‘The Blues Brothers’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey

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What are you cooking up over there?

I'm talking a lot about modern medicine.

Oh, exciting.

Because of the pit.

Yeah, sure.

Doc?

Yeah.

You 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 good.

Scattered report.

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 Blues, walkthrough party in the county jail.

Dan Aykroyd, Elwood Blues, The Blues Brothers.

They smell bad.

You are such a disappointing pair.

They contemptible pig.

You better pray the police get to them before we do.

Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, The Blues Brothers, a musical comedy rated R.

Now play at a theater near you.

All right, so when this runs, this will be SNL 50 week.

This was the first SNL movie, the 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 me.

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 on theater.

They're pointing guns at us.

How old are you?

1980.

So I was 10.

Wow.

Whoa.

So even back then, at 10, you would already like, were you just obsessed with Belushi?

Yeah.

So the Belushi thing for me, he was like my first favorite, but it started, they used to rerun the SNLs in prime time.

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 didn't know about it.

Okay.

I didn't really know about it till season three, season four.

Okay.

And then anecdotally, just people like my parents friends doing the wild then crazy guys and stuff like that but you did you almost didn't know what it was and it was on so late it was like someday i'll stay up late and i'll watch yes and no i think season four was probably when i snuck up a couple times but them rerunning the primetime stuff

uh 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.

Yeah.

Which is like there's no sporting event that gets that now except the Super Bowl airing at 1130.

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, you know, which is like a kind of celebrity thing that if people are 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 balushi was really literally like he was america's guest right yeah one of a kind uh the guy that didn't jump off the show initially because chevy chase did but then when chevy chase leaves then belushi and ackroid 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 SNO.

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 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, his, 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, it's, 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 Blushy was like the straight man and then near the end like his eyebrow goes up and you go but it just this was kind of the movie that became this and animal house were the two that uh became the ballushi movies but that animal house wasn't a ballushi 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 Farrell, like all of the guys who are in the lineage of what Belushi started

for a joke.

Yes.

The 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?

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, he had 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 of the three, the weekend

for it, you know, with the idol and the album and the movie coming out later this year.

But he, between the show and then Animal House, he hit some level of stardom that just I don't think is, you can't, you can't compare it to anything now because it could 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 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.

He's doing like what I read the book about.

Yeah.

L.A.

Yeah.

And the Blues Brothers are opening up for them.

Like, can you imagine having like a ticket for that?

That Universal Amphitheater show, that the first one that they did with Steve Martin became that album that you're talking about and sold almost 4 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.

Like, 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.

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 can't believe I had that.

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, and you're getting Belushi and Acre at their peak.

You're getting James Brown and Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin and then all 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 have an, I don't think not being there takes it away.

Cause to me, the success of this movie and Belushi's power is a little bit like hearing like Orson Welles is the greatest director of all time.

Like someone tells you that.

Someone tells me that when I'm 12 and I'm like, well, that just must be true.

Yeah.

You know, like 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 Smoky 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 a 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 the 80s.

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, 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 uh it's a little bit of a cheat but all that jazz the rash 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, I just don't feel like Belushi,

he wasn't, 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 the, it was the, uh, when he played the Incredible Hulk and 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, 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 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.

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 one of them, 30 in the morning and John Belushi came in with like 15 people and they took over the jukebox and they bought the entire like round for the entire house.

And I just, I think that that has something to do with his charm.

And they said he was like the all-time, all-time king of a city in Chicago.

Like just kind of just moved around, probably never had a home.

He had to sell a cop car to take away from the camera.

People were just putting cocaine in his pocket.

I think what when you think of how like short Pelusi'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, 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 him and people trying to help him.

And, you know, he was just like this comet that wasn't.

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 like 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, it's Will Farrell's more applicable because it's the idea of playing something deadly serious that's so absurd.

Yes.

But he's not prat falling.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah, the best, he did some really good stuff on SNO, but the best one, one of the most famous sketches they ever had was that Star Trek one when they cancel Star Trek and he's Kirk.

Yeah.

And it's like a nine-minute sketch and he's just like grating it, but he could, he could basically do anything.

One thing that I, I always thought with him after the fact was like all the movies he didn't make.

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 the, he's the rom-com buddy in one movie.

He's like a sports GM GM in another.

Like, he just, I feel like his career could have been great.

Obviously, that's part of the, yeah, you wonder what his aspirations were, you know what I mean?

I don't know.

Like, could he could he have played?

I don't, he couldn't have done Raging Bull, maybe, but like, you could see him playing like a boxer, you could see him playing like how Jamie Foxx almost did that turn when he was in all league and all of a sudden started.

I don't know what I think you could see it even.

I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen Old Boyfriends, yeah, you know, like, but that Talia Shire movie, which is directed by Joan Tewkesbury, 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, he could do both of those things.

So I guess I think he would do a lot of serious stuff.

He's a 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 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.

Like, I'm sure there are 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.

Yeah.

Sounds like a hard production.

I can't wait to talk about that.

Oh, I can't wait to talk about that.

So, from an SNL standpoint,

these guys pop on the show twice.

They're on for the

famous.

First of all, they were 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 guest.

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 Soulman.

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 as going on 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 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

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 yeah, 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.

Yeah.

As a kid, though, I loved when Belushi would do the somersaults.

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 balushi was so charismatic but they went and got some of like the best the 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 like

they were in the booker t in the mgs one of the great bands of america 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 funny person he probably took the title from

from Steve Martin.

It's probably them in the finals at that point.

The other interesting part with Belushi and Ackroyd 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 Lewis.

Yeah.

Adam Costello.

Yeah.

There's a long, there's a lineage of it in American.

But not like last 50 years.

Like Farley and Spade made two movies and weren't semester.

there have been a couple of examples.

Steve Martin and Martin Short of

their stuff sort of doing, but it's not as common as it was.

Because of vaudeville, it was the 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 70s 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.

Donnie and Marie had a show.

Like, Captain and Teniel had a show.

A variety of shows.

At the Osmonds, the Osmonds.

Fucking Tubbs.

Mary Tyler Moore had a Mary Tyler Moore had a variety of shows.

These shows where you do sketches, but then you would also sing.

Yep.

So they kind of made sense in that context.

But this was, you know, I don't know how many SNO 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.

Okay.

So it opened the door for at least like, oh, they made it.

They're making a Wayne's World movie.

All right.

I'll try it.

Yeah.

And do you think this is far and away the best Saturday Night Live movie?

I think Wayne's World's 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.

We do

that.

Which one would you rather order as a 4K Blu-ray?

Well, I'll take both when they issue.

Are you going to do an update on your habit?

Yeah, you're slipping down the road.

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, like I don't feel that way about Predator.

Like, some people would say, oh, Predator is like that.

I saw it on PTSD.

No, but I feel that way about like trading places.

Right.

There's a griminess that I think works for.

The cinema of John Landis is really appropriate.

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 I've made a couple, but nobody thinks of them as a tandem necessarily.

It 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 yeah solid movie and uh somewhere in town with chris reeve oh wow i know and then it was because they had a new mayor mayor daly and she's like let's get 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, 16 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 Balus Brothers.

Yeah, I agree.

We also have musical numbers from James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ruth Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker.

We have cameos from and/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 that's like the, I do kind of miss that vibe in movies 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 Ciara alluded to.

Ackroyd six months to write the script and it was 324 pages and incoherent.

And then they had to like whittle it down.

He had never read a script or written a script and wrote a 300.

Yeah, the 300.

It was like a Bible

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 if we all explained it.

I think we talked about that.

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 no never been anybody like him canadian movies he is a canadian but like he also

women loved him by the way which is really weird but

when you watch uh landed donna dixon which was like no small feat in the early 80s yeah when you watch uh the rightman movie you know he's got dylan o'brien playing it who's like a young handsome guy and it like like, it's legit, you know, he's like kind of the hunk of that show, but we know him as, I don't know, Ray from Ghostbusters, you know, goofball nerd.

What happened all of a sudden, he was Tommy Boy, like the big

portly, like, Carson.

Yeah, it's, I mean, he was so young when he was on SN.

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 than maybe, 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, this is 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

almost as like a public intellectual in some ways, but it's just translating it into the most absurd

boxes.

He's in that, he's in a great lineage of kinds of SNL guys that i love like like hater like phil hartman

had their own idea had their own characters were good at impressions and were like their brains were traps like and really really good writing writers and 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 i don't he's 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.

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 it was a mess from the beginning.

Car crashes.

The downtown scene at the end cost $3.5 million.

Acrod worked cocaine into the budget because they had so many night shoots.

People were cool with that because it was 1979.

I actually got that done for the show too.

Yeah.

Blush's Party Like the Maniac.

they

i was gonna do cocaine before we did uh the category is this the closest you've ever been to cocaine because you famously like i've never

been in a room with cocaine yeah

yeah i mean this is the 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 war room, like the draft war room for somebody

call it the trade machine?

Drugs and alcohol.

That's good.

Yeah, the trade machine has the ring or speakeasy.

People would line up the best.

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 1970.

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.

Like, did you hear Belushi close down like like 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.

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 what was right above the Blues Brothers that year at number nine?

What?

It also 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 from Blues Brothers.

Oh, Charles.

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 awry kind of thing didn't matter yeah and then then the movie did what the the champs of it were ebert and sisco yeah sisco loved it ebert gave it three stars he said the blues brothers cost untold millions of dollars kept throwing your girl 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 overread there they're on a mission for god pulling pulling a fantasy there yeah There's even room in the midst of the carnage in mayhem for a surprising amount of grace, humor, and whimsy.

Raj, he loved, he must have loved Belushi.

Yeah, you know Belushi like Belushi probably turned up the charm with him 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, Twilight Zone.

Yeah.

Coming to America.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Of the top 10 movies that you're talking about this year at the box office, seven of them are comedies.

That's a great time.

Very different than how things are now.

Landis, as a director, any movie nerd notes?

Master of the comic set piece 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 Annie Murphy.

Like he really got

Chevy, he got really like their best movie performances most of the time, you know, three Amigos.

Like he, he really captured something very special in them.

And I think his 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 I, it's, it's a, it's one of those things where you're like, is what Landis does best,

is that what's aged the worst?

Like, does anybody find 80 car pileups entertaining anymore in that way?

In this movie,

he takes it to

a level of art

that is so funny and exciting, but.

Well, it's almost like they're making it like a comic book or something.

Totally.

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 like just like just to direct like to make us sit through like yet another car chase yeah but then but what by the time the car goes into the truck i'm like this is genius level stuff you know like this is i've never seen this before yeah so i think it's pushing it like 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 blows up the gas station.

I was like, why did they cut that?

Yeah, like they left 90 other terrible things to it.

I was like, I wasn't in this movie or like things that happened 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

$30 million.

Yeah.

We're going to take a break through the categories.

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What's the exact perfect gauge 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.

You want me to tell my relationship to this movie?

Yeah, go.

When I was 16 years old, my uncle was an executive at Seagrams.

And Seagram's was owned at that time Vivendi Universal.

And 1998 is the year of Blues Brothers 2000.

And

for my 16th birthday, Chris has heard me tell this story many times.

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 Ackroyd 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.

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 so I mean, this is what it was the case for me is like, that was right when, you know, like Otis Redding box set was coming out, the Stack Singles box set 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 because I really love this movie.

And I was text, I'm on this tech 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, new 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.

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 careers.

Yeah.

where it just felt like a huge deal that they were still functional, like, I don't know, James, they were still

working musicians at that time.

But they, many of them were on an ebb, you know, they were like 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 isn't just like an SNL scene.

It's just because they're characters.

So it's like, there's the Reverend, there's the waitress, there's the pawn shop guy.

You know, it's like they are being brought into the story rather than, hey, we found, we, we just happened upon a James Brown concert.

yeah most re-watchable scene i i mean the opening when jake gets out of jail and they hug and and uh the way they shoot it with the two things and all of a sudden we're listening to a 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 for them.

Epic James Brown, epic Belushi.

Jesus Tapped Insan Christ.

Think stunt double for some of the somersaults.

Oh, no.

For the handsprings, for sure.

The band.

This is going to be a finalist for me.

The first real car chase of the mall.

The mall.

Fucking kills me.

Dixie Square Mall.

Heroin Imports.

Baby clothes.

This place has got everything.

New Walesmobiles are early.

It's a good thing.

It's just like they're all deadpanning, 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.

And Belushi's is like so zonked out.

It's like, this place says 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.

It's just not like that card choice 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 scale for, holy shit, are they really going for this right now?

I think this is like at least an eight and a half.

Chez Paul.

God, I love this scene.

It's 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.

Maybe.

Maybe

the little girl.

Paul Rubens.

The shrimp cocktail.

One of the criticisms I would 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 too more.

So I guess in Ackroyd's quote-unquote script, there was eight individual plot lines for the recruitment of every member of the band.

And it was like, this is probably not like a functional story, but like

Donald Duck Dunn 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 is like, he's in the band too.

We didn't get the individual origin stories.

You're woman, sell them to me.

Who else is pulling that scene up?

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.

Mm-hmm.

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

good thing.

That's John Lee Hooker's song, yeah.

And then we get Aretha

Dry White Toast and Four Fried Chickens.

We got two hunkies out there dressed like Hasidic Diamond Merchants.

Save what?

They look like they're from the CIA or something.

What they want to eat?

The tall one wants

white bread toast dried with nothing on it.

Hellwood.

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 Makatar Murphy, who just kind of has to move along.

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.

Freedom, freedom, freedom.

She had to lip-sync, I guess.

There's some stories about she had a little trouble with the lip-syncing.

Maybe they could have let her belt it out, but

Landis, John Lee Hooker was recorded live, and I think he was the only singer who was recorded live for the entire movie.

Right.

That makes sense.

The song's really good.

I really enjoyed it.

I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just like, it's just so much fun to watch.

Then we go right to Ray Charles.

Yes.

Yeah.

We go from Rita right to Ray Charles singing and we're at Ray's Music.

This is my favorite single.

This has the best dancing, the best like, this is the best

musical.

Yes.

Yeah.

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?

Or didn't you think I could?

Well, I know that the Bookaloo is out of sight but the Shane and Lancia stay tonight

outdoor 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 the same choreography and like all the jumping up and down and stuff yeah you think baby king was like what the fuck yeah that's a good question what soul stars were like what right here Yeah.

Bob's Country Bunker.

Got that too.

Rawhide

read in a stand by your man.

It's really good.

Belushi's just like,

move him up.

Move him out.

Would you live pod from Bob's Country Bunker?

And the

Chicken Wire.

Andy and I were actually doing our landman recaps.

I was just going to say, this is perfect for Sheridan recaps.

Exactly.

They're just throwing beers at us.

Minnie the Moocher.

Yeah.

Palace.

Both Blues Brothers songs.

Carrie Fisher and 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

Nazis falling to their death for like two miles.

Yeah.

Is that a pinto?

The bluesmobile collapsing, which I used as a joke in columns for like the next 20 years.

And then all the guns pointed to them at the end.

What do you got?

Most re-watchable 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 that is like a, 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 Shea 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 re-watchable.

I have Shea Paul or the Mall.

The mall kills me.

The mall is good.

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 win both of those.

In the church with Ackroids, 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 their rival 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 if Don Simpson is running it.

Yeah.

A production where they already have cocaine in the budget.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the other one was being so famous, you just decide you're a musician.

Like, being so popular and so beloved that you're like, you know what?

We got to do?

Make an album.

Yeah.

Mine is related to that, which is just an RB 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 that, you know, that reminds me of 1980.

Yeah.

What's age the best?

Blue Shanacharad.

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

eight by 10.

I got some incredible takes about that one.

I've decided that I do want to talk about that.

Okay, we'll see.

We'll wait.

We'll save it.

Yeah.

What's age the best?

Shitting on white supremacists it's a good great one it's a great villain yeah to learn that from spielberg yeah calling a head none 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 dye it's so good sneak that one out 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 that she's not the damsel in distress she's the destroyer her being in this is a what's age the best the uh there 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 and Smoke.

Ooh, that's unassistable.

Just sounds like a fucking unbelievable triple header.

We used to really make stuff here.

That's a good trio.

It's definitely not a triple header for a date.

It's a, I'm not working today.

I think I'll go see three movies.

The boys brought a six-pack into the movie theater.

Yeah.

Ray-bands.

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.

Were you able to like kind of going 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 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 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 post

of Linda Carter in the center fold.

And Colleen Camp is also shot in the exact same pose, background, styling, everything in the center fold that appears in this.

So, Linda Carter centerfold going for on eBay.

It just said sold on the site that I found.

found, so I don't know.

But Bill, if you want to try to contact me to me,

I thought that was a great movie, Arcane.

I think it answers the piece of memorabilia you would want from this movie.

So that's a more important Linda Carter picture than the Philippine Shakies photo?

I guess so.

One of the great photos of all time.

You see that?

That's like the pizza place?

She's wearing Shaky's, a Shaky's pizza shirt, but it says Philippine Shakies.

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.

Okay.

What a legend.

City of Chicago for What's Age the Best?

It just uses a lot of it, and I really appreciate it.

What else do you have CR?

Conducting meetings and saunas.

Oh, yeah.

The reveal that the entire band is in the sauna with them.

And the way Belushi's like, how's Mrs.

Sline?

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, you know, 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 has 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 had, I don't know if this is a What's Age the Best or What's Age the Worst, but when Phil Hartman did the Sinatra group sketch and Mike Myers is 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?

I think we played Edie.

Yeah, wait, was it Jan Hooks?

Who played Sinead?

No, she played Jan Hooks.

Okay, somebody else was playing

cue ball, damn,

but at some points, Sinatra gets mad at Steve Lawrence, like, shut up, guys are just swimming in my wake and he's like what's wrong chairman

and for some reason anytime i see steve lawrence i think of that we should do a re-watchables for phil hartman sketches oh my god that's my number one favorite oh he's the best that's that was the uh chunks of guys like you and my stool

um great shot gordo

Most cinematic shot.

Jake's footsteps when they're leaving prison, they go underneath for the shut 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 Cuddy Pursuit of Happiness where 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.

Joliet Jake Blues.

Joliette Jake Blues.

I like Matt Guitar Murphago.

Shad McIntarter Murphago.

Blue Lou.

Blue Lou Moroni.

Yeah.

McIntyre Murphago.

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 game stand,

or I would probably be shopping for wicker furniture at Dixie Square Mall, year one, and got hit by an old spokio.

Like, oh, we could 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 that is balanced.

Here's a bag of 10,000 cash.

And I'm also going to aid and abet your felonious.

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?

No, not really.

It's more like 70s blues, I think is the gimmick.

Yeah, it's like I know it's like electric blues, but they're not singing Muddy Water songs, really.

They're singing like Sam and Dave songs.

They're singing.

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, that's fair.

They just, they called themselves the Blues Brothers.

Well, that is obviously your Butcher'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 tactic 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 headlighting.

Just seems like a bad idea.

Yeah.

I mean, raise awareness for this thing that the cops are immediately going to find out.

It's a flaw in the movie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that there's probably one too many antagonists.

So my weak link is maybe we could have consolidated some of the some of the various people,

the rednecks, and the cops.

Carrie Fisher and the cops.

Yeah.

Right.

Could have made just all three of them, you know, redneck, Nazi cops.

Carrie fisher nazi cop right yeah that would be good what's age the worst would you go i have some manual steering

you really see these guys fishtailing around a lot and it makes you appreciate great tape you know just responsive

responsive steering wheel

uh i tried once when i was uh 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 because 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?

Yeah.

And he was like, that's how cars used to be.

He used 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.

They have the Blues Brothers.

They're about to film the movie.

Lauren Michaels is doing this Guild the Live project with Gilda Radner, who's the other biggest star on 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 decide

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.

And SG SG style.

I'll hit you with my blue.

Completely identify.

I'll hit you with my Blues mobile.

I'm going to fishtail you into a lake.

But Paul Schaefer would have been, he would have been like the

band together.

The Murph guy.

He landed on his feet.

Yeah.

It just would have been fun to have him in the movie.

Sure.

It's a bummer.

He would have been the keyboardist.

But he's like, you know, he clearly with Ackroyd, they handpicked all the side guys.

It's sad that he's not in it, but it it turned out fine.

Is it what saves the worst?

Is it Howard Shore being like, you guys should be the Blues Brothers and then not being a part of this going forward?

He did okay for himself, ultimately, but yeah.

I had for What's Age the Worst, I wanted more SNL cameos.

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 in the middle.

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 Vicki.

Imprisoned Pa Lance, that was his bitch.

Blues Brothers 2000, I have is a Woods Age the Worst.

We've all agreed not to talk about anymore.

Here's a great story.

I gotta say, I don't know if I saw it.

It's a tough set.

It's good.

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,

he basically said, I'm not booking this.

I'm going to play in Compton.

No white neighborhoods at all.

Like, this will not be in Brentwood.

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 age the worst.

It's just dumb as hell, too.

You know, like 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.

There was, I mean, there was like real racism back then.

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 Actwood.

You know, it's not.

It definitely hurt the box office.

The Ruffalo Hannah Rubin and Partridge Over 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, like, like, hammering.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like that.

Don't you blaspheme here?

I think the entire band is a little over their skis here.

That's under acting.

Yeah,

they're not acting.

Yeah, I guess so.

Matt Guitar Murphy.

Sean's choice, flex category.

What do you got?

I already fired off my

Playboy magazine poster for the criteriorgasm,

which I just, you know, I'm happy to share another criteriorgasm here on the show.

I'm really honored.

Oh, yeah.

You know, I just had one.

How did it look?

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 i think that belushi's cocaine problem and ackroid'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 like anything it's just like this chick chasing john belushi for like one joke in a tunnel at the end i love having her in the movie it's yeah it's great and it actually does it basically serves as like 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 and Julia Jake and this lady who owned a beauty salon apparently were

engaged for three years.

And then you know showed the wedding.

And it's hard to imagine Jake being engaged to anything or anyone.

But Carrie Fisher dating Accord at the time.

Right.

One of the many people he was like engaged to.

The sequel invalidates this movie 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, Magruber is in the conversation, in my opinion.

Wow.

Magruber!

Would you ever do Magruber?

Yeah.

It's on the list.

My hottest take.

Cocaine continues to be underrated.

This is a great era.

In what specific ways?

But you don't know.

Okay, go ahead.

Some of the stuff in the 70s and 80s.

Is it so 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.

Right.

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 me personally, I think it would have been bad.

I could barely handle Vegas.

How good would your columns be?

Yeah, can you imagine your draft diaries?

Off until 5 a.m.

It would have been like fucking Taylor Sheridan cranking out,

cranking out 9,000 words a day.

No, but it's 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 take you back when you're an empty nest.

But nobody knew any better.

And back then, it was like if we thought coffee was cocaine.

Yeah.

You'd be like, oh man, Sean said two coffees.

A little concerning for me.

Sarah, I'm sorry, but you've been using coffee your entire life.

Casting what ifs.

Actually, let's take a break.

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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

right after grease yikes and then the idea with twiggy is like just we're gonna get Elwood love interest, right?

So I'm trying to think what the equivalent now of Twiggy is.

It's like a Kardashian, not even like him.

It's like having like Kylie Jenner.

Like a professionally famous cute girl.

It's a it girl from like seven, eight years ago, who wasn't even really totally an it girl anymore.

I think it's more like

an Addison Ray type or something, you know, yeah.

TikTok star.

Did you see Julia Fox made it onto the Charlie XCX for Philistine?

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

in the title.

Best that guy.

Charles Napier doesn't count, I don't think, because he's Charles Napier.

This would be his third or fourth victory of that guy.

I think when you win three times, you're not allowed to win anything.

Oh, he's like retired.

But he does have the same scream that he does when Lecter's coming at him.

Ah!

When the cars,

when the giant Winnebago's about to go in the water, if you look

in the driver's seat, it's like, ah

and that scene is so needlessly complicated by like the whole union thing where it's like have you like paid your union dues like that that whole like that whole layer to it henry gibson a that guy or no i think that's who i had if you're a movie fan like a hardcore movie fan you know it's henry gibson but he i think he 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 he grew up eight years later was the chauffeur in diehard oh debrey whatever his name is yeah no way i recognized his face i was like i've seen that guy and that yeah it's the diehard oh my god dude

what a combo for that guy i don't 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 that's not cool

diehard yeah there you go i had kathleen freeman the penguin oh it's the penguin 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 too much.

Because he's going for it.

Yeah.

in a in a big way.

I think Aretha and Ray Charles just deliver, you know, like you're like, wow.

Paul Rubens

as the waiter.

He's barely in it, though.

He gets one scene, but he communicates the entire Paul Rubens experience that we will soon be getting in America.

I would go Aretha Franklin.

Recasting couch director, City, just Paul Schaefer, just CGIM in here as the bandwidth.

Let's figure out how to do this.

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 hot opportunity.

This is actually 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.

Probably not.

Does he ever direct Poltergeist?

I mean, how dare you?

Please, please respect Toby Hooper.

Please.

Half-Fast Earning Research.

They used 13 different Blues Mobiles cars.

They were all bought at an auction.

And then 60 other police police cars cost $400 each.

They had 40 stunt drivers.

They'd over 500 extras for the next to last $300.5 million in Daily Daily Center.

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.

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

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.

And then he would call Ned Tannin and yell at him.

And then Ned Tannin 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

that's a fun reread because it's just like, it's like, we're on the set.

And then Belushi disappeared.

And then we had to go find him.

And he was doing this.

Turns up he was like at this guy's house.

Yeah.

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.

The Belushe making him.

He basically like patches together his knee enough to hold up for the end of the year.

The guy had just worked on Mitch Kupchek or Kareem of Biljabar.

What would the movie be called?

It would be like Sing in the Blues.

You know, like, what's the blue?

Just blues.

Just blues.

Yeah, that's good.

It would be a movie that just made people mad, whatever it was.

Yeah.

So they filmed the big musical numbers was at the Hollywood Palladium, but they made it seem like it was Chicago.

And then, um,

you know, one thing to add about that?

The crowds are just great.

You know, like in some movies you're watching, and like, these crowds are not selling.

Yeah, 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 know something.

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.

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.

Yeah.

Maybe he recognized a future takes me in you and he didn't want to show you.

So you're saying he was a coward, that man, who 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.

I think you're really nine from Vegas to three hours and 29 seconds.

We're speed brothers.

Three hours, 29 minutes

to Burbank.

Dropping off Corolla at his house.

Yeah, but you wear a seatbelt.

I do wear a seat yeah and he's he's a big hangs a u-turn in the middle of wilshire guy or he was yeah yeah like listen there's two ways to drive either you're a coward or you're the or you're the king of the jungle busy living or busy dying apex mountain

ballushi's an interesting one i think it's probably 78 animal house snl when he's still on there the combo of that

um would be my official opinion.

I think you're probably right.

I do love the idea of him being both Apex Mountain.

Like, it's like not only his movie stardom, but his like city stardom.

Yeah.

Like, is this apex mountain of a famous person in Chicago?

How about a famous person in any city?

Is it Michael Jordan?

You know, like, yeah.

Ooh.

But Belushi was like a man of the people, though.

Yeah.

I'm sure, like, everybody who's in Chicago.

Michael Jordan's steakhouse was available open to the public.

Yeah.

He's 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

Like you said, he never carried a wallet.

He ate for free.

He drank for free every day.

It's like Dave Jacoby.

Ackroid?

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?

Just 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?

Or does he?

I don't think he gets anything special back.

So, CR, when read our, yeah, he gets his suit back, though.

He gets the suit back.

The suit was $957 and I wore the shit in.

Yes.

There's like a this kind of set the template for that move.

So when we read our heist movie, yeah, we have a scene where they get their stuff back.

And it's like, here you go.

You know, it's like Pack of Marbury.

Yeah.

Your fan duel account.

Yeah.

One soiled condom.

One used prophylactic.

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.

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 digamouth the diner day.

Yeah, that's the best.

As you know, I don't remember remember anything after the vaccine.

No, I love you.

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 a good day for her.

Wow.

Not bad.

She gets a little bit marginalized to Empire, I think, right?

It's more Luke's 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?

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.

You walked out.

That's a classic Bill take right there.

Come on, Jedi.

I remember having a good time.

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.

That's my moment.

The original Blues Brothers.

Kind of Mikhailen Parrish of the Star Wars universe.

Yeah.

JC Penny's.

Has it ever gotten better than those guys

going through the window?

That's the apex for Pier 1, right?

Yeah, probably.

These are stores that was right around their apex anyway.

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?

No.

Three of them.

I think it's like a Dole Whip in that it's like a kind of somewhere between an ice cream and a drink.

It's like an Orange Julius, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Cocaine.

I think cocaine's had some big moments.

I think Scarface is honestly like the main 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.

It's more 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 Reddy Richardson triple-double in like 1979 or like a 29, 17, 14.

The new Oldsmobile is definitely Apex Mountain.

Absolutely.

They 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 L?

My least favorite apartment ever in a movie is the seven one where the person was being starved to death.

Oh, yeah.

That's my number one.

Sloth.

Yeah.

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!

You know, we did silence as

basically a comedy.

Should we do seven as a comedy?

Is seven ready to just have just fun with that?

I'm so in.

What's in the books?

The reseven, a laugh riot.

Yeah.

Detectives.

Blues Brothers as a band.

I'm going to say yes.

This is their Apex over going platinum.

Is that?

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 John?

I had checking out a prison.

This isn't for Vengeful Ex-Girlfriends, just out of curiosity.

Fatal children.

Action.

It will not be ignored.

Is Coming to America Landis' Apex Mountain?

I think so.

It's a tricky one.

That's post Twilight's though, isn't it?

Oh, yeah.

No,

it's probably Animal House.

Is it an Animal House?

Yeah.

That thing was.

All three of them are in a similar range, box office-wise.

Cruise or Hanks.

Why not both?

No, you can't.

That was my answer, too.

Cruise and Hanks.

Don't be cowards.

Then Hanks says Elwood.

Hanks says Elwood is the 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 backhand spring because of the firm, just like Jake does in the movie.

Cruz.

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?

Spielberg versus versus Scorsese.

Although, Scorsese's version of this, Scorsese gets to make the making of the movie.

Yeah, if he makes it.

He makes blues.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't think you could see that.

Jennifer Broulette, Aniston Coolidge, Connolly, 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

younger Lopez as Carrie Fisher is pretty cool.

Oh, just good.

Or Jennifer Coolidge as the penguin.

Oh, Jennifer Coolidge as the penguin.

All right.

Coolidge wins that one.

Are we?

Did you skip calling Rosillo?

Are you backing away from that idea?

No, call him right now.

All right.

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 for on before sunrise and he was at the edge of his seat

he's going to think it's because Durant got traded

your call has been

Damn.

Oh, for two.

At least hit us with a, hey, you've reached Ryan.

Not here right now.

Grinding tailing up.

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 saying.

That is what.

Yeah.

Burton Mercer.

The Ed Norton reverse 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 and they are like that like we get is Ron Say on that team?

Like, what are we talking about?

Because 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 pickup hoops basketball scene where he goes to find one of

one of the band members because they're playing in a game.

Okay.

And it's put, there's, there's cameos from like Mark McGuire and Magic Johnson in the game.

Who's on the 80s?

Look at these bowls.

he's just saying local i'm just saying like we use local chicago dudes oh chicago guys okay okay and then that's how we get it

picking it

i have a million so i'll let you guys go

i 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 there's if you took out the car chases and then music this would be like a 42 minute movie which is fine i love i like love this movie, but it's just a note that there's not really much of like a plot.

Yeah, I have some.

Take a cheeseburger out of buns on a fucking cheeseburger.

No, it's called picking nits.

Jesus.

Yeah, I have some just 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 grand right now.

So he gave them a 100 grand 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.

I think so.

Orphanage.

I think think so so the whole movie on this we could have done a little better

how did nobody get run over in the mall as a picking it yeah how did nobody for people in there carry fisher's but the the way that they did it is great because that was a mall that was closed then would never reopen where they shot the dixie square mall had been closed for two years and they shot it in their wall it was closed fully but it had fishers there yeah so it was but yeah i'm saying in real life if you're making this movie somebody gets hit how did carry fisher's character get a rocket launcher Could you just buy one of those in 79?

Iran Contra.

Let's go.

Yeah, get Qaddafi.

Freddy for that one.

This is my wife who watched the middle half of the movie with me and then went to go watch Below Deck.

The Salt Food Cafe, she felt like had 40 health violations.

Yeah.

It was disgusting.

Also, Makatar Murphy, as soon as he finds out Jake and Elder are there, just leaves a live grill going.

It's like, Jake Elwood.

And a wife in the 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, I beer stores for like 50 cents.

Yeah, that is a lot.

It's nine guys in the band.

They had 400 beers.

That's weed box numbers.

Is Twiggy really just like I'm going to wait at this motel for that weird guy who smells that

I give $94 for Elwood?

He had a lot of magnetism, you know?

Yeah, game.

There's a nighttime daylight thing that's a little dubious in this movie.

They escape after the concert, probably 11 o'clock.

Okay.

10:30.

The concert started like eight maybe let's say 9 30 and they're on chase and they're in chicago they weren't that far away from children 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 hello continuity errors i thought you lose 11 hours yeah

sequel prequel prestige tv all blackcast are untouchable uh untouchable well unfortunately there was a sequel so

Or there wasn't.

Okay.

You could apply Fletch to Rocky Five Rules and just live your life like it never happened.

That's good.

Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Treyo, Doris Burke, Sam Jackson, Nell, Byron Mayo, Barney Cousins, Tony Romo, Harley Mays, Chris Collinsworth, Daniel Plainview, Long Legs, or Wilfred 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 a

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 scorn with a heat-seeking missile launcher.

You can get those from Gaddafi any way you want, man.

She's got to move on.

She's just got to,

I know it was three years and left her at the altar, but come on.

Just want to ask her who gets it.

The soundtrack, Akride?

I say Belushi.

Belushi?

Best actor?

Nobody can do what he can do.

I was going to do what he can do for

not screaming.

For story?

Yeah, for inspiration.

Was best movie that only makes sense if you know that cocaine was involved in Oscar category?

You should add that.

That should be a rewatchables category.

Does cocaine make this movie make more sense?

So the 81 Oscars, De Niro wins for Raging Bull, Duval, Great Santini, John Hurt, the Alpha Man, Peter O'Toole, the stuntman.

Maybe Belushi bumps Jack Lemon in Tribute.

Ooh, 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 line.

Probably not getting past

it.

Bobby D on that one.

Yeah.

Probably unanswerable questions.

The owner from Bob, from Bob's Country Bunker, just is now on a jihad trying to find Jake and Elwood.

Like, 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 going to follow this guy guy all around.

Why was

Bob's country bunker so close to Chicago and Illinois when it seems like it's in Arkansas?

Kind of in Indiana.

Is that what it is?

I think so.

Because Indian, like, it doesn't take long to get from Chicago to Indiana.

And 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.

That's a good point.

The 80s.

In the 90s, it changes.

Only like in cruising.

It's like only when Scorsese gets to Last Temptation of Christ.

Right.

He's got dude.

Look at the background.

Re-cruising.

What is he doing with the handkerchief?

He's doing like formaldehyde.

He's doing like uppers or something.

Sniffers.

Re-cruising?

I'm in.

I'm there.

I haven't been out on Blu-ray soon.

Fourth kid Blu-ray.

Yeah, fourth kid.

It's like $70.

Yeah, thank you, Arrow.

Thank you for all your work that you're doing.

$70.

Who's buying cruising?

Not you, but you're going to wait until it's $35.

Oh, wait.

There was a 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 would do.

I'd be like, oh, my God.

You should get a GoPro.

All the Hitchcocks.

You should get a GoPro, but only put it on when you start surfing for Blu-ray.

You know, when you're just like, do I add it to the cart?

Do I not add it?

Is $49.99 too much for me?

They had a Eternal Sunshine Razan, and I almost bought it, even though I don't really like it.

You don't like that.

See, this is what happened.

This is that.

You're going to have Lebowski and you're like, I've never seen it.

No, I'm not going to, I'm not crossing that line.

This is Bill.

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 way to answer a question.

Oh, go.

How bad did these guys smell?

Oh, Jesus.

There's not a shower in sight.

He gets out of Joliet.

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 still had smoking sections in restaurants?

Yeah.

How bad somebody has to smell to ask them to move.

I think it

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 Prime Evil.

Yeah.

And I was just thinking of like the odors as somebody who, you know, has bad eyesight.

So I have a super nose.

Like I just like

my wife said

the odors are just so bad all the time that eventually you kind of, 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.

And that's what it is.

Yeah.

I think you become overpowered.

Your brain like is able to shut off that scent.

In the westerns, it's like there's no indoor plumbing.

so you have to imagine like anywhere where there are people, it's pretty, pretty bad.

Right, yo, the only way to compare anything to it now is the smell of a hockey locker room.

That's it.

That's how you, if you want to know what the 1880s, 1880s were like, pretty rough.

Just go in after a triple-O-T 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 the woman.

Maybe it it was a woman.

But way back when, they kind of liked malodorousness.

A musk.

They liked 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.

Yeah.

And 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 Rush's ass and they didn't come home.

It's a tough beat.

Yeah.

What the hell?

Probably unanswerable.

To the point about the poster, does this take place in the same universe as Apocalypse Now, this movie?

Like, is there a...

Oh, it's like Captain Colonel Jake going to see the good old boys when he gets back from.

Did he have a copy of Briefcase Full of Blue?

I thought that would be.

Yeah.

Could be.

It's like, I didn't realize Elwood and Jake are playing.

Yeah.

That would be fun.

How many of these movies would Belushi have made if he'd lived?

So this is the question.

I was curious about this as well is do you think that he keeps making reliably like blockbuster comedies or do you think he starts really pushing, 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 though 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 Marmont, 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 didn't he wasn't but i i could be wrong about this you 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 there was like the famous story of when Conan did the tonight show when he 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 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 going to leave, or I'm going to lose them.

Loyalty doesn't matter.

The whole thing.

Yep.

What piece of memorability 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 looked ridiculous.

And I did, and there's a photo of me wearing them, and I look whole.

That sounds so stupid.

But,

you know, Elwood and Jake's hat and Ray-Bans would be a sick item of movie memorability.

So I researched this, and apparently Belushi lost like 500 Ray-Bans during the filming.

There's just no way to even know.

Yeah, yeah.

There's no way to know.

I think Ackroyd, the briefcase that Elwood had, I think seems reasonable.

The car, the broken down car, after the fact,

I think could be cool, but I think the answer is probably the poster, the Colleen Camp poster, just because of the

on a history there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like you basically would try to get that one

too.

Yeah, Captain Willard cranking it to Colleen Campbell.

Or the harmonica would be another good one.

Like the harmonica they use in the uh the big scene.

Coach Finn Stock the word, best life lesson.

Sometimes you need a mission from God.

Yeah, mission from God trumps everything else.

I got two.

Yeah.

One, payer parking tickets.

Yeah.

Like this, they could have avoided a lot of problems if they had 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, like in the lettering 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, well, especially not if she's got an inroad to Gaddafi.

Yeah.

Guns and Ammo magazine.

Best double feature choice.

Animal House?

I got a weird one wayne's world

bertolucci's the leopard

old girlfriends there's continental defense

there's a very

um a little-known walter hill movie called crossroads not little known oh yeah ralph macchio with ralph macchio and joe seneca yeah about robert johnson and the history of blues that is a cool movie yeah and that 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 great.

A group of Irish kids who started a 60s soul band.

The Zawatney Award for what happened the next day for 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.

Yep.

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.

Amal'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, 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.

That was why was he going to play in Ghostbusters?

Ackroyd was writing that for the two of them.

Yeah, so he was going to be like Vinkman,

yeah.

He was going to be the Bill Murray character, I think.

Oh my god, yeah, it's 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, 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 uh widescreen because it had a really strange cable TV running because of this 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.

It's a dual shinach road.

Yeah.

It's Luca and LeBron.

Oh, God.

Luca and LeBron.

It's Luca and a Miller Light.

Yeah.

I'm with you.

I agree.

It's both of them.

All right.

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.

At

the Super Bowl.

Do you 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 therewatchables33hgmail.com.

You can also watch the Ringer Movies YouTube channel where we put up, Oscars are coming.

Soon.

Less than a month.

You 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 sophia

i'll never top what was the movie in gloucester two years ago we hit that 14 you hit coda hard you that was

throw work from you yeah but there's no coda this year where you'd be like oh that one's gonna win well well i'll to me right now, it's a complete unknown.

It's a Dylan movie.

Which 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.

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,

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 would be so stupid.

CR, thank you.

Fantasy, thank you.

See you next week.

This episode is brought to you by Warner Brothers Pictures.

One battle after another is coming to theater September 26th.

Don't miss legendary writer, director, and producer.

My guy, Paul Thomas Anderson, teaming up with Leo DiCaprio for the first time ever.

Pretty exciting.

They almost teamed together in Boogie Dance, actually, alongside award-winning actors like Sean Penn, Tiana Taylor, and Benicio Del Toro in this hilarious action-packed adventure following Bob Ferguson, an ex-revolutionary on a mission to find his missing daughter and overcome the consequences of his past.

One battle after another.

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