways to drive. Either you're a coward or you're the king of the jungle. Busy living or busy dying. Apex Mountain.

But Lucy's an interesting one. I think it's probably 78 Animal House SNL when he's still on there. The combo of that would be my favorite.

official opinion. I think you're probably right. I do love the idea of him being both Apex Mountain. It's not only his movie stardom, but his city stardom. Yeah. Is this Apex Mountain of a famous person in Chicago? How about a famous person in any city? Is it Michael Jordan? Yeah. But Belushi was like a man of the people, though. Yeah. I'm sure everybody who was in Chicago... Michael Jordan's steakhouse was open to the public. Yeah, he was sitting in the back.

I'm sure Belushi from 75 to 81 in Chicago, probably everyone who lived there probably has one Belushi story, but it'd be my guess. Like you said, he never carried a wallet. He ate for free. He drank for free every day. It's like Dave Jacoby. Ackroyd? I'm going to say no. I think Ghostbusters. Yeah. Is this Apex Mountain for getting your personal belongings back after leaving prison? For that scene? Yeah. The only other one that matches this is Rounders.

Oh, yeah. When Worm gets his toothpick. There's another famous one, though. I was reading about it. What is the other famous one? Is it 48 Hours?

I don't think he gets anything special back. So CR, when Red Art... Yeah, he gets his suit back, though. He gets his suit back. The suit was $957 and I wore the shit in. Yes. This kind of set the template for that move. So when we read our heist movie, we have a scene where they get their stuff back. And it's like, here you go. It's a pack of Marlboro legs. Your FanDuel account. One soiled condom. One used prophylactically. Yeah.

One same game parlay. Yeah. Chicago is a movie locale. No. Probably Ferris, right? Yeah. I would say Ferris. That's got to be the greatest scene ever filmed in Chicago. I love Thief.

Well, but that's like a different... I know. That's not the answer. It's my emotional apex. It's either Ferris or Fugitive. Were you on the Thief Rewatch? I was, and I was so happy. It's one of my favorite episodes of all time. That was a pandemic era one. That's, you know... Let's get on with this big romance! Oh, that's right. You did your whole thing about the diner date. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you know, I don't remember anything after the vaccine. No, I love Thief.

The Blues. I'm going to say no. Probably not. Bushy Sideburns. I think Elvis in Vegas. Okay. Carrie Fisher. This comes out same day as Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, I guess this is. Pretty good day for her. Wow. Not bad. She gets a little bit marginalized to Empire, I think. Right? It's more Luke story. Yeah. Yes. I think Jedi is like her real, like, she chokes out Jabba, you know? Right. She's sex slave in Jedi. Have you seen Return of the Jedi? No.

I saw it in the theater. Okay. Is that the last time you saw it? Probably. I remember being pleased. You remember being pleased? I thought Jedi was my favorite of the three. That's a classic Bill take right there. Come on. Jedi, the favorite of the three? Yeah. Good Lord. Well, I remember I really liked Han Solo and Chewbacca. And I felt like they really got to cook in the third one. The original Blues Brothers. Kind of the McHale and Parrish of the Star Wars universe. JC Penney's?

Has it ever gotten better than those guys going through the window? It's definitely Apex for Pier 1, right? Yeah, probably. These are stores that were, it was right around their apex anyway. Yeah. The 80s, late 70s, early 80s. But to have it called out by Jake and Elwood. Oh, Pier 1. Imprinted on you. Yeah. You shop there to this day. Illinois Nazis, I think definitely. The theme song from Rawhide, I'm going to say no. Probably the height of Rawhide as a television show. Yeah.

Orange whips. What is an orange whip, CR? I don't know. Three of them. I think it's like a Dole Whip in that it's like somewhere between an ice cream and a drink. It's like an Orange Julius, right? Cocaine. I think cocaine's had some big moments. I think Scarface is honestly like the cocaine's apex mountain. Yeah, I think a lot of just Richard Pryor in the 70s is kind of in the conversation. It's a tough one.

Because it has to be like a positive Apex Mountain. It can't be like this person died doing cocaine. But like live on the Sunset Strip, Richard Pryor is like him talking about being on cocaine and getting high and then what he did to himself. Might be like a Michael Ray Richardson triple-double in like 1979. Sure. Like a 29, 17, 14. The new Oldsmobile is definitely Apex Mountain. Absolutely. It came out early. James Brown, no. Horrible apartments. Probably there's been worse.

Has there been a worse apartment than Elwood's apartment that was next to the El? My least favorite apartment ever in a movie is the 7-1 where the person was being starved to death. Oh, yeah. That's my number one. Sloth? No. That's the one you don't want to rent right after. Sloth? It is sloth. Yeah, that's why. Tough beat for the next tenant. Dicks! McGinley. You know, we did Silence as...

basically a comedy should we do seven as a seven ready to just have just fun with that i'm so in what's in the box the re7 a laugh riot yeah detectives blues brothers as a band i'm gonna say yes this is their apex over going platinum is that or on what was that one called bag briefcase full of blues yeah it sold four million albums which is pretty nuts it's a lot of albums

Vengeful Ex-Girlfriends, no. John Landis, no. What is Vengeful Ex-Girlfriends? I had checking out of prison. What is Apex Mountain for Vengeful Ex-Girlfriends, just out of curiosity? Fatal attraction. That will not be ignored. Is Coming to America Landis' Apex Mountain? I think so. It's a tricky one. Unless you want to go... But that's post-Twilight Zone, isn't it? Oh, yeah. No, it's probably Animal House. Isn't it Animal House? Yeah. All three of them are in a similar range box office-wise.

Cruz or Hanks? Why not both? No, you can't. That was my answer too. Cruz and Hanks. Don't be cowards. Then Hanks is Elwood. Hanks is Elwood's answer. Okay. I won't argue. Scorsese or Spielberg? Clearly Spielberg. Wait a minute. Hold on. But we know Cruz knows how to do a back handspring because of the firm. Just like Jake does in the movie. Are we sure? No. It has to be Hanks. Imagine Cruz being like, how much for the women? Yeah. How much for the little girl? Yeah.

Spielberg versus Scorsese. Although Scorsese's version of this, Scorsese gets to make the making of the movie. The cocaine's in the movie if he makes it. He makes blues. Yeah.

Yeah. Like you could see that. Jennifer Brulette, Aniston Coolidge, Connelly, Garner, Lawrence or Lopez for the Carrie Fisher part. I had Lawrence. I had four question marks. I'm not sure that any of these women make sense in this movie. I like the idea of like a younger Lopez as Carrie Fisher is pretty cool. Oh, just good. Or Jennifer Coolidge as the penguin.

Oh, Jennifer Coolidge is the penguin's kid. Coolidge wins that one. Did you skip calling Rosillo? Are you backing away from that idea? No, I'll call him right now. I received a text from a friend today who said the most exciting moment in podcast listening he's had this year is hearing that we were going to call Ryan on Before Sunrise. And he was at the edge of his seat. He's going to think it's because Durant got traded. Yeah.

Oh, Ryan! Come on, buddy! Damn. 0 for 2. At least hit us with a, hey, you've reached Ryan. Not here right now. Grinding tape. Because he was like you called, right? Before. Yeah. Son of a... What role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played in the movie? The John Candy role. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. Burton Mercer.

The Ed Norton reversed dunk award. Did this movie need a random sports scene? I think that there's an even more coked out version of this where the 1980 Cubs come into play here. Is Ron Say on that team? What are we talking about? This is the height of Walter Payton. Where is Walter Payton? Well, it's summer, right? Those are both noble answers, guys. But you're both wrong. Okay. It's a pick-up-hoops basketball scene where he goes to find one of...

one of the band members because they're playing in a game. Okay. And who's in it? There's cameos from Mark Aguirre and Magic Johnson in the game. Who's on the 80 bowls? He's just saying local Chicago players. I'm saying we use local Chicago dudes. Oh, Chicago guys. Okay. And that's how we get it. Pick a nits. I have a million, so I'll let you guys go. It's more just like of a general comment, which...

This is a movie where if you subtract certain elements from it, there's no movie. If you took out the car chases and the music, this would be like a 42-minute movie, which is fine. I love this movie, but it's just a note that there's not really much of a plot. Yeah, I have some... Took a cheeseburger out of a bun. It's not a fucking cheeseburger. It's called Pickin' Nits. Jesus. Yeah, I have some questions about the money in general. So, Ray...

lets them take out $1,400 in musical instruments on an IOU. Well, they say $1,400 is what they would return out of the $10,000. And $1,400 in 1980 is roughly like $100,000 right now. So he gave them a $100,000 IOU. I don't know if my conversion may be off. Let's just say for the sake of conversation, it's $50,000. He let them walk out with $50,000.

It's a good friend. That's not ideal. On top of that, $5,000 in back taxes or the IRS is going to close an orphanage. That was my biggest one. What? It's a church-owned orphanage that has to pay a property tax bill. Yeah. I'm going to guess it's tax-exempt, the orphanage. I think so. So to premise the whole movie on this, we could have done a little better.

How did nobody get run over in the mall as a picket net? Yeah. How did nobody die at any of Carrie Fisher's? But the way that they did it is great because that was a mall that was closed and never reopened where they shot. The Dixie Square Mall had been closed for two years and they shot it in there while it was closed fully. But it had extras there, yeah. I'm saying in real life if you're making this movie somebody gets hit. How did Carrie Fisher's character get a rocket launcher? Could you just buy one of those in 79? I ran Contra. Let's go. Yeah, get Qaddafi.

This is my wife who watched the middle half of the movie with me and then went to go watch Below Deck. The Soul Food Cafe, she felt like had 40 health violations. It was disgusting. Also, Mac Guitar Murphy, as soon as he finds out Jake and Elwood are there, just leaves a live grill going. It's like, Jake, Elwood! And a wife and a business. Saxophone is standing on the countertop. Not what you want. Yeah.

I mean, the biggest nitpick in this whole movie, what happened to the good old boys? Why were they so late?

They had a gig. They just showed up at the end. Everybody at the bar is gone. They're like, we're the good old boys. We're here. It's like, yeah, you guys are four hours late. Probably a lot of road closures because of all the car chases that have been happening. So just traffic was a bitch. How did the band drink $200 worth of beer at Bob's Country Bunker? It's a lot. In 1980, beers were like 50 cents. That is a lot. Nine guys in the band. They had 400 beers. Yeah.

That's like Wade Boggs numbers. Is Twiggy really just like, I'm going to wait at this motel for that weird guy who smells that... That I gave $94 to? Elwood, he had a magnetism, you know? He had game. There's a nighttime daylight thing that's a little dubious in this movie. Oh, yeah. They escape after the concert, probably 11 o'clock. Okay. 10.30. Concert started like 8, maybe let's say 9.30.

And they're on chase and they're in Chicago. They weren't that far away from Chicago to begin with. They're like two hours from Chicago, yeah. But now it's the morning and people are at work at nine o'clock. So there's 11 hours unaccounted for. Again, cocaine. Yeah. Continuity errors. That's how you lose 11 hours. Yeah. Sequel, prequel, prestige, TV, all black cast are untouchable. Untouchable. Well, unfortunately, there was a sequel. Or there wasn't. Okay. Yeah.

You could apply Fletch 2 Rocky 5 rules and just live your life like it never happened. That's good. Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Trejo, Doris Burke, Sam Jackson, Nell, Byron Mayo, Barney Cousins, Tony Romo, Harley Mays, Chris Collinsworth, Daniel Plainview, Long Legs, or Wilford Brimley in...

the firm. I was thinking that it would be amazing if Daniel Plainview was the third Blues brother and introduced them at the Palace Hotel. It was like, we're so glad to see many of you lovely people here tonight, and we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of Illinois' law enforcement community that have chosen to join us here in the Palace Hotel ballroom. You, me, them, everybody. Let's sing the blues. I had Romo

During basically any car chase. The Nazis are falling, Jim! They're not going to make it! They're falling about 130 stories, Jim!

The same energy that he brought to Mark Andrews dropping that pass. Oh, Mike. This is just a woman scorned with a heat-seeking missile launcher. You can get those from Gaddafi any way you want, man. Mike, she's got to move on. She's just got to... I know it was three years that left her at the altar, but come on. Just want to ask her who gets it. The soundtrack? Ackroyd? I say Belushi. Belushi? Belushi?

Best actor? Nobody can do what he can do. I was going to say Ackroyd for, not screenplay. For story? Yeah, for inspiration. Was best movie that only makes sense if you know that cocaine was involved an Oscar category? They should add that. That should be a rewatchables category. Does cocaine make this movie make more sense? Yeah.

So the 81 Oscars, De Niro wins for Raging Bull, Duvall, Great Santini, John Hurt, The Alpha Man, Peter O'Toole, The Stuntman, maybe Belushi bumps Jack Lemmon in Tribute? Oh, I've not seen that. I don't think I've ever seen Tribute. Otherwise, I don't know if Belushi's getting in that one. Probably not getting past Bobby D on that one. Probably unanswerable questions.

The owner from Bob's Country Bunker just is now in a jihad trying to find Jake and Elwood. He just closed down his business. What happened? For 200 bucks. Was anyone working there? I just think he hates being made a fool of. That's it? He's just going to follow this guy all around? Why was Bob's Country Bunker so close to Chicago and Illinois when it seems like it's in Arkansas? Is that the idea that it's kind of in Indiana? Yeah.

Is that what it is? I think so. Because India, like, it doesn't take long to get from Chicago to Indiana. Then once you're in Indiana, you can get to some country bunkers pretty fast. I have one more. Did they ever think of just having characters do cocaine in these movies when the movie is so clearly fueled by cocaine? It's funny. There's not a lot of, not a lot of cocaine use in the 70s in movies. Ever. Yeah. It's a good point.

The 80s and the 90s, it changes. Only like in Cruisin'. That's like only when Scorsese gets to Last Temptation of Christ. Right. He's got Judas Doolittle. Lots of blow. What is he doing? The handkerchief? He's doing like formaldehyde or like he's doing like uppers or something. Sniffers. Recruisin'? I'm in. I'm there.

I have an additional question. Coming out on Blu-ray soon. 4K Blu-ray. Yeah, 4K. It's like $70. Yeah, thank you, Arrow. Thank you for all your work that you're doing. $70? Who's buying Cruisin'? Not you, but you're going to wait until it's $35. I'll wait. Total Recall was $10 the other day. I was like, all right, I'll take that down. Cocaine Bill buying full-price DVDs

That's a documentary I would watch. That's what if I was doing cocaine, that's the kind of stuff I'd do. I'd be like, oh my God. You should get it. All the Hitchcocks. You should get a GoPro, but only put it on when you start surfing for Blu-rays. You know, when you're just like, do I add it to the cart? Do I not add it? It's $49.99 too much for me? They had Eternal Sunshine was on and I almost bought it even though I don't really like the movie. You don't like that. See, this is what happens. You're going to have Lebowski and you're like, I've never seen it. No, no, no.

I'm not crossing that line. Bill is one of the great collectors, and I knew this would happen one day. What piece of memorabilia would you want? Wait, I have a question. Oh, go. How bad did these guys smell? Oh, Jesus. There's not a shower in sight. He gets out a Juliet. He's wearing the same clothes he wore going in.

The guys at Shea, the family at Shea Paul is like, they smell. We want them moved. In 1980, can you imagine how bad, when you start smoking sections in restaurants, how bad somebody has to smell to ask them to move? I think it, well. In sewers. Were we more okay with people's body odor 40 years ago? Good question.

I talk about this with my wife a lot when we watch like 1883 and 1923. We just watched American Primeval. Yeah. And I was just thinking of like the odors as somebody who, you know, has bad eyesight. So I have a super nose. Oh, yeah. Like Spider-Man. My wife said...

The odors are just so bad all the time that eventually your brain kind of phases it out. It's like if you hear a loud noise all the time, you don't hear the noise the same way. Yeah. That's what it is. You become overpowered. Your brain is able to shut off that scent. In the Westerns, it's like there's no indoor plumbing. So you have to imagine anywhere where there are people, it's pretty bad. Right? The only way to compare anything to it now is the smell of a hockey locker.

locker room. That's it. That's how, if you want to know what the 1880s were like. It's pretty rough. Just going after a triple OT game in a hockey locker room. My nephews play hockey. It's not ideal. Wrestling's up there too, I think. Why is the guy who invented deodorant not more of a saint? A hero? Yeah. Why is he not someone whose name we know? Or a woman. Maybe it was a woman. But way back when, they kind of liked malodorousness.

A musk. They like the man musk. There was that famous story about Napoleon telling his girlfriend or his wife, like, I'll be home in three weeks. Don't wash. Yeah. Yeah. That's how you are. But that was supposed to be like a kink. He's like, don't even bother getting clean for me because I'm about to kick Russia's ass and they didn't come home. It's tough to eat. Yeah. Probably unanswerable to the point about the poster. Does this take place in the same universe as Apocalypse Now, this movie?

Is there a Colonel Kurtz? Is Captain Willard maybe going to see the good old boys when he gets back from Vietnam? Did he have a copy of Briefcase Full of Blues? What a sequel that would be. Could be. I didn't realize Elwood and Jake are playing. That would be fun. How many of these movies would Belushi have made if he'd lived? This is the question. I was curious about this as well. Do you think that he keeps making reliably blockbuster comedies or do you think he starts really pushing out his boat

to do drama and stuff. He's one of those I want to be treated as a real actor people. So all bets are off with that. But it's possible like that America's Guest thing you mentioned earlier. It's possible that they're doing cocaine one night and they're just like, I wrote this script called America's Guest and all of a sudden they're making it.

Because I really think that's what the early 80s were like. I just think like somebody had an idea, they had a typewriter, they're just like typing it out for eight days at the Chateau Marma and then they're making a movie. I had one more unanswerable, but just also just curious about, do you think this is the reason why like Lorne became more hands-on with people's adaptations of SNL stuff?

Because he wasn't really a part of this, right? And kind of turned it... He wasn't, but I could be wrong about this. You're more of an expert on this sort of thing. But when he came back to the show, I think he put some things into his deal that anything that was an SNL produced movie would be part of the universal agreement that they made and Broadway Video would participate and it would all be licensed through the show. Whereas this was not. Yeah.

Yeah, and also he had been on the show longer, and I think by the 90s, people were more scared of him. Okay. Right. So that was like the famous story of when Conan did The Tonight Show. We took it over, and he didn't kind of...

bring Lauren into it and then Lauren couldn't protect them Lauren's like a fucking mafia boss yeah so then Leno was able to do the shit he did that if Lauren had been involved in the show they're never fucking with Lauren right he could have been the shield so I don't think he had that kind of power in 1980 right you read all the stuff you read from the late 70s is just him realizing like oh god like you're just once these people hit a certain point they're just gonna leave or I'm gonna lose them loyalty doesn't matter the whole thing yeah um

What piece of memorabilia would you want or not want from this movie? When I went to the Blues Brothers 2000 premiere, they gave everybody a hat and Ray-Bans. And everybody wore them. And it looked ridiculous. And I did. And there's a photo of me wearing it. I look so stupid. But...

you know elwood and jake's hat and ray-bans would be a sick item of movie memorabilia so i researched this and apparently belushi lost like 500 ray-bans during the filming so there's just no way to even know yeah yeah there's no original akroyd the briefcase that elwood had i think it seems reasonable the car the broken down car after the fact yeah i think could be cool but i think the answer is probably the poster the calling camp poster just because of the

A lot of history there. Yeah. Yeah. Like you basically would try to get that one. For sure. Yeah. Captain Willard cranking it to Colin Kane. Or the harmonica would be another good one. Like the harmonica they use in the big scene. Coach Finstock, the word. Best life lesson.

Sometimes you need a mission from God. Yeah. Mission from God trumps everything else. I got two. Yeah. One, pay your parking tickets. Yeah. I feel like they could have avoided a lot of problems if they'd done that. Two, I love that the sign in the prison at the end of the movie, it's never too late to mend. Yeah, that's what it says in the letter above the prison. I feel like that's a good message to take away from this movie. Don't leave your girlfriend at the altar. Yeah, especially not if she's got an inroad to Gaddafi. Yeah. Guns of the Ammo magazine. Best double feature choice.

Animal House? I got a weird one. Wayne's World? Bertolucci's The Leopard? Old Girlfriends? Continental Defy? There's a very...

A little-known Walter Hill movie called Crossroads. Not little-known to this guy. Oh, yeah. Ralph Macchio. Ralph Macchio and Joe Seneca about Robert Johnson and the history of blues. That is a cool movie. Yeah. And it is like, that's a movie about the real blues. This is a movie about modern blues. My double feature would be The Commitments. Oh, that's good. Yeah. That's by a group of Irish kids who started a 60s soul band.

The Zawadney Award for what happened the next day, adding this in. How many years were Jake and Elwood in prison? What do we think? He just did a three-year bid. So he's a recidivist. Yeah. So that's held against him. I think we're talking about 10 to 15 years here. A lot of property destroyed. A lot of cop cars destroyed. A mall's destroyed. Multi-time offenders. Yeah. Does he save the orphanage though?

You know, I think Blues Brothers 2000, doesn't it start with Jake getting out or with Elwood getting out? No, but that would be 18 years. Doesn't matter. The other thing I was thinking about last night is we are now further away from that movie than the sequel was from the original, which is like fucking devastating time-wise. Well, we also, we talked about Belushi movies he didn't make. He was supposed to be in Ghostbusters, which was the fork in the road with that movie. Oh, yeah.

What was he going to play in Ghostbusters? Ackroyd was writing that for the two of them. So he was going to be like Venkman? Yeah, he was going to be the Bill Murray character, I think. Oh my God. Yeah. It's time to do Ghostbusters. It's time to do Ghostbusters. We were supposed to do it last year and I don't know what happened because it was the 40th anniversary last year. I just watched it randomly last year and I was like, this movie is sick. I watched it on a plane the other month. I was like, this movie is perfect. Well, it's another movie that got really helped by the widescreen.

Because it had a really strange cable TV run. The way it was shot, it was like a lot of this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great movie. Who won the movie? We never do two people for this, but I don't think it has to be Blush and Akron. Yeah. It's Luca and LeBron. Luca and LeBron. It's Luca and a Miller Lite. Yeah. I'm with you. I agree. It's both of them.

Alright, that's it for the pod. Thanks to Jack Sanders. We did not have producer Craig this week because as we're taping this, he is at the Super Bowl. Do we know if he has seen this? Well, I think because he's obviously become, he is something of a huge SNL fan, he'll at least respect it. But I think he might find it a little bit dull. Got some great emails. I'm not sure when we're doing the next mailbag, but got some really good ones at the rewatchables33gmail.com. You can also watch the Ringer Movies YouTube channel.

Where we put up, Oscars are coming. Soon. Less than a month. You had to tell me what to bet soon. I don't fucking know. That's part of what makes this a fun one. It's a lot harder to make picks this year. Fun one or not fun at all? It's one or the other. Well, I would say the scandals are a little unpleasant. The movies are okay. But not knowing is exciting. It's time for the Zag King to put all his money on Carla Sofia. I'll never top what was the movie in Gloucester two years ago.

We hit that with 14-1. You hit CODA hard. That was nice for a work from you. Yeah, but there's no CODA this year where you'd be like, oh, that one's going to win. Well, to me right now, it's a complete unknown. The Dylan movie. Which is a movie that everybody likes, even if they don't love it, and has no scandal attached to it whatsoever, and has been a box office success.

Man, that's hard for me to believe that would win the best Oscar. You can still get good odds on that movie right now. You can't get good odds on the other top three. You think it's going to be helped by preferential, was it preferred choice? Preferential choice voting? Yeah. A lot of people may have it at two, three, four, maybe not as many at one, but that's what matters this year. Oh, that's right. So you can just be like third, fourth. God, imagine if sports worked that way. That'd be so stupid. CR. Thank you. Fantasy. Thank you. See you next week.