the blues brothers was a wonderful film , a hilarious comedy packed with good music . it cried out for a sequel , but john belushi's untimely death seemed to eliminate the idea . however , eighteen years have passed , and the long dormant sequel has finally emerged . unfortunately , it's a sequel not worthy of the original . the film starts exactly eighteen years after the first one ended . elwood blues ( dan aykroyd ) is just getting out of jail , his brother jake having recently died . as in the first film , he first visits mother mary stigmata ( kathleen freeman ) and then sets about getting the band back together . john belushi's absence leaves a terrible hole in the film , and although three new characters are created to fill the void , it is still very noticeable . first , there's cabel ( joe morton ) the illegitimate son of elwood's stepfather ( played by cab calloway in the first movie ) . cabel is reluctant to join his destiny , and spends most of the movie as an illinois sheriff , chasing the blues brothers band . next , there's mighty mack ( john goodman ) , a bartender who becomes the new lead singer of the band . finally , there's buster ( j . evan bonifant ) , a ten year old orphan who tags along with elwood and eventually joins the band . the plotting of the film is hardly original . . . it seems to be almost a clone of the original . elwood has to go to reluctantly retrieve each member of the band , they then travel , while being pursued by the police , and perform at several odd stops until they finally reach the big concert finale . the first film had neo-nazis as the random element , this time around , the russian mafia and a militia group fill their role . in fact , the duplication of the plot is so ridiculously complete that certain scenes are practically identical to the original . remember the classic performance at country bob's ( where they like both types of music : country and western ) from the first movie ? well , this movie has a performance at a country fair , where the band is expected to play bluegrass music . there's the massive police car pileup , although this time the gag falls completely flat . there's even an exact replica of the conversion scene in the church of reverend cleophus ( james brown ) . there are plenty of recurring characters too . in addition to mother stigmata and reverend cleophus , aretha franklin reprises her role as mrs . murphy . frank oz , a prison guard in the first film , makes an appearance here as the prison warden . as the stars , the new blues brothers don't live up to their legacy . aykroyd is more loquacious , yet much flatter as elwood . john goodman barely has a character as mighty mack . joe morton has the deepest character , but not a terribly interesting one , as cab . and what's the deal with the orphan ? it plays like a desperate gimmick that doesn't mesh at all with the rest of the film . at least bonifant isn't as precocious as he could have been in the role . but the true star , and the only saving grace , of the film is the music . and the film is packed with it ( even during and after the ending credits ) . although there are no brilliant mergers of comedy and song as in the original's rawhide/stand by your man medley , the music is very much enjoyable . to top it off , the film is packed to the gills with cameo musician appearances . b . b . king , blues traveler , eric clapton , travis tritt , wilson pickett , erykah badu , bo diddley and steve winwood are just a sampling of the multitude of stars that make an appearance here and there . unfortunately , the music pauses here and there to allow in the familiar plot . if simply copying the original blues brothers wasn't bad enough , writers aykroyd and john landis dumb it down , removing any memorable characters , and replacing them with flashy , but unbelievable , magical gimmicks . it's a shame . buy the soundtrack and avoid the film . better yet , rewatch the original . . . you'll have a much better time .
