This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Jesse McAnally: Hello, I'm Jesse McAnally.

[0:07] Andrew DeWolf: And I'm Andrew DeWolf.

[0:09] Jesse McAnally: And welcome to Musicals with Cheese, a podcast where I try to get Andrew to like musical theater week by week and show by show. How are you doing today, Andrew?

[0:16] Andrew DeWolf: Well, uh, just got out of prison. So, uh, I mean, thank you for picking me up and bringing me back here to do this podcast right away.

[0:23] Jesse McAnally: That's okay. Um, also, have you ever tried Crystal Head vodka? Um, I'm just gonna tell you it has no glycol in it, and honestly, I believe aliens are real. There are plenty of photographic and audio materials, both conventional and digital, and also some trace physical evidence, which support the premise that ghosts, UFOs, and their occupants, plus other non-worldly presences exist.

[0:46] Andrew DeWolf: You know, you said you weren't gonna go there for this. You said you weren't gonna do this. And you said you weren't gonna do cocaine on the sets, but we're all liars, aren't we?

[0:58] Jesse McAnally: Well, let's get the band back together.

[1:00] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, sounds like a idea. Um, for the church or something, right?

[1:05] Jesse McAnally: We're on a mission from God. Other famous quotes.

[1:09] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[1:11] Jesse McAnally: I'm being a little dismissive, um, but this week we are covering the music and bluesy classic from the 80s. It's the Blues Brothers.

[1:20] Andrew DeWolf: You the music.

[2:18] Jesse McAnally: The Blues Brothers is a film written by Dan Aykroyd and actual murderer John Landis. With music and lyrics by various artists, it is based on the characters Jake and Elwood Blues, which were created by Belushi and Aykroyd in performances on Saturday Night Live. The Blues Brothers opened on June 20th, 1980, with the release in 594 theaters. It took in 4,858,152, ranking second for that weekend.

[2:52] Andrew DeWolf: After The Empire Strikes Back.

[2:54] Jesse McAnally: Another Frank Oz, Carrie Fisher joint. The film totaled $57 million domestically and $58 million in foreign box office for a total of $115 million. It ranked 10th at the domestic box office for that year. By genre, it is the ninth highest grossing musical and the 10th highest grossing earner among comedy road movies, and ranked second between Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2 among films adapted from Saturday Night Live sketches.

[3:24] Andrew DeWolf: Director and actual murderer John Landis claimed the Blues Brothers was also the first American film to gross more money overseas than it did in the United States. It laid the trail for the Warcraft movie. Over the years, the film has retained a cult following through television and home video. The plot of the Blues Brothers is Jake Blues is just out of jail and teams up with his brother Elwood on a mission from God to raise funds for an orphanage in which they grew up in. The only thing they can do is what they do best, play music. So they get their old band back together and set out on their way while getting in a bit of trouble here and there.

[4:00] Jesse McAnally: Um, it's everyone's father's favorite movie. Like specifically, okay. My father-in-law loves this movie. He defined a lot of his personality from this movie and the quotes from it and all that kind of thing. So I felt like I had seen the movie without ever seeing the movie. You go to your TGI Fridays locally, and they have the figurines or the statues of the Blues Brothers. There was an ice cream shop I used to go to that had the statues just sitting outside. Like people love the Blues Brothers. So in Upper Michigan, one time, me and my girlfriend were driving around up there, and we just saw the Blues Brothers in a glass case in someone's front yard, and I stopped to look and I was like, what is it? And then the person was like, hold on, I'll open it, we'll put you in the case. And I was like, oh. This is the way I get kidnapped.

[4:54] Andrew DeWolf: Okay. You dropped some bombs, okay? We already dropped some bombs here.

[4:58] Jesse McAnally: Did we?

[4:59] Andrew DeWolf: Actual murderer John Landis. You're gonna have to just go through it real quick.

[5:03] Jesse McAnally: Oh, do I have to talk about? What the fuck are you talking about?

[5:06] Andrew DeWolf: You don't know the John Landis story?

[5:08] Jesse McAnally: I feel like I know what you're talking about, but I think for our audience, if you're not gonna be able to do that. You know, the time he was shooting the Twilight Zone film, had a helicopter flying like a couple yards above three actors, Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children that were not supposed to be there because of labor laws, and then he dropped a fucking helicopter on them, beheading them and crushing the two children to death, and then he got off scot-free after on the record saying, "Yo, get the helicopter closer to the actors." There's footage of it, it's horrific. John Landis is a fucking monster and acquitted or not, that's bullshit, but he killed those people.

[5:11] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I mean, I did know what you were talking about. I just figured we might as well, uh, maybe explain it for the less inclined so that you don't get in trouble on Twitter for calling someone a murderer.

[5:58] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, uh, I mean, I could just claim that his worst crime is birthing Max Landis into the world, but maybe I guess he was the ultimate helicopter parent. Badoom ching.

[6:08] Jesse McAnally: Oh Jesus. There was some trouble with helicopters on this film too because, um, he brought helicopters to shoot the prison scene and the prison wasn't alerted to this, so they just started shooting at the helicopters because they thought it was people trying to make an escape attempt. And watching so many scenes from this film where I can just tell labor laws were ignored, like for the Nazi car at the end, they had to get FAA regulations for that car to crash.

[6:37] Andrew DeWolf: FAA aircraft regulations for a car? Honestly, I'm shocked it took John Landis this long as it did for him to kill someone. It's weird because Spielberg, Steven Spielberg is in this movie. He has like a little cameo role and it's because of the Twilight Zone incident that they broke up as friends, and I, it was just a sad reminder of what came to be and the blood on John Landis's hands. And I can't wait for all the comments. Well, actually, he, they thought he wasn't responsible because the court of law. Nah, fuck you. Fuck you, people. You have to take at least some of the responsibility as the director of the movie. And also, like whoever's idea it was to fly a helicopter over people, that's fucking.

[7:22] Jesse McAnally: And also that, but also why wouldn't you have a stunt double instead of making 86-year-old Vic Morrow carry two full-grown children across a lake after expressing like, "I don't want to do this," and then saying, "Too bad, you're an actor in this movie."

[7:37] Andrew DeWolf: So back to the Blues Brothers, I had to get my spiel about John Landis and how much I hate him and think he's a blight to society, and not a single one of his movies is good enough to warrant what he's done.

[7:49] Jesse McAnally: Sure. But let's ignore him for a bit and talk about the Blues Brothers.

[7:52] Andrew DeWolf: Sure.

[7:53] Jesse McAnally: Which, um, I think is a genuinely good movie. Despite the director.

[7:59] Andrew DeWolf: What the Blues Brothers does that's really good is it brings a lot of stars, like in the blues and soul and jazz scenes, and just puts them all in one place. Which is, uh, it's kind of incredible that something like this exists. We got Ray Charles, we got Aretha Franklin, we've got Cab Calloway, we've got heavy hitters.

[8:24] Andrew DeWolf: Um, yeah, and they all do like singing numbers too. It's not like these are just cameos where they don't do anything. Uh, James Brown, I think, is in it.

[8:33] Jesse McAnally: Um, James Brown singing live, too. Take that, Tom Hooper.

[8:38] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah. This just a lot of like big, big names all show up and all sing songs, and it's just, it's incredible.

[8:46] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. Every musical number is fantastic. Like, anytime there is a song going on, I am engaged. Essentially, the Blues Brothers has two things. Um, and one of them I think it's inarguable that it does well, which is the music numbers, and the other one, I think it does well, but I feel like it's iffy-ish at times, and that's big over-the-top car chases. And then maybe a few jokes in between.

[9:15] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, and there's jokes in between. Um, why don't we, since we're gonna talk about the songs for sure later, why don't we talk about the car chases? Um, which there's, I think, two distinct ones that are like big.

[9:26] Jesse McAnally: Two big ones. You have the mall car chase and the final car chase to get the money.

[9:31] Andrew DeWolf: Yes, there's a couple like shorter ones between there, but those are more like car moments.

[9:37] Jesse McAnally: Yes. Um, the mall chase is iconic. Um, everybody knows about it. Uh, and honestly, watching it though, it's kind of lame.

[9:49] Andrew DeWolf: So there were, I think it's pretty impressive, but let's talk about the director for a moment. They shot the car chase in the mall twice. The first time they wanted it completely safe, so they did it without extras in the shot. Um, the problem is if you do it without extras in the shot, you don't have a frame of reference for how fast or slow a car is going, so it looks like you sped up the footage rather than them actually going fast. So instead they had to put extras in the shot, so you had a frame of reference and made it 50 times more dangerous.

[10:19] Jesse McAnally: Oh my god. There's a couple like close calls that I that you can see that are like, oh my god, that car was like a foot from them. Like, and I get that it's probably planned or whatever, but I mean, we just talked about the Twilight Zone incident, but like how close were we to having one of those in the Blues Brothers?

[10:40] Andrew DeWolf: Exactly. And like even the masters of explosion, like Michael Bay, you have you ever seen behind the scenes footage of a Michael Bay film?

[10:48] Jesse McAnally: I haven't, but I assume he's quite safe.

[10:50] Andrew DeWolf: No, there are like 50 close calls on all of them for crew and extras and everything. Like they're going to do this shit. Like, I mean, if there's anything positive to say about the influence of CGI in our media, is it does make the human element a little safer. I mean, fuck, even things like the Harry Potter films, like the stunt double for Daniel Radcliffe for his entire, like basically the entire Harry Potter series on the last film got fully paralyzed for a stunt.

[11:21] Jesse McAnally: And yeah.

[11:23] Andrew DeWolf: Like never recover fully paralyzed.

[11:24] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, yeah.

[11:25] Andrew DeWolf: He is basically cannot move anymore.

[11:27] Jesse McAnally: Jesus fucking Christ.

[11:29] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah. So like what kind of fucking stunts are they having these people do? The thing about stunt doubles, like, they only exist because it doesn't matter if they get hurt. There's no stunt training. It's just, hey, throw yourself down the stairs. That's it. It's just you're not as expensive as the main guy, so go do the dangerous thing. Um, same with Deadpool, like a woman, a stunt woman died on the set of Deadpool 2. Like, it is a common occurrence. You get your name at the end and it just happens, and they move on with the production.

[11:58] Jesse McAnally: The thing is, if someone, it's not to quote the Joker, the Rust production, um, like with um, the young woman that was unfortunately killed on that production, um, that's someone that wasn't supposed to be in the line of fire to begin with. So I, I mean I've got my own opinions there. I don't quite know if the manslaughter charge should be on Alec Baldwin as an actor, but rather him as a producer. So in my opinion, no one should die making a movie if it's fucking ridiculous. Um, obviously sometimes things happen that are unpreventable, but when your stunt double dies because you had them throw themselves down the stairs or some shit.

[12:39] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[12:39] Jesse McAnally: Or crash a motorcycle into a wall. That's your fucking fault. Um, so yeah, it's a little scary, uh, watching the mall scene a little bit.

[12:45] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, I mean, the mall scene is impressive. Like, I don't wanna take anything away from the fact that it is a very impressive thing to watch happen in front of you. Um, I don't believe it was done with the most safety in mind, though. What I meant by lame a little bit isn't that it wasn't like technically impressive that they were able to do it or anything like that. It's just it's literally like they shot a bunch of parts of like scenes of cars crashing through glass. Like, over and over and over. Um, it's like the same thing happens like ten times.

[13:20] Jesse McAnally: Mm-hmm.

[13:21] Andrew DeWolf: Um, Fast and Furious this is not. Uh, you know, like if this was a Fast and Furious movie, I'm sure Vin Diesel would have, uh, like launched his car up the escalator or some shit. You know. It's just kind of them driving around a mall and crashing into every store. But on the other hand, how often do you see that?

[13:41] Jesse McAnally: Not very often.

[13:42] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, I get the appeal of that.

[13:44] Jesse McAnally: No, it's funny. I think the thing with the car chases is not that they're necessarily exciting, but they're funny.

[13:50] Andrew DeWolf: Um, which it's cool.

[13:51] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. I think it's also quite funny that the police drive into the mall and continue the chase through the mall.

[13:59] Andrew DeWolf: Um, you gotta catch those gents. Why don't we talk about why this movie didn't do well in America?

[14:05] Jesse McAnally: Um, sure. So there's probably a good number of reasons. It was the first SNL film, and they were just kinda testing the waters there. But a good r, uh, one that Dan Aykroyd blames very pointedly is notice how it wasn't released in thousands of theaters.

[14:21] Jesse McAnally: It was released in 500 theaters.

[14:23] Jesse McAnally: That is because there is a lot of African American people in this cast, a lot of black people in this cast, and the people releasing it at a lot of theater chains refused to do it because they considered it a predominantly black film, specifically in the South.

[14:23] Jesse McAnally: So most of this film didn't even get a release in the South, where I don't know if you know this, a lot of black people live too, um, and probably would have seen this movie.

[14:47] Jesse McAnally: Um, so to appease racists, they refused to release this in the American South.

[14:54] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. Um, which brings me to the next point-ish that I want to make, is just watching this movie. I think it's notable how much of an anti-racist stance it sort of takes.

[15:01] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[15:08] Jesse McAnally: It's not like hardline political or anything like that. I mean, today it is. I mean, they have a very hard stance against Nazis, which apparently is very controversial to have today.

[15:19] Andrew DeWolf: We're kind of going backwards, I think.

[15:21] Jesse McAnally: Well, it feels like some of the country is going backwards while the rest of us are like trying to plow even further forwards. It's a weird time right now.

[15:29] Jesse McAnally: I mean, yeah, specifically, uh, one of the main sets of bad guys, and I think the only bad guys who like explicitly die are the Nazis.

[15:40] Andrew DeWolf: They should.

[15:41] Jesse McAnally: Well, I'm glad. I want them to be dead. They literally end up six feet underground.

[15:46] Jesse McAnally: Um, not because they're in a grave, but because their car falls that far.

[15:50] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, they fall out of the sky and crash under the ground, then get crushed by a different car. It's honestly kind of great, and it's very fun to watch.

[16:01] Jesse McAnally: Um, I also love the scene where they're waiting in traffic on what is clearly a sidewalk and not a road. Um, the Blues Brothers are so fed up in that traffic because it's a Nazi rally on a bridge, so they literally just drive through a crowd of people, all of them Nazis, of course, and the Nazis all jump into the river.

[16:24] Andrew DeWolf: It's a very funny scene.

[16:25] Jesse McAnally: And then they promise to murder the Blues Brothers.

[16:28] Andrew DeWolf: Illinois Nazis.

[16:31] Jesse McAnally: I hate Illinois Nazis.

[16:33] Andrew DeWolf: Yes, and they fail miserably.

[16:35] Jesse McAnally: They in fact die. One of my favorite things, okay. I’m gonna talk about things I really like. I really like the way this film shoots Chicago. I think it really does kind of make Chicago a landmark kind of—I hate using the phrase—it's like a character in the film, but it kinda is.

[16:51] Jesse McAnally: Like they literally use Wrigley Field very well, both for comedy and as a location. I think it looks great. And there are some elements that are shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, too. And I think it all flows together really, really well. I mean, this is maybe the best Chicago has ever looked.

[17:09] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, I don't disagree.

[17:11] Jesse McAnally: And in fact, um, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi donated like $50,000 of their salary to donations to Chicago to be able to shoot it there. It was a big part of what they were trying to do.

[17:23] Jesse McAnally: The end credits is like a massive list of thank yous to everyone that lives in Chicago, essentially. Um, all of the Chicago government just did fucking—they somehow named everybody that lives in Chicago, I'm sure, in the credits.

[17:41] Jesse McAnally: Um, how about we go into some wild facts, Andrew?

[17:44] Jesse McAnally: Here's the first wild fact, Raw. Carrie Fisher took part in two of the biggest on-screen kisses of 1980. Princess Leia with Harrison Ford's Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back, and with John Belushi's Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers.

[17:59] Andrew DeWolf: So she said that John Belushi is a much better kisser than Harrison Ford by far.

[18:04] Jesse McAnally: Oh, fuck. I'm actually not surprised.

[18:05] Andrew DeWolf: That's actually not surprising.

[18:08] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. Harrison Ford seems like a guy that has horrible breath and terrible stubble.

[18:13] Andrew DeWolf: Or John Belushi just feels like a man that's very squishy.

[18:16] Jesse McAnally: He seems like he would have more passion too than Harrison Ford would.

[18:21] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[18:22] Jesse McAnally: John Belushi, man. I don't get his appeal. I don't get his comedic appeal. I didn't get him on SNL. I don't love him in Animal House. Um, I really don't get it. I think this is the only movie I like him in.

[18:37] Andrew DeWolf: I don't think I've even seen anything else with him in it, really.

[18:40] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I mean, I've read the SNL biography about it, and he just seems like a real pain in the ass to deal with, to be honest.

[18:48] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, it's sad, but I kind of think that his death might have been the best thing to happen to this movie.

[18:55] Jesse McAnally: Because I think a lot of people that love this movie, it's partially because it's like it was the last big thing that he did, kind of. But his addiction was really ballooning on this film.

[19:06] Jesse McAnally: In fact, um, cocaine was part of the budget.

[19:09] Andrew DeWolf: Uh, really?

[19:10] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, because they were shooting so many nights they were using it to wake up, so it was added to part of the budget. But it ballooned because John Belushi had some addiction issues. I don't know if you knew this. Um, Belushi's growing cocaine use caused the production to stall so much as well.

[19:27] Jesse McAnally: Um, Landis went to the star's empty trailer, found a mound of coke on a table, and started flushing it down the toilet before Belushi walked in. Knowing they couldn't replace him, the studio decided to simply deal with it.

[19:38] Jesse McAnally: Um, quote saying we had a budget in the movie for cocaine for night shoots, Dan Aykroyd said in Vanity Fair. But Landis downplayed it, Belushi saying that they only lost four or five days of the six-month shoot due to drugs.

[19:45] Andrew DeWolf: Four or five days is a lot of days in a shoot.

[19:56] Jesse McAnally: So maybe I'm like just torn after all this. Was cocaine legal?

[20:02] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, is anything legal?

[20:04] Jesse McAnally: How do you budget that in a film though? How do you like—how do you list that as a part of the budget?

[20:09] Andrew DeWolf: Um, you can just list it as, um, energy supplements.

[20:09] Jesse McAnally: Energy supplements.

[20:14] Andrew DeWolf: Is that what you would put on your own?

[20:16] Jesse McAnally: I mean, I wouldn't put cocaine in my film as anything to use, but there are certain ways you can budget, because at the end of the day, it's just what are you spending your money on?

[20:26] Andrew DeWolf: Energy supplements.

[20:28] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. Um, this film was blessed. Did you know this?

[20:30] Andrew DeWolf: It had to have been.

[20:32] Jesse McAnally: They were on a mission from God, right?

[20:34] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[20:34] Jesse McAnally: Pope John Paul II, you know, the one that hit all the pedophiles, was making his first papal trip to the U.S. as part of a stay in Chicago that saw him lead a mass in Grant Park. Visited the set, um, and at the set, John Belushi and others kissed his ring, and White's letter later said, all the Catholics in our crew just hit the floor.

[20:54] Andrew DeWolf: Um, in 2010, the Vatican's official newspaper placed The Blues Brothers on its list of recommended films for Catholics. They cited how the duo battles cops, neo-Nazis, praised country fans in a bid to save the Catholic orphanage, which they were raised in, adding that the orphanage is their only family, and they decide to save it at any cost.

[21:15] Jesse McAnally: So this is both blessed and sponsored by the Catholic Church.

[21:19] Andrew DeWolf: Do they also mention how the scene with the nun depicts her just beating them with rulers, and also they just keep swearing and taking the Lord's name in vain or whatever?

[21:19] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. They say Christ a bunch, they say the fuck word every ten minutes.

[21:35] Andrew DeWolf: Okay, I mean, good. You know, the Catholic Church retro recommending something good for once.

[21:42] Jesse McAnally: Fair enough. Let's talk about Cab Calloway for a second.

[21:45] Jesse McAnally: He, when he originally recorded "Minnie the Moocher" in the 30s, the chorus lyrics were simply "Hody Hody," rather than the length and "Hody Hody Hody Ho." In an interview, Calloway explained that the one time he was doing the song, he suddenly forgot the word, so he immediately shouted "Hody Hody Hody Ho" and carried on the song that way.

[22:05] Andrew DeWolf: That proved to be more popular with fans than the original, and he started singing it differently ever since.

[22:11] Jesse McAnally: That's pretty funny. Um, was that back when he first started doing it, or was that originally when he was doing it in the 30s?

[22:19] Andrew DeWolf: Um, when he was brought in to do The Blues Brothers, they actually wanted the original version, but he was trying to get them to do the disco version for this film.

[22:28] Jesse McAnally: Um, but they were like, no, we want the original. He begrudgingly did it. Apparently, he was not happy he wanted to do the modern spin on it.

[22:36] Jesse McAnally: And in doing so, it would have dated this film a lot. He would have dated the film a ton, and it would have robbed us of Cab Calloway's like final big performance on film.

[22:47] Andrew DeWolf: It's incredible too. Like the energy. Like, have you ever seen Cab Calloway when he's young?

[22:52] Jesse McAnally: I'm such a big Cab Calloway fan because I don't know if he sings as much as he just screams, but Cab Calloway is a really great performer.

[23:01] Andrew DeWolf: Um, yeah, the stuff when he was young, like they put on a show. My God.

[23:07] Jesse McAnally: He invented a specific kind of dancing, which I still see as an influence to so many people today. It was incredible. Um, and seeing him in this film is really amazing. Thank God they didn't do the disco version.

[23:20] Andrew DeWolf: Not—I mean, the disco version is probably fine, like, whatever. But this is literally his last film performance, I'm pretty sure.

[23:29] Jesse McAnally: Um, and imagine if it was the disco version and not him performing the original.

[23:35] Andrew DeWolf: Hey, folks, here's this gun rip out "Minnie the Moocher."

[23:40] Jesse McAnally: She was a low down here. She won the Ruffins and the device fail. But Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.

[24:09] Andrew DeWolf: I agree. He looks great in this movie. His energy, like doing "Minnie the Moocher," his energy is the same as it was in the 30s.

[24:16] Jesse McAnally: Like, yeah. I love that scene. That's probably my favorite musical moment in the film is that moment when he's singing.

[24:23] Jesse McAnally: And the final wild fact. Did you notice the two director cameos in this film?

[24:28] Andrew DeWolf: I saw one.

[24:28] Jesse McAnally: I don't think I noticed.

[24:30] Andrew DeWolf: So the one that I feel like I noticed was Frank Oz.

[24:32] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[24:33] Andrew DeWolf: He's there at the very beginning, looking very Frank Ozzy.

[24:37] Jesse McAnally: I don't think I saw Steven Spielberg.

[24:40] Andrew DeWolf: He was the one that wrote them the check. Uh, basically the one at the accountant's office. He was eating a sandwich.

[24:48] Jesse McAnally: Okay. You know what? I didn't—I did not recognize him.

[24:50] Andrew DeWolf: That's just straight up didn't recognize him.

[24:52] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I saw him immediately. It's like, oh, Stevie Spiels, how you doing? He's got a charm on screen. Like, I'm surprised he didn't do more cameos because he's pretty good at it.

[25:02] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, he didn't do a bad job. Like, I didn't even recognize like, oh, that's Steven Spielberg 100%.

[25:08] Jesse McAnally: Like, but that's the end of our wild facts. And Andrew, let's move on to our favorite part of the game where we compare our opinions to those real-life Letterboxd reviews over on letterbox.com. It's time for the Letterboxd game.

[25:20] Jesse McAnally: One star or five star.

[25:23] Andrew DeWolf: Alright, Andrew. In case you don't know, I'm gonna read you real Letterboxd reviews. And the ratings are either one star or five star. And you gotta tell me just based on the review alone. Are you ready?

[25:32] Andrew DeWolf: I'm ready. I mean, as ready as I'll ever be. I'm on a mission from God.

[25:37] Jesse McAnally: So fun fact, uh, this is kind of a lie. There is no one-star reviews of this on Letterboxd.

[25:43] Andrew DeWolf: What?

[25:44] Jesse McAnally: So I kinda had to go and search other places.

[25:47] Andrew DeWolf: Wait, so there's actually—you know what? That's kind of surprising. Like, nobody dislikes this movie.

[25:53] Jesse McAnally: I also just maybe people don't revisit this movie. I don't imagine the Zillenials go in there and being like, oh my god, I need to rewatch The Blues Brothers because it's my grandfather's favorite movie. This style of music is not that popular now.

[26:06] Andrew DeWolf: Um, it's gonna get a resurgence though, because this kind of music is timeless.

[26:10] Jesse McAnally: Oh, it will. It's just at the moment, I can't imagine anybody.

[26:14] Andrew DeWolf: Okay. Who gives a shit about Dan Aykroyd?

[26:17] Jesse McAnally: Andrew, have you? Do you watch I Think You Should Leave on Netflix?

[26:22] Andrew DeWolf: I have never watched the show.

[26:24] Jesse McAnally: I've seen a couple skits though. There's a skit that has ruined The Blues Brothers for me for a lot while I—it's more than, uh, Drake and Josh being The Blues Brothers.

[26:36] Andrew DeWolf: No, that kind of makes me respect The Blues Brothers a little more.

[26:39] Jesse McAnally: This one was where a guy is like in a tense situation where the girls are gonna—uh, boyfriend and girlfriend are fighting and he turns to his girlfriend. I think I know how to fix this. And then he goes and gets the Blues Brothers glasses and hat and does the dance, and then the dog starts freaking out, and everyone's just getting screaming over each other, and he keeps telling her to turn up, and it just becomes a loud cacophony until he starts crying, and it's really awkward and unpleasant.

[27:08] Andrew DeWolf: It's just me, Barbie. I'm not the Blues Brothers.

[27:11] Jesse McAnally: Uh, on some level though, the Blues Brothers are an embarrass—it's an embarrassing costume. Like, it's like you're dressing for a funeral with sunglasses and a fedora.

[27:21] Andrew DeWolf: Who'd wear sunglasses, especially on the internet?

[27:24] Jesse McAnally: So, with that being said, I had to search through different places, is the point. This is rated R, but it is not bad at all. My parents never let me watch R-rated movies except this one.

[27:35] Andrew DeWolf: There is no—like, no sex.

[27:37] Jesse McAnally: There is some violence from the ex-girlfriend. They say the F word a few times and the S word a lot. Kids don't talk about this, but they hear swearing at school all the time.

[27:48] Andrew DeWolf: So it's just so—it is fine. Just tell them not to start using those words.

[27:53] Jesse McAnally: There is also a lot of drinking and smoking, but that is what they did back then. To me, the movie is boring up to the end. There is a scene where the car chase in the mall. It is fun to look at all the stores in there. There is also a lot of iconic music in the movie too.

[28:12] Andrew DeWolf: This is an 11-year-old writing a review of The Blues Brothers. Probably forced to by their parents.

[28:17] Jesse McAnally: I was half expecting them to do the thing that you see in the YouTube comments where it's like, I'm 10, and this is still my favorite song.

[28:36] Andrew DeWolf: Cool.

[28:37] Jesse McAnally: Okay.

[28:37] Andrew DeWolf: Um I gotta say this sounds like a one star.

[28:42] Jesse McAnally: They didn't seem to like it that much.

[28:43] Andrew DeWolf: That is correct.

[28:48] Jesse McAnally: Alright, next one.

[28:51] Andrew DeWolf: This new Steel book has the exact script on the back cover as the one with the fist.

[28:57] Jesse McAnally: Forget it.

[28:58] Andrew DeWolf: This sounds like a review of the Steel book specifically, and not the movie.

[29:02] Jesse McAnally: Um, I wanna say I want to say this is a one star as well.

[29:06] Andrew DeWolf: That is correct.

[29:08] Jesse McAnally: You ready?

[29:09] Andrew DeWolf: I'm ready.

[29:10] Jesse McAnally: Movie starring John Belushi and Dan, I can't spell his last name, aka the guy from Ghostbusters.

[29:16] Andrew DeWolf: I'm not a big blues or jazz person, so the movie didn't really connect with me like it did my dad.

[29:22] Jesse McAnally: Another child writing the I like that Dan Ackroyd is the guy from Ghostbusters.

[29:26] Andrew DeWolf: Is he not though?

[29:28] Jesse McAnally: What else would you say he's from?

[29:29] Andrew DeWolf: The guy from My Girl?

[29:31] Jesse McAnally: I mean, I would probably say he's the guy from Ghostbusters and the guy from Blues Brothers.

[29:36] Andrew DeWolf: The guy from the alcohol ads.

[29:39] Jesse McAnally: Uh the guy from the news He looks like a fucking child in Blues Brothers, by the way.

[29:44] Andrew DeWolf: He does.

[29:45] Jesse McAnally: They'd put the the the sideburns on him and hoped you wouldn't notice.

[29:49] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[29:50] Jesse McAnally: Um, one.

[29:50] Andrew DeWolf: No, five.

[29:51] Jesse McAnally: This is a five star.

[29:52] Andrew DeWolf: This is a five star.

[29:53] Jesse McAnally: That is a five-star.

[29:55] Andrew DeWolf: Alright, Andrew, a couple more.

[29:56] Jesse McAnally: It's funny and has a good message as both brothers at the end save the day by doing a good deed for God.

[30:03] Andrew DeWolf: I don't think they do it for God.

[30:04] Jesse McAnally: I think they do it for Cab Callaway.

[30:06] Andrew DeWolf: I'm gonna be honest with you.

[30:07] Jesse McAnally: Um they didn't do it for the the the nun?

[30:11] Andrew DeWolf: Uh I mean, I guess sort of they did it for the nun, but I think they mostly did it because they liked Cab Callaway who was in the basement.

[30:20] Jesse McAnally: Um they definitely liked it.

[30:23] Andrew DeWolf: Uh, that is a one-star.

[30:25] Jesse McAnally: The one star.

[30:26] Andrew DeWolf: Well, I guess it wasn't uh Christian enough for them.

[30:29] Jesse McAnally: Alright.

[30:30] Andrew DeWolf: Drake and Josh did it better.

[30:32] Jesse McAnally: So man.

[30:36] Andrew DeWolf: So man.

[30:39] Jesse McAnally: Drake and Josh portrayal has its own problems because uh Drake Bell exists.

[30:46] Andrew DeWolf: I wanna say this is also a five-star.

[30:48] Jesse McAnally: I think this is ironic.

[30:49] Andrew DeWolf: Nope, it is a one-star.

[30:51] Jesse McAnally: Oh my god.

[30:53] Andrew DeWolf: Alright, last one, Andrew.

[30:54] Jesse McAnally: Where do you even where'd you even find that post?

[30:57] Andrew DeWolf: That one was actually from Letterboxd.

[30:58] Jesse McAnally: Oh, I thought you said there was no one stars on Letterboxd.

[31:00] Andrew DeWolf: That was the one one star.

[31:02] Jesse McAnally: Oh, okay.

[31:02] Andrew DeWolf: Like there wasn't enough to make a list, you know?

[31:05] Jesse McAnally: Gotcha.

[31:05] Andrew DeWolf: Alright, last one.

[31:06] Jesse McAnally: It's almost impossible to dislike the Blues Brothers.

[31:09] Andrew DeWolf: It has charismatic leads, classic songs, and supremely well-filmed car chases.

[31:14] Jesse McAnally: But I still have no idea what it is about.

[31:16] Andrew DeWolf: It's an odd mix of musical, comedy, and action.

[31:19] Jesse McAnally: Five five stars.

[31:20] Andrew DeWolf: This sounds well articulated.

[31:21] Jesse McAnally: Like they're That was a one star, and that ends the letterbox game.

[31:25] Andrew DeWolf: It's almost impossible to dislike it.

[31:28] Jesse McAnally: Except for me who hates it.

[31:30] Andrew DeWolf: It's just not my thing, you know?

[31:33] Jesse McAnally: Zero out of ten.

[31:34] Andrew DeWolf: Alright.

[31:34] Jesse McAnally: How about we go into a mid-show and then we talk about some songs?

[31:43] Andrew DeWolf: Hey guys, sorry to interrupt you in the middle of the show, but we've got a shell at you.

[31:48] Jesse McAnally: We're the blues, Andrew and Jess.

[31:50] Andrew DeWolf: And today we're coming at you in the mid-show to be all bluesy and tell you that there's this place on Patreon.

[31:57] Jesse McAnally: We're on a mission from God.

[31:59] Andrew DeWolf: I'm a soul man.

[32:03] Jesse McAnally: I love that song.

[32:05] Andrew DeWolf: But it's only good when Drake Bell and Josh Peck do it.

[32:08] Jesse McAnally: That's true.

[32:08] Andrew DeWolf: That's true.

[32:09] Jesse McAnally: Um, because they're alive ish.

[32:11] Andrew DeWolf: Um, but Andrew, tell us a little bit about Patreon.

[32:14] Jesse McAnally: Um Patreon is where you can go if you are on a mission from God to support us.

[32:19] Andrew DeWolf: So what you have to do is uh run from the cops and everybody and and send that $5,000 directly into our Patreon account.

[32:27] Jesse McAnally: Technically, um adjusting for inflation, it's around $20,000, so send that to our Patreon account.

[32:33] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[32:33] Jesse McAnally: No, but on the real though.

[32:34] Andrew DeWolf: We have uh commentary tracks, we have we just put out a new Rugrats one.

[32:38] Jesse McAnally: We're probably gonna do the other Rugrats movies as well, because we said we would eventually.

[32:42] Andrew DeWolf: Um I'd like to do uh Blues Brothers 2000.

[32:44] Jesse McAnally: I think that'd be a pretty funny commentary track, or or maybe a mini episode.

[32:48] Andrew DeWolf: I think a mini episode.

[32:49] Jesse McAnally: That would be a proper episode, because I I I feel like if you're just watching it happen during the musical numbers, you're like, man, this sucks.

[32:54] Andrew DeWolf: Blues Brothers 2000 is is an interesting one, but uh it does kind of suck.

[32:58] Jesse McAnally: We did do the both con camp rock movies.

[33:01] Andrew DeWolf: We did the goofy movie with Sideways.

[33:03] Jesse McAnally: There's a lot of good stuff on there.

[33:04] Andrew DeWolf: We got a lot of good stuff in the backlog.

[33:06] Jesse McAnally: So if you've never been on our Patreon before, I mean, check it out.

[33:11] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[33:11] Jesse McAnally: But the people currently on our Patreon is Melissa Goldman, Danielle Rennox, Jess Stampede, Ewan Casty, Monica Thoreau, Mina Maniri, Brent Black, Latinal Stacey Coomb, Joseph Evans Green, Mary Louis Choquette, John Vanales, Russ Walker, Musical Hell, Emily Gracie, Kyle Summers, Jen AC, Scoot in the Technicolor, Dreamcoat, Liz Limb, Nothing is Certain except Beth and Taxes, Thesbian, Ren Cullen, Raphael, Martina Salaz, Jessica T, Mitchell Young, Chai Teacup, Katie McDonough, Chris Marcote, KG Marie Anastasio, Tree V, Joseph, Layla, RJ Narija, Charlie B.

[33:41] Andrew DeWolf: Bjorn Herman, Toriana Fraser, Sammy the Most, Lopez, Liana Morton, Kayleigh Blazier, Cinema Gen Reviews, Villa Smith, Sofiana Ali, the Omega Geek, Paige Pearson, Matty Wargle, Elisa Erdman, Anna Aloscatova, Chesca Vere, Sarah Den Blakier, Evan Ball, Zachary Torres, Gathering Party Before Venturing Forth, Aurora Morasso, Marla Forloin, Mera Forloin, Captain Rontaskick, Lisa L, Sarah Walsh, and Nobody.

[34:11] Jesse McAnally: They give us a little extra financial support that helps us keep the lights on here, Meas Cools of Cheese.

[34:15] Andrew DeWolf: If you'd like to join them in supporting us, get all the shit that Andrew talked about, plus more.

[34:19] Jesse McAnally: Come join us over at Patreon.

[34:21] Andrew DeWolf: Alright, Andrew, let's get back to the show.

[34:30] Jesse McAnally: Alright, where do you want to start with this?

[34:33] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, so this is not a traditional musical.

[34:36] Jesse McAnally: No.

[34:36] Andrew DeWolf: At all.

[34:37] Jesse McAnally: Um but sometimes it is.

[34:39] Andrew DeWolf: Like the musical numbers when we get like the big song and dance, it does feel a little bit like it.

[34:44] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, so the thing with it is there's not really musical numbers that drive the plot forward in the sense that characters will sing how they're feeling or anything like that.

[34:55] Andrew DeWolf: No.

[34:56] Jesse McAnally: Except for there also is like one number where they do that, but uh So the old landmark is the song that James Brown sings at the church.

[36:11] Andrew DeWolf: And it's probably the most plot relevant song in there, because we do end up somewhere differently.

[36:16] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, so it's plot relevant, and I think it's plot relevant, and I guess I don't I didn't listen that closely to the lyrics, but I feel like the lyrics of the song don't explain any plot stuff.

[36:26] Andrew DeWolf: But what happens during the song explains what's going on and how things are gonna happen.

[36:32] Jesse McAnally: So when they show up to the location, a song gets sung, and they leave with an actual like goal.

[36:38] Andrew DeWolf: Um so it's sort of a traditional musical number in that sense.

[36:42] Jesse McAnally: Well, because of the song, um Jim Chombelushi gets sees the light and discovers the mission that he now has to go upon.

[36:53] Andrew DeWolf: Um, and then he does backflips.

[36:55] Jesse McAnally: The backflips are fun.

[36:56] Andrew DeWolf: Okay, so all the dancing in this part is super fun.

[36:58] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[36:59] Andrew DeWolf: And I mean it's a it's a James Brown song.

[37:01] Jesse McAnally: It's fucking great.

[37:02] Andrew DeWolf: And it just goes to show the the old time tradition that black churches are just better than white churches.

[37:07] Jesse McAnally: Straight up.

[37:08] Andrew DeWolf: Not even a joke.

[37:11] Jesse McAnally: Dude, white churches are so fucking boring.

[37:14] Andrew DeWolf: Holy shit.

[37:15] Jesse McAnally: Every mass is like a fucking funeral.

[37:19] Andrew DeWolf: Um I I I agree.

[37:21] Jesse McAnally: And the only problem with black church is that they go on for like five hours, but all five hours, it's like a Broadway show.

[37:27] Andrew DeWolf: Um, but the that's the joke of this one where it's like, I don't want to go to no church, then we cut to this, and it is the most alive you've ever seen human beings before ever.

[37:35] Jesse McAnally: Honestly, it's a phenomenal song.

[37:38] Andrew DeWolf: It's super fun.

[37:40] Jesse McAnally: Uh the fact that they managed to take this music number and turn it into a moment where they realize that now they are on a mission from God to get the band back together to get money for the orphanage.

[37:54] Andrew DeWolf: Like, it's it's great that they do that in so in this way, because like any other movie would have just had some fucking boring scene where the guy's like, what about the band?

[38:04] Jesse McAnally: We could get the band back together.

[38:05] Andrew DeWolf: Like, no, no, no.

[38:06] Jesse McAnally: Like, this is a great way to do it.

[38:09] Andrew DeWolf: Because it's not even pretending to take itself seriously.

[38:11] Jesse McAnally: Like, which is part of the one thing I really do appreciate this about this film is it doesn't really want to be anything other than what it is.

[38:19] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[38:20] Jesse McAnally: It it it doesn't even try.

[38:22] Andrew DeWolf: It's literally it's it's so there's no arcs, there's nothing.

[38:25] Jesse McAnally: There's no like third act breakup between the two brothers or anything.

[38:29] Andrew DeWolf: Oh my god.

[38:30] Jesse McAnally: It literally, I'm that would have happened.

[38:33] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, so they make if they made Blues Brothers today, fucking Elwood and and Jake would have been like, oh, I can't even believe that you did this while I was in jail.

[38:43] Jesse McAnally: I don't even believe that you care about the band.

[38:46] Andrew DeWolf: I care about the band.

[38:48] Jesse McAnally: I can't believe you lied about us having the gig, but we didn't have the gig, and then we had to play in front of like all those country bumpkins.

[38:55] Andrew DeWolf: Oh, I needed the money.

[38:56] Jesse McAnally: Like it's it would have been so bad, and they don't do it, and it's great.

[39:01] Andrew DeWolf: I think that's part of what the magic of this movie is.

[39:04] Jesse McAnally: Um, I do want to talk about Ray Charles's song.

[39:07] Andrew DeWolf: Unprompted, he just sings take shake a tail feather.

[39:10] Jesse McAnally: Well, I heard about the fella you've been dancing with a neighborhood.

[39:16] Andrew DeWolf: So why didn't you ask me, baby?

[39:22] Jesse McAnally: But I know that the pool is out of sight.

[39:25] Andrew DeWolf: But the shame of lazy thing tonight.

[39:31] Jesse McAnally: I'm gonna show you how to do it right.

[39:31] Andrew DeWolf: Do it right.

[39:34] Jesse McAnally: Do it right.

[39:37] Andrew DeWolf: Do it right.

[39:49] Jesse McAnally: Shake shake shake, shake it, baby.

[39:58] Andrew DeWolf: Shake it out, baby.

[40:04] Jesse McAnally: And no one ever see you shake a tail feather.

[40:07] Andrew DeWolf: And no one ever seen shake a tail feather.

[40:17] Jesse McAnally: And the dance everyone does is the most ridiculous thing on the planet.

[40:20] Andrew DeWolf: I love it.

[40:21] Jesse McAnally: I love it so much.

[40:23] Andrew DeWolf: This song literally just exists because they're like, we have we have Ray Charles.

[40:28] Jesse McAnally: We have a place for him in the movie.

[40:30] Andrew DeWolf: Yep.

[40:30] Jesse McAnally: But how do we get him to sing a song?

[40:33] Andrew DeWolf: And they're just like, who cares?

[40:34] Jesse McAnally: This piano has no juice left in it.

[40:37] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, it's got juice.

[40:38] Jesse McAnally: Hold on.

[40:39] Andrew DeWolf: Song number.

[40:40] Jesse McAnally: And it's literally just let's just do.

[40:41] Andrew DeWolf: And you know what?

[40:42] Jesse McAnally: Again, it's a it's a situation where it's like, who cares?

[40:45] Andrew DeWolf: Like, yeah, we got Ray Charles, he's singing a fucking song, everybody's dancing in the streets.

[40:50] Jesse McAnally: Like, why why do we want to take this away just because it doesn't make sense?

[40:55] Andrew DeWolf: And then the punchline, he's like, oh, the piano's yours.

[40:59] Jesse McAnally: I'll take as always an IOU.

[41:01] Andrew DeWolf: They do actually get him the money, surprisingly.

[41:03] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[41:05] Andrew DeWolf: They do.

[41:06] Jesse McAnally: They really do.

[41:07] Andrew DeWolf: Um, I love that scene.

[41:09] Jesse McAnally: It the colors, the dancing, the energy.

[41:11] Andrew DeWolf: Everything is perfect about that.

[41:13] Jesse McAnally: Specifically the editing in every musical number.

[41:16] Andrew DeWolf: Um, is something that I usually don't talk about too much unless it's bad.

[41:20] Jesse McAnally: Here I just noticed it in the good way, where everything's on the beat, everything's moving, everything's flowing, and the time and energy it took.

[41:27] Andrew DeWolf: Um, John Landis, instead of flying helicopters into people, you should just shoot dance numbers.

[41:32] Jesse McAnally: Um, you could have had a career.

[41:33] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, he actually does he does he did do a lot of music videos, apparently.

[41:37] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, thriller.

[41:38] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, so maybe maybe he should have stuck to that.

[41:41] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[41:42] Andrew DeWolf: Maybe.

[41:43] Jesse McAnally: Um, but let's move on to Aretha Franklin's song Think, which is probably the most incredible song in the film, and probably the closest thing to like a plot song, weirdly, because it does kind of feel like a musical theater number where someone's telling someone off.

[42:05] ♪ Musical number ♪

[42:18] Jesse McAnally: Now Jimmy or Hatchy.

[42:21] Jesse McAnally: Let's go back, let's go back, let's go and I didn't even know yeah, you can demand too much important.

[42:28] Jesse McAnally: I'm no psychiatrist, I ain't no knocks with reach.

[42:32] Jesse McAnally: You don't take too much hot cute to see what you're doing to me.

[42:43] Jesse McAnally: Oh, feel real.

[42:58] Jesse McAnally: Is this the only song which potentially isn't diegetic?

[43:03] Andrew DeWolf: Possibly, but we also set up a diegetic sex phone in the scene.

[43:07] Jesse McAnally: It's true.

[43:08] Andrew DeWolf: So this is the only one that like because every other song, there's an actual explanation, like they are actually singing.

[43:15] Jesse McAnally: For real, 100%, we know that.

[43:17] Andrew DeWolf: This is the only one where it's possible that we're actually just getting like the raw emotion of the character, and we maybe they're not really singing.

[43:24] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[43:25] Andrew DeWolf: But then they also set it up where maybe she is really singing because there's actually like a band there.

[43:30] Jesse McAnally: So the fun fact about this scene, Aretha Franklin is not very good at singing with her own track, basically, not good with like lip syncing, because she sings it different every time, and if you've ever watched a performance of her live, it is always different.

[43:47] Andrew DeWolf: So there's not a single point in the film where she's really in sync with herself.

[43:53] Jesse McAnally: And it seems like they're trying to stage it far away where her head's turned around as much as they can to try to avoid that.

[43:58] Andrew DeWolf: As much as that is like crappy that that's how it had to be done, like she's such a good performer that it doesn't matter.

[44:05] Jesse McAnally: It just doesn't matter.

[44:07] Andrew DeWolf: The energy.

[44:08] Jesse McAnally: And I love how good a dancer everyone in the scene is, and then you've got Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi just kind of lazily moving back and forth.

[44:16] Andrew DeWolf: We've seen them dance better than that.

[44:18] Jesse McAnally: They have earlier in that movie, but they're just like, I'm just gonna we're just gonna do this lazy shuffle.

[44:24] Andrew DeWolf: They were tired that day.

[44:26] Jesse McAnally: He didn't get the budgetary energy supplements.

[44:30] Andrew DeWolf: What I think is incredible about this movie is that there's so many obvious flaws in the movie, but it almost just doesn't fucking matter because the movie doesn't take itself seriously enough for us to like care.

[44:43] Jesse McAnally: And there's just this charm to everything in like the music numbers and all this that it's just like the charm is almost overpowering, where you're just like, yeah, it's like fundamentally flawed on some levels, but like whatever.

[44:55] Andrew DeWolf: Is there another film that's like that where it's fundamentally flawed but so entertaining?

[45:00] Jesse McAnally: I'm sure there is.

[45:01] Andrew DeWolf: I can think of one right now.

[45:02] Jesse McAnally: I don't know.

[45:03] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, in my like within the last 20 years, is there anything?

[45:07] Jesse McAnally: Because I feel like we pick apart everything that they're like, everything needs to be locked in, every plot point needs to be perfect.

[45:13] Andrew DeWolf: And well, that is a problem right now where a lot of stuff does feel very corporate.

[45:20] Jesse McAnally: And it's hard for corporate movies to feel and I mean this is a corporate movie, obviously.

[45:24] Andrew DeWolf: It's an SNL movie, yeah.

[45:26] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, but like I guess the way corporations are making movies now, they're much more executive-driven kind of, and it's hard for it's hard for like a Marvel movie to have real charm, you know?

[45:40] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, and where you see the obvious faults of like the special effects or something like that, and it's not charming, it's kind of like it feels lazy.

[45:49] Jesse McAnally: Where here it just feels nothing feels lazy.

[45:52] Andrew DeWolf: Nothing about this film feels lazy.

[45:54] Jesse McAnally: This feels like a genuine love letter movie.

[45:56] Andrew DeWolf: Like it feels like whoever was making this loved R&B and soul and jazz and like classic like 50s rock and stuff like that.

[46:08] Jesse McAnally: And they love those genres and they wanted to make a movie about it, you know?

[46:13] Andrew DeWolf: I agree.

[46:14] Jesse McAnally: The energy and love in the room is great.

[46:18] Andrew DeWolf: Um and I feel like this is a big labor of love across the board here.

[46:24] Jesse McAnally: Let's talk about the rawhide scene.

[46:28] Andrew DeWolf: Rolling, rolling, rollin', though the streams are swollen to keep them donkeys rolling.

[46:42] Jesse McAnally: Wishing my gowls by my side.

[46:47] Andrew DeWolf: All the things I'm missing.

[46:49] Jesse McAnally: Good feels love and casually are waiting at me.

[46:56] Andrew DeWolf: Move them on, get them up, hit them up, move them on, hit them rawhide, cut 'em out, run, ride 'em in.

[46:56] Jesse McAnally: Cut 'em out!

[47:03] Andrew DeWolf: Cut 'em out.

[47:04] Jesse McAnally: Right 'em in Raw Ha.

[47:08] Andrew DeWolf: I actually really like the Rawhide scene.

[47:10] Jesse McAnally: It's so it's sort of the worst scene in the movie, on one hand, in that it goes on a little bit too long and they're not doing what they do best, which is singing like blues songs.

[47:22] Andrew DeWolf: Um, but it's kind of funny, just they're like they're like making fun of what like country music, which is great.

[47:30] Jesse McAnally: They're just like we have a room full of people that love country, and we have a blues band.

[47:35] Andrew DeWolf: How do we appease them?

[47:36] Jesse McAnally: Let's just play a fucking theme song from a TV show, and they all love it.

[47:41] Andrew DeWolf: We have we have both genres, country and western.

[47:46] Jesse McAnally: This scene is probably the closest to like a comic conceit.

[47:50] Andrew DeWolf: Like it's cut probably the closest to a gag moment that could be in literally any other studio comedy.

[47:56] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I mean the joke is you're the wrong band in the wrong genre, but you need to play this other genre to appease the crowd because they're literally throwing glass bottles at you.

[48:09] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[48:09] Jesse McAnally: And it's a funny joke.

[48:11] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, the joke is we're gonna play the rawhide theme song.

[48:11] Jesse McAnally: But is the rawhide theme song more famous from Blues Brothers at this point than it is from the fucking raw TV show?

[48:22] Andrew DeWolf: I think that is it's the very specific way that John Belushi says his like little part.

[48:30] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, he's like, pick 'em up.

[48:32] Andrew DeWolf: Bring him up.

[48:34] Jesse McAnally: He is adding near nothing to the song.

[48:38] Andrew DeWolf: That's absolutely it is it's a good moment, but it is kind of like uh after seeing some of the music numbers, you just want to see them like do what they do best.

[48:47] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[48:48] Andrew DeWolf: But they save that for later, they do it later.

[48:50] Jesse McAnally: But speaking of people doing what they do best, let's talk about Minnie the Moocher.

[49:09] Andrew DeWolf: Hey folks, here's the story about Minnie the Mooch.

[49:15] Jesse McAnally: She was a low-down huge.

[49:20] Andrew DeWolf: She was the roughest, toughest frail.

[49:24] Jesse McAnally: But Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.

[49:29] Andrew DeWolf: Haddy hidey honey high.

[49:49] Jesse McAnally: Oh my fucking god.

[49:51] Andrew DeWolf: Literally, and it's it goes full like off the rails over the top here.

[49:57] Jesse McAnally: They literally just now the blues brothers just have a jazz, like a swing orchestra, bandstand.

[50:04] Andrew DeWolf: Uh Kev Callaway is in a white suit.

[50:08] Jesse McAnally: Like um, and they just do Minnie the Mooch, and it's just they just do it.

[50:13] Andrew DeWolf: It is perfect and it's just a stall until the blues brothers come because they ran out of cats.

[50:21] Jesse McAnally: It's just they they nail it, and it's you just like to watch it.

[50:25] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, it's just fun.

[50:26] Jesse McAnally: And the audience is engaged, the police are engaged, John Candy as one of the police people is like having the time of his life with the audience.

[50:34] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, I mean, you can't even like you could say this moment is pointless and doesn't need to be there, but I would say that that person is wrong and should die in a fire.

[50:44] Jesse McAnally: If anything, the entire rest of the movie is pointless, and this scene is the only one that needs to be there.

[50:49] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[50:52] Jesse McAnally: Sincerely, the scene just makes me so happy.

[50:55] Andrew DeWolf: And I love the climax of this movie, um, where everyone that wants to kill the blues brothers are there.

[51:02] Jesse McAnally: Like everyone showed up to the concert because they knew they would be there.

[51:05] Andrew DeWolf: The Nazis, the fucking country band.

[51:09] Jesse McAnally: Carrie Fisher's in the basement, uh, all the cops.

[51:14] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, it's iconic.

[51:16] Jesse McAnally: The part where they're on stage and they're about to play a song and they're like, we'd like to thank the uh entire police department for coming to the show.

[51:25] Andrew DeWolf: Like, and then they destroy all of Chicago to try to get the money to the accountants.

[51:33] Jesse McAnally: Steven Spielberg.

[51:34] Andrew DeWolf: Really, the whole the whole movie leads up to that this joke where they can't steal the money because the nun won't accept stolen money to pay off.

[51:44] Jesse McAnally: Yes.

[51:44] Andrew DeWolf: So instead of stealing the money, they just commit thousands of other crimes and get all of the police after them, and every every person in in all of Chicago hates them.

[51:57] Jesse McAnally: Um, and that's how they get the money.

[51:59] Andrew DeWolf: But they legitimately got the money because they were offered a uh actual recording contract.

[52:05] Jesse McAnally: An advance.

[52:06] Andrew DeWolf: Which this doesn't happen.

[52:08] Jesse McAnally: I mean, the most unrealistic stuff in this, and it doesn't matter, but the most unrealistic stuff in this is that they booked a show that day and managed to fill the entire hall, and they got a recording contract when they walked off stage.

[52:21] Andrew DeWolf: Oh, it's not the fact that their building explodes and they walk it off and they get shot up the air, up in the air in a telephone booth and they walk it off.

[52:28] Jesse McAnally: No, both of those are more realistic than being able to do either of those things in the music industry.

[52:34] Andrew DeWolf: Um that being said, when they're singing jailhouse rock in the prison at the end, why did the band get arrested?

[52:41] Jesse McAnally: Because they all have like prison uniforms.

[52:43] Andrew DeWolf: What did they do wrong?

[52:45] Jesse McAnally: Uh are they ex I don't even think they're accessories.

[52:48] Andrew DeWolf: Aiding and embedding.

[52:50] Jesse McAnally: How are they supposed to know what they were up to?

[52:52] Andrew DeWolf: We were just gonna be in a band performance.

[52:54] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, it they had no idea.

[52:55] Andrew DeWolf: I don't think they got arrested.

[52:56] Jesse McAnally: My headcanon is they showed up to to play that day.

[52:59] Andrew DeWolf: The producer's rules where they they get out a pardon for uniting prisoners um in song and dance.

[53:05] Jesse McAnally: Hell yeah.

[53:06] Andrew DeWolf: Honestly, my opinion, blues brothers did nothing wrong.

[53:09] Jesse McAnally: Let them go.

[53:10] Andrew DeWolf: What did they do wrong?

[53:12] Jesse McAnally: Like what are their crimes?

[53:13] Andrew DeWolf: Um, besides like destruction of massive amounts of city property, breaking into that guy's van and gluing his uh gas pedal down, um, lying, stealing, just all sorts of shit.

[53:27] Jesse McAnally: I mean, they they definitely committed a lot of crimes, but realistically, it was all in service of something good, which was killing those Nazis.

[53:35] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, killing those Nazis.

[53:37] Jesse McAnally: Um, you got me there.

[53:39] Andrew DeWolf: Is that a crime?

[53:41] Jesse McAnally: I hate Illinois Nazis.

[53:43] Andrew DeWolf: On that note, what is your overall thoughts on the blues brothers and your cheese rating, Andrew?

[53:49] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, overall, and I'm not gonna pretend this is uh the greatest film ever made or anything like that. Obviously, I had fun with it though.

[53:59] Jesse McAnally: I think it's a very fun movie.

[53:59] Andrew DeWolf: I think there's a lot of great musical performances.

[54:04] Jesse McAnally: There's a like a huge number of stars to see.

[54:08] Andrew DeWolf: And I mean, it's got charm.

[54:10] Jesse McAnally: And it's got a bit of a a tinge of uh anti-racist message, which is nice.

[54:14] Andrew DeWolf: Um, you know.

[54:15] Jesse McAnally: So I mean, overall, I think it's fun to watch.

[54:18] Andrew DeWolf: I think it's pretty good.

[54:18] Jesse McAnally: If you haven't seen Blues Brothers, I think it's worth at least one watch.

[54:22] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[54:23] Jesse McAnally: If you weren't gonna do it because your dad asked you to, do it because your good Uncle Andrew asked you to.

[54:29] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[54:29] Jesse McAnally: Um as far as cheese.

[54:32] Andrew DeWolf: Uh probably like uh Chicago does the hot dogs, right? They love hot dogs, so I'll do like a hot dog covered with that cheese sauce.

[54:40] Jesse McAnally: Um I don't know if that's is that sacrilege in in Chicago to cover a hot dog in cheese sauce.

[54:45] Andrew DeWolf: I don't really give a shit.

[54:46] Jesse McAnally: I like hot dogs with cheese on them.

[54:47] Andrew DeWolf: I don't give a fuck.

[54:48] Jesse McAnally: Wow.

[54:49] Andrew DeWolf: You went through all you went through all the emotions there.

[54:52] Jesse McAnally: I really did.

[54:53] Andrew DeWolf: I really, really enjoyed this.

[54:55] Jesse McAnally: Um wish it wasn't directed by a literal murderer.

[54:58] Andrew DeWolf: I wish that the murderer didn't take credit for rejuvenating the careers of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles through this movie and taking credit for that.

[55:06] Jesse McAnally: Did he really do that?

[55:07] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, he did.

[55:07] Jesse McAnally: Yo, fuck yo, fuck John Landis.

[55:09] Andrew DeWolf: This guy, that guy sucks.

[55:11] Jesse McAnally: Oh, they wouldn't be anyone without that film.

[55:13] Andrew DeWolf: They were like nobodies, and we brought him back into the line.

[55:15] Jesse McAnally: Fuck you, John.

[55:16] Andrew DeWolf: The reason they're in the movie is because they weren't nobodies.

[55:19] Jesse McAnally: Like, get the fuck out of here.

[55:22] Andrew DeWolf: Um, yeah, I agree entirely with that.

[55:25] Jesse McAnally: Um, but it's good for what it is.

[55:28] Andrew DeWolf: Um, I really enjoy any time there's a song going on.

[55:33] Jesse McAnally: Um, and I am going to give this uh Chili Cheese nachos from Wrigley Field.

[55:40] Andrew DeWolf: That sounds pretty good.

[55:41] Jesse McAnally: But do you know who else likes some nachos from Wrigley Field?

[55:45] Andrew DeWolf: It's our wonderful patrons.

[55:46] Jesse McAnally: Thank you guys for supporting us.

[55:48] Andrew DeWolf: Please follow us on iTunes Spotify Stitcher at Musco Cheese.

[55:51] Jesse McAnally: We're on Patreon at Musical Cheese, Instagram Musicals with Cheese.

[55:54] Andrew DeWolf: We have a Twitter page at Cheesy Musicals.

[55:57] Jesse McAnally: Um we have a patron only podcast.

[55:59] Andrew DeWolf: Come check it out.

[55:59] Jesse McAnally: We just did an uh little commentary on um the Rugrats movie.

[56:05] Andrew DeWolf: That's pretty fun, right?

[56:06] Jesse McAnally: We all like the Rugrats.

[56:08] Andrew DeWolf: Email us at musicaltheatrelives@gmail.com and tell us how wrong we are about John Landis and how he's totally innocent.

[56:08] Jesse McAnally: Our keeper of the cheese is Juliet Antonio.

[56:16] Andrew DeWolf: This show is edited by Andrew DeWolf, and our theme songs were created by Robyn Nash of IOU Music UK.

[56:22] Jesse McAnally: Thank you to the Broadway Podcast Network for having us on the platform.

[56:26] Andrew DeWolf: Alrighty guys, we'll see you next time on Musicals with Cheese.

[56:37] Jesse McAnally: Now, folks, here's the story about Minnie the Mooch.

[56:42] Andrew DeWolf: It was a low down Hoochie Cooch.

[56:52] Jesse McAnally: It's on around a kig the gong around.

[56:58] Andrew DeWolf: Heidi Hidey Hidey High Ho de Hody Ho de ho heedy heedy heady hee.

[57:11] Jesse McAnally: Good luck with that, Andrew.