The Blues Are Back
1998-02-05
$28.0M
123 min
Finally released from prison, Elwood Blues is once again enlisted by Sister Mary Stigmata in her latest crusade to raise funds for a children's hospital. Hitting the road to re-unite the band and win the big prize at the New Orleans Battle of the Bands, Elwood is pursued cross-country by the cops.
I guess it's not as bad as the one star rating might suggest. And I get that they moved from Chicago to New Orleans, I mean, who hasn't started in Memphis and worked their way from W.C. Handy down the Delta Blues Trail with a couple of stops at both Robert Johnson's crossroads?
So, it seems like it want's to be a tribute to the Blues in that way... but it doesn't come across as the same comedic love letter to the music as the original one did.
And of course John is gone and even though this was Akroyd's love child, it just feels wrong having John Goodman--or anyone else--in his place.
But on the other hand it does have Koko instead of Franklin and I always liked her more. But it was the cameo of all cameos wasn't it?
It's still lacking Buddy Guy and Magic Slim and Fats Domino and some of the other greats of Blues who where alive at the time and in their place is B.B King, who isn't bad in his own right, but doesn't doesn't at all like the line up they had in the original.
So, really what was probably intended to be a tribute just ended up feeling like a sequel, and one twenty-years too late
