Now that we're seeing everyone's tallies, I can see how many bullets got dodged.  Because they seem to be the most active and vocal posters, I was afraid that this list would wind up looking more like the lists from raul, Miss Vicky or the creatively monikered MovieFan1988 (American Pie #1).  And my vote for worst list likely goes to Tuggs, a handy collection of most of the purile comedies of the last 15 years.  Really scary how many, um, Scary Movie sequels got nominated.  Thankfully none of them made it.

Rock wrote:

lol I tuned out that thread for the last few days

Haha.  I only just started picking it back up after tuning it out most of last week.

Funny, just last night I was amusing myself by playing in my imagination the Blues Brothers "Good Old Boys" scene. That part of the movie alone makes me laugh in several places: 

**SPOILERS FOLLOW**
Elwood asks what kind of music the place usually has, and is told, "Oh, we got both kinds! We got Country, and Western!" Maybe this is funnier to me, having grown up in Nashville, Tennessee, Ground Zero for the Scourge that is Cuntreh music. We've got some real zealots down here.

When the patrons become hostile to the band and their heathen Soul music, the boys shift gears on the fly and jump into the theme song from the tv show Rawhide to win back their approval, for which the crowd goes full–on yeeehaw apeshit. One of the rednecks starts dancing on his table. That shit is hilarious to me. Then the brothers produce a fucking bullwhip. As I prepared last night's chicken I was grinning as I quietly mimicked Jake's "HYAHHH!" to myself. 

Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" was a tremendous crossover hit when it came out; it was fucking everywhere. So it's just funny that when Jake and Elwood suddenly cop male falsettos to follow "Rawhide" with "Stand by your Man" without missing a beat, the rednecks are so overcome with sentiment they start slow–dancing and crying. 

Cut to the end of the show and they're playing Rawhide again, clearly having run out of material, and the crowd is so enthusiastically appreciative they seem like they wouldn't complain if the band just played Rawhide all night long. 

Then of course the band has to peel out and flee when they learn they've drunk more money in beer than they've earned playing the gig. 

Other beloved laughs:

The "I bet they have SCMODS" scene.

"Illinois Nazis. I hate Illinois Nazis. [vrooom!]" — This scene probably could use a little historical refresher. Blues Brothers came out a couple of years after the infamous "Skokie Affair," when a bunch of Nazi assholes won the right to demonstrate in a suburb of Chicago that was predominantly inhabited by Holocaust survivors, in the case National Socialist Party of America vs Village of Skokie, 432 US 43 (1977), and pissed off pretty much the rest of the entire country. It's a case that also gave the ACLU a black eye from which they've never fully recovered, because they took the unusual position of defending the Nazi fucks and their right to demonstrate... in full Nazi regalia, in a neighborhood full of Holocaust survivors. On the day of the Illinois Nazi pigs' little jackbooted public circle–jerk, people turned out in droves, just like in the movie, hurling vividly colorful displays of condemnation.
So, as satisfying as it always is to see a bunch of Nazi fuckstains forced off a bridge by a speeding Bluesmobile, you can imagine how cathartic it would have been in 1980, with the country still stinging from the insult of that embarrassing little episode, to see Elwood floor it and take aim. The Blues Brothers did what the whole country wanted to do with the Illinois Nazis. Hit the fucking gas.

One of my biggest laughs comes courtesy of the fucking Penguin. Oh my god, after she breaks her yardstick beating Jake and Elwood for profanity (both of them perpetuating the punishment by uttering fresh expletives with every blow), she pulls out the BIG stick with a WHOOOSH over their heads, Agghhh!!! That sound! It cracks me the fuck up. Audio is a big deal for me. Fucking Bushido Nun. The joke is of course derived from the storied traditions of corporal punishment in Catholic schools.

And of course, the oft–quoted "They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God."

Another "of course," here, is the other half of what makes the movie so lovable, aside from the comedy: the roster of musical TITANS appearing for cameos and show–stopping performances. Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, and James mothafuckin Brown as the Reverend Cleophus, a part he was born to play! I mean that casting job is hilariously perfect. The man was pure preacher down to the marrow of his bones. To see James Brown make his appearance in the pulpit, in all the ministerial robes, doing the call–and–response style sermon... that's so fitting it's a fucking scream. 
Maybe a lot of this is U.S. humor? Y'all don't have Black churches up there?  Oh yes you do! 

So, at last I randomly chime in on this thread. I have been reading along with interest, though. I just happened to be reminiscing about Blues Brothers within the past 24 hours, so when I saw this, I figured if nobody else felt they could articulate what's so funny about this movie, I might as well give it a go. 

I do get the action/comedy disconnect. I have trouble with movies like Pineapple Express for this reason. How am I supposed to laugh when our darling Rosie Perez is bleeding to death from bullet holes in her beautiful chest, and with no punch line? Like wtf genre of movie am I watching? "I'm a comedy, I'm a dumb action flick, I'm a comedy..."

The action scenes in Blues Brothers do have punch lines, however. When they're crashing through that shopping mall, for example, Jake and Elwood are casually commenting on the wares. "Baby clothes. This place has everything." And all those guns and piled–up police cars at the end are egregious to the point of intentional absurdity, parodying contemporary action films that had gone into overkill with the whole car chase thing by that time. Several of those movies had become nothing but; they play like feature–length Dukes of Hazzard episodes, just cameras eatin' dust for two straight hours, and totally forgettable. 

Also for the record I've been silently sharing in the satisfaction over movies like American Pie and This Is the End getting snubbed, and even though I don't know these people on Film Forum (though I have read some threads over there), I do feel a bit of schadenfreude in the tears of someone who rants that Ghostbusters beating Shrek is a "travesty."

I might be getting my idiots mixed up here, but you know we can only scroll back so many posts when typing a reply, so I'm going from memory. 

Well, I'm late for bed again.

Forty winks.

Last edited by Rampop II (8/14/2022 7:36 am)

Rock wrote:

I was getting a Bill Murray in Stripes vibe from his performance, but yes, Aykroyd is very much the problem, and the Fletch comparison is revealing. I still liked it though, for that Grodin-filled third act.

Either way, I don't feel that Aykroyd was being himself and his particular brand of genius.  Also, I get the feeling that you may not be familiar with this brand of genius, which isn't evident in his fims so much.  You really should try to check out the first three seasons of SNL for that.

I've seen the odd clip but I really need to do a deep dive at some point. I also have yet to see Neighbors, which I believe you're a fan of.

Jinnistan wrote:

(Also, hey!, you're LB friends with Justine, isn't that cool.  Must make Evil pretty jelly )

lol the follow is one way