Remarkable.
John Landis was inspired when he decided to direct a film like this one. In addition to bringing us the excellent music that integrates the soundtrack, it brings us high doses of very good humor and a captivating, intelligent and well-written story, based on the desire of two brothers to reunite their former R&B band, dissolved after them getting into trouble with the police, and using music to raise the money needed to maintain the Catholic orphanage where they grew up. It's a plot that seems subscribed, but considering that it's a comic and quite unpretentious film, it seems within a very acceptable level.
The cast is simply outstanding and is full of famous names. Each one of them does the best they can, and the result of it all, combined, is truly positive. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd manage the two main characters with panache and enormous talent, in a way that it's really hard not to dedicate all your attention to them when they appear on the scene. I really liked the absolutely serious way they say the jokes. We can't guess what will come out of their mouths. Carrie Fisher also appears here, in a smaller but quality work. And we need to highlight the enormous contributions of a wide range of immortal names in music, such as Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and James Brown. Until near the end of the film, I really thought that the actors were very similar to them, but no.
On a technical level, it's a film that looks more understated than it actually is. There's a lot of money invested there, and we can see that in the special effects and the staggering amount of cars and things that are destroyed throughout the film, as the Blues Brothers leave their trail of chaos in their wake. I got to the point of thinking that the Portuguese police would be happy if they had half the cars destroyed in the film! I also got the impression that shooting outdoors, especially in an urban environment, needed to interrupt normal traffic on the streets, which is expensive. Well, I've already mentioned the soundtrack, but it's worth stressing this point again: the film has excellent music and songs, and Jazz, Blues, R&B and Soul lovers will probably love this.