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Bill Simmons
If you're a fan of the inner workings of Hollywood, then check out my.
Chris Ryan
Podcast, the Town on the Ringer Podcast Network.
Bill Simmons
My name is Matt Bellany. I'm founding partner at Puck and the writer of the what I'm Hearing newsletter. And with my show the Town, I bring you the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. Every week we've got three short episodes featuring real Hollywood insiders to tell you what people in town are actually talking about. We'll cover everything from why your favorite show was canceled overnight, which streamer is on the brink of collapse, and which executive is on the hot seat. Disney, Netflix, who's up, down, and who'll eat lunch in this town again?
Chris Ryan
Follow the Town on Spotify or wherever.
Bill Simmons
You get your podcasts. Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton? And time just stands still. In the mood for something crunchy, saucy and boneless? Try Jack New Crispy boneless wings from Jack in the Box. Get em with honey garlic Sriracha or smokeshow smoky barbecue sauce. Enjoy so much more.
Chris Ryan
The Rewatchable is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. You can watch it on Ringer Movies, where you can find clips and entire episodes from this podcast. In the Big Picture with Sean Fenison.
Bill Simmons
That's right. You can see my face, which I don't feel good about, but I'm happy to do here at the Ringer Podcast Network.
Chris Ryan
Cr the Watch. You can find that on the what is it?
Sean Fennessey
Ringer-TV YouTube channel. And you also fund it on the Watch.
Bill Simmons
What are you cooking up over there?
Sean Fennessey
Talking a lot about modern medicine.
Bill Simmons
Oh, exciting.
Sean Fennessey
Because of the pit.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, sure, Doc.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, you're watching Doc.
Sean Fennessey
I have not fired up Doc yet. That's a little gift to myself.
Chris Ryan
They're saying it's like Regarding Henry crossed with a doctor show.
Bill Simmons
That sounds really important. That's good.
Chris Ryan
Looks great. Well, this movie is a classic and we'll explain why we're doing in a second. The Blues Brothers is next. John Belushi, Jake Blue, Party in the county jail. Dan Akron with Blues. The Blues Brothers. They smell bad. You are such a disappointing pair.
Sean Fennessey
Incontemptible pig.
Chris Ryan
He better pray the police get to.
Sean Fennessey
Him before we do.
Chris Ryan
Dan Aykroyd John Belushi, the Blues Brothers, a musical comedy. Rated R. Now play at a theater near you. All right, so when this runs, this will be SNL 50 week. This was the first SNL movie. Blues Brothers, a movie that we've been Saving for the right time. I feel like this is the right time. I love this movie. I don't know how it stands for people under 25. I know how I feel.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
It's an OG. I saw it in Chicago in 1980.
Sean Fennessey
Get the fuck out of here.
Chris Ryan
And we walked out and Daily Plaza was there, and my head almost exploded. That is a true story. I was on a baseball park trip with my dad, and we saw Blues Brothers. We're in that theater. And we came out and I was just like. I. I was like in the Matrix.
Sean Fennessey
And then a bunch of Nazis were also there.
Bill Simmons
How old were you?
Chris Ryan
1980. So I was 10.
Bill Simmons
Wow.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
So even back then, at 10, you would already, like. Were you just obsessed with Belushi?
Chris Ryan
Yeah. So the Belushi thing, for me, he was like, my first favorite. But it started. They used to rerun the SNLs in prime time. Yeah. So I think it was season four. And that's when I started seeing it because I wasn't allowed to stay up late. And then I think somewhere around there, I started watching a little bit. But Belushi was the one. I mean, if. Especially if you were a kid in.
Bill Simmons
75 when they started the show, how did you become aware of it if you weren't allowed to stay up?
Chris Ryan
Didn't. Didn't know about it.
Sean Fennessey
Okay.
Chris Ryan
But I didn't really know about it till season three, season four.
Bill Simmons
Okay.
Chris Ryan
And. And then anecdotally, just people like my parents, friends doing the wild and crazy guys and stuff like that. But you didn't.
Bill Simmons
You.
Chris Ryan
You almost didn't know what it was. And it was on so late. It was like, someday I'll stay up late and I'll watch snl. I think season four was probably when I snuck up a couple times, but them rerunning the primetime stuff was huge. But this was. I mean, I was looking at some of the ratings numbers for this show, and it's just massive. Like season four, 13.1 rating, 39 share, and it was getting 25 million people an episode.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. Yeah. I.
Chris Ryan
Which is like, there's no sporting event that gets that now.
Bill Simmons
Except the super bowl airing at 11:30.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Because there was the Saturday Night Live part of it. And then, like, the Belushi thing was really interesting to read about this movie and read either contemporaneous pieces or, like, pieces that were written just about its legacy and just to try to wrap your head around, like, how big he was and what he meant to people and the practicality of his stardom. Because so much of his legend is like. And then Belushi closed the bar down.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
You know, which is like a kind of celebrity thing that if people are doing that now, like, it's almost gonna be a problem because they're gonna get in so much trouble. But, you know, Belushi was really, literally, like, he was America's guest, right? Yeah.
Chris Ryan
One of a kind. The guy that didn't jump off the show initially because Chevy Chase did. But then when Chevy Chase leaves, then Belushi and Aykroyd kind of take over the show. And then season three was their big year. And then they started dabbling around with the Blues Brothers and eventually led to them leaving. There's been great books written about snl and especially, like, this was the first test case. Chevy was the first one. And then these guys of, like, when you outgrow the show and Hollywood comes calling. But then there's cocaine, too, which became a big part of the legacy of this movie. They talk about it, and everything you'd ever read about this movie was about how much cocaine was.
Sean Fennessey
They're so candid about it.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
It's weird how much this movie is instrumental to his legacy too, because he just didn't make very many movies.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
You know, his. It ultimately, when you look back on his career, like, the body of work is pretty small in part because he died so young, but he just didn't. Because he was on that show from 75 to 78. He was just on the show.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, that was one of the big problems with season four for him. The last SNL season was he started filming 1941 at the same time. He was flying back and forth and, you know, doing a ton of drugs. And his. His performance started to fade. But, yeah, it's. I remember seeing neighbors in the theater that was after Blues Brothers, and it was just so disappointing. They switched roles, and Aykroyd was the crazy one, and Blue she was like the. The straight man. And then near the end, like, his eyebrow goes up and he goes. But it just. This was kind of the movie that became this. And Animal House were the two that became the Belushi movies. But that Animal House wasn't a Belushi movie. He was in it. It made him a star.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. So I think for somebody like me, when I see, I don't know, Chris Farley, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, like, all of the guys who are in the lineage of what Belushi started, do anything for a joke. Yes. The super physical, like, very emotionally animated, but also kind of like, balletic and had, like, theater background. You know, like that weird combination of this guy's a maniac, but he's a real artist at the same time. And charismatic, super charismatic. So when he hit, were were people? Like, there's never been anything like this before.
Chris Ryan
I mean, that's. As a little kid, that's certainly how I felt. But I think Hollywood felt that way too. He was such a phenomenon. I mean, well, there's so much to talk about. But he did the triple crown in 78. He had the number one movie, he had the number one album, and he was on the number one most important show at the same time, which is like, never. I don't think anyone's done that again.
Sean Fennessey
I. I don't think so.
Chris Ryan
People have done two of three the.
Bill Simmons
Week with the Idol and the album and the movie coming out later this year.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, yeah. But he. Between the show and then Animal House, he had some level of stardom that just. I don't think is. You can't. You can't compare it to anything now because it can never happen. Especially when we had so few TV channels and programs. And fame was just completely different back then. But I think the thing that you feel in this movie with him was he was just so talented. Like, he's actually a really good musical performer, like, for what he is. When you feel like he's an actor, think of all the actors we've had moonlighting as singers. And this guy is, like, commanding, you know? They toured with Steve Martin in 78, after, I think, season three, and Steve Martin was at the height of his fame. Right.
Sean Fennessey
He's doing, like, la. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
And the Blues Brothers are opening up for them. Like, can you imagine having, like, a ticket for that.
Bill Simmons
That Universal Amphitheater show that the first one that they did with Steve Martin became that album that you're talking about and sold almost 4 million copies in 1978 of just them doing the Blues Brothers review for an hour.
Chris Ryan
And then Aykroyd was kind of a freak too, because he was smart enough. Like, he loved Belushi, defended him, stuck up for him, but was also really talented in his own right and was the perfect straight man for him. Like, didn't really care if he got the credit. Was all about kind of platforming the two of them together, but also pushing.
Sean Fennessey
Jon and kind of uses him as a. Like, a vehicle to get a lot of his ideas expressed. Right. Because, like, a lot of the stuff that's in Blues Brothers is directly from Akroyd, and Akroyd's interests and all the stuff like, of. Of these are the musicians that we need to feature and the songs that.
Bill Simmons
Need to be featured.
Sean Fennessey
It's. I just cannot believe this worked.
Chris Ryan
I know I had that. That was one of the first things wrote down. A movie that shouldn't have ever worked, probably didn't totally work, and yet became one of the great pop culture documents of this entire era. Like, you're the people you're getting, and you're getting Belushi and Akro at their peak. You're getting James Brown and Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin and then all these randos like John Candy and Carrie Fisher. It's like an amazing document.
Bill Simmons
Right place, right time. I still don't. I have some theories as to why it was a success, but I don't have an. I don't think not being there takes it away because to me, the success of this movie and Belushi's power is a little bit like hearing like, Orson Welles is the greatest director of all time. Like, someone tells you that. Someone tells me that when I'm 12. And I'm like, well, that just must be true.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
You know, like, there's a kind of received wisdom about the greatness, and this is one of the only documents we have of the greatness. But then when I think about the movies that were really popular in the 70s, and I'm like, okay, so Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run before that Madman World.
Chris Ryan
Some of those weird Burt Reynolds movies.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, those movies are like this movie where it's like, cool person pops up every five minutes. You got a musical number. Car chases, car crashes.
Sean Fennessey
It's like a variety show.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. And it kind of has all the pieces that you're like, yeah, this is kind of what movie going was like. And it had the two stars from one of the biggest shows of that era. So it does make sense in that way.
Chris Ryan
And an incredible amount of cocaine.
Bill Simmons
Yes.
Sean Fennessey
And that's the thing that kind of jumps out is like, everything about this movie is 1970s, but the bloat is pure 80s. Like the. The. The excess.
Chris Ryan
It bridges the two decades. It's made in 79 and released in 80s. Yes. Yeah, I don't like musicals.
Bill Simmons
Okay.
Chris Ryan
This is my favorite musical by far. I don't even know what. Second, what's your favorite musical?
Bill Simmons
Singing in the Rain. I love the wizard of Oz. I really love classic musicals. I am almost allergic to modern musicals. I think that this is a cool version of a musical. I think the people who made it. What did they describe it as. Oh, as a musical. In Camouflage, one of the producers said, which I thought was a cool way of describing it, which is like, yeah, there's a lot of musical numbers here, and the movie is basically a series of set pieces, like you said, but no one breaks out into song to explain the story.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Which is something that a lot of people who don't like musicals tend to blanch at.
Chris Ryan
What's your favorite musical?
Sean Fennessey
It's a little bit of a cheap, but all that jazz. The Rorschach.
Chris Ryan
Oh, that's a good one.
Sean Fennessey
More about choreography than it is about music, but it has a lot of.
Bill Simmons
Also about drugs.
Sean Fennessey
Yes, and also about drugs.
Chris Ryan
Going back to the blue sheet thing, because you're asking, like, what was it like? Like, what it had. How was he perceived? Because you think of all the lineage of the guys, especially Farley. Farley became, like, the son of Belushi and just talked about him constantly and was from Chicago, and, you know, it was almost in some ways, seemed like he just wanted to repeat Belushi's fast life and quick death. I. The only thing I can compare it to is, like, athletes, when you, like, somebody comes in and, like, Dr. J comes in, and it's just like, whoa, you can do that. Like, I. I just don't feel like Belushi. He wasn't. He was, like, a complete original. And even in the first snl, he's the first person you see. He's doing the one where he's like, I'd like to feed you a team Fingertips to the Wolverines. But I remember this skit that I saw when I was like, who is this guy? It was the. It was the. When he played the Incredible Hulk in the Superman sketch, and he blew out the bathroom. And it was one of the first SNL sketches I'd ever seen. I was like. I was like, what's going on? What world is this? Could I just go into this world? But that was it. He just. He just had it. Some people just have it.
Sean Fennessey
Some stars are. They're inconceivable. Like, you can't really imagine being around them, like Julia Roberts, like. Or something like that, where you're like, I would never see this person in any place that I would ever go. They exist on another plane of existence. And Belushi is, like the. The Olympian of the funniest guy in every bar in America. And the fact that tragically, I guess, but he truly was, like, a man of the people. It's a kind of stardom that I Just don't think we have that much anymore. Where it's this idea that people would have like, oh, I was out it one of them, 30 in the morning and John Belushi came in with like 15 people and they took over the jukebox and they bought the entire like round for the entire house. And I just, I think that that has something to do with his charm.
Chris Ryan
And they said he was like the all time, all time king of a city in Chicago. Yeah. Like just kind of just moved around. Probably never a cop car to take. People just putting cocaine in his pocket. Yeah. I think what. When you think of how like short Pelushi's career actually was, like you mentioned, he really didn't make that many movies.
Bill Simmons
And not that many good movies.
Chris Ryan
He was only on SNL for 80 episodes, you know, but I think part of the legend and the stuff that I used to love when I was, you know, in the 80s after he died. And it was like one of the first really sad deaths for me. It's like, oh man, I fucking love, but he's dead. But a lot of the legend was all these stories and just these larger than life and people trying to save him and people trying to help him. And you know, he was just like this comet that wasn't gonna last. It was kind of part of the point of him.
Bill Simmons
I feel like his iconography though is a little bit of an inaccurate representation of what kind of a performer he was though.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Cause he's like actually a much more serious actor in almost everything that he's done. And even in this movie. This is not a cursed Farley performance. I mean, he's dancing, but it's almost more.
Sean Fennessey
It's Will Ferrell's more applicable because it's the idea of playing something deadly serious. It's so absurd.
Bill Simmons
Yes. But he's not prat falling.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
You know.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. The best. He did some really good stuff on Sno. But the best one, one of the most famous sketches they ever had was that Star Trek one. When they cancel Star Trek and he's Kirk.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
And it's like a nine minute sketch. He's just like great in it. But he could, he could basically do anything. I. One thing that I. I always thought with him after the fact was like the. All the movies he didn't make, you know, like, because about Last Night came out in 86, which is a movie CR. And I love. And Jim Belushi played the part that was supposed to be the Belushi part. There's this whole other era where he's just like randomly the. He's the rom com buddy in one movie. He's like a sports GM and another, like, he just. I feel like his career could have been great. Obviously, that's part of the.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. You wonder what his aspirations were. You know what I mean?
Chris Ryan
I don't know.
Sean Fennessey
Like, could he, could he have played I. He couldn't have done Raging Bull maybe. But like you could see him playing like a boxer. You could see him playing like how.
Chris Ryan
Jamie Foxx almost did that turn when he was an Ali and all of a sudden started. I don't know what I think you see it even.
Bill Simmons
I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen old boyfriends. Yeah. You know, but that Talia Shire movie which is directed by Joan Tewksbury, written by Paul Schrader.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
And he has like a. It's a funny part, but it's a really serious part. You know, like, he obviously was drawn to a kind of intense pathos in the characters while also being able to be Blutarski, you know, like he, he could do both of those things. So I guess I think he would do a lot of serious stuff. He's a trained theater actor.
Chris Ryan
The documentary was excellent about him. The best Belushi story was that one. They're like in the Hamptons and they're up at 5:30 in the morning and they're like the party's way over and it's just like Aykroyd and somebody else and they hear this like splashing and they look out and Belush is just doing like cannonballs off the pool. And Ackroyd looks at whoever was with them and he's like, Albanian oak was Albanian. It's like pure Albanian oak. So you can feel some of that even when you watch this. Like, I'm sure there's scenes when he's just zonked out. He's got sunglasses on the whole time, but when he turns it on, he turns it on.
Bill Simmons
Sounds like a hard production.
Chris Ryan
Oh, I can't wait. So from an SNL standpoint, this is a. These guys pop on the show twice. They're on for the, the famous they. First of all, they're a warm up act. Then season three, March 78, April 22, Steve Martin's the host. This is still considered the best SNL of all time. And they're the musical guests. And they did hey bartender and I don't know. And people are like, what's going on? These guys are on the cast that led to the summer and everything after. Then they were on in November again. They did, they did for Carrie Fisher show, they sang Soul Man. So when you look back at Belushi's 78, where he's on the biggest show, he's opening for Steve Martin, who's the hottest stand up comedian. Animal House comes out in late July, becomes a phenomenon, is going on on magazines and stuff. Then they come back for season four and they're like, they've transcended the show. It's like it happened to Eddie Murphy too. But then in, in December, they put out the album from the live thing and that sells out and goes platinum. And it all happens in like nine months. And I don't think, you know, he couldn't handle it.
Sean Fennessey
There's a thing with SNL where obviously like, it's like, is it funny or you know, like what sketches you like? But I think. And the movie Saturday Night tried to get at this. A lot of the discussion about SNL at this point has gotten at this where it's like, it's also this club you want to be a part of and like this cool club. So the idea of these guys being like, what we really like is 60s soul and blues.
Chris Ryan
Right.
Sean Fennessey
And so we would like to like form the greatest bar band of all time. And like, we'll gig around and we'll warm up before. But like, maybe you can find a spot for us here or here or here. That, that actually is part of the SNL mission as much as like Weekend Update or maybe like the. You. You want to see like this weird, like, cool club that you want to be a part of. Like, it's that idea of New York City. That idea of like, yeah, they build.
Chris Ryan
A blues bar and then all of a sudden it becomes one of the hot places in New York.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. I think also it just underscores that Saturday Night Live at the beginning was a variety show.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
It wasn't 14 sketches consecutively. It was something a little different than that. And that something like this, which isn't like, there are no jokes.
Sean Fennessey
It's weird. Cause it's neither funny nor the best version of this music.
Bill Simmons
Right. And yet there's something kind of entrancing about what they're doing where you're like waiting for it to be something other than them just singing a Sam and Dave song. But then you get to the end and you're like, that was cool.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
As a kid though, I loved when Boushi would do the, the somersaults. I loved Ackroyd with the briefcase where they'd unlock it. I liked how he danced. Just all the stuff they were doing.
Bill Simmons
It had, like, bits inside of it that you were trying to figure out what they were doing and why they were doing it. But it was also really because of Ackroyd. It was so sincere.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
I mean, he really, like, just loves the blues and blues history, like, really loves it.
Chris Ryan
That was one of the cool lessons from this whole thing. Like, these guys did it and they actually did it, like. And part of it was because Belushi was so charismatic. But they went and got some, like, the best. The best backup people in America. They took it super seriously. They really tried to, like, you know, figure out their performances. It wasn't like some vanity thing. Belushi wanted to be the biggest band.
Sean Fennessey
In the Booker T. And the mgs, One of the great bands in American hall of Fame.
Bill Simmons
Sidemen. They're in the conversation for the best sidemen guitarists of all time.
Chris Ryan
So by the end of 78, Belushi's the most important funny person. He probably took the title from. From Steve Martin. It's the. It's probably them in the finals at that point. The other interesting part with Belushi and Aykroyd together is, like, there's just not a lot of great tandems. Because I feel like if Belushi stays alive, these guys probably make 15 movies together. Like Damon and Affleck we saw. There's a trailer for another movie with them that looks great. Rip. I can't wait. But there's not a lot of tandems. You think like Laurel and Hardy a million years ago. Martin and Lewis.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Costello. Yeah. There's a long. There's a lineage of it in American.
Chris Ryan
But not like last 50 years. Like, Farley and Spade made two movies and were in Semester.
Bill Simmons
You know, there have been a couple.
Sean Fennessey
Of Martin and Martin short.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. But they're sort of doing. But it's not. It's not as common as it was. It was because of vaudeville. It was the thing that vaudeville really pushed where you had. You were coming out for teams, and teams had routines that you liked that they did for years together, and they're riffing on that.
Chris Ryan
Well, that's. You said that earlier about this. This is like something that belongs to the seventies in some ways. Those were a lot of the shows that I watched as a kid. Like, I love Flip Wilson. That was one of my favorite shows. Donny and Marie had a show like Captain and Tenille had a show all variety shows at the Osmond, the Osmonds, Crockett and Tubbs. Mary Tyler Moore had a. Mary Tyler Moore had a variety show. These shows where you do sketches, but then you would also sing.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
So they kind of made sense in that context. But this was. You know. I don't know how many SNL movies we've had since.
Bill Simmons
I think it's eight since this.
Chris Ryan
And probably pieces of other ones or characters or.
Bill Simmons
But, like, based on characters that are in the show. I think it's nine total.
Chris Ryan
Right.
Sean Fennessey
Okay.
Chris Ryan
So it opened the door for at least, like, oh, they made it. They're making a Wayne's World movie. All right, I'll try it.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
And do you think this is far and away the best Saturday Night Live movie?
Chris Ryan
I think Wayne's World's really good.
Sean Fennessey
I think Wayne's World's more of a coherent movie.
Bill Simmons
It's weird because I think this is a better movie, but Wayne's World is funnier.
Sean Fennessey
We do have Wayne's World.
Chris Ryan
Which one would you rather order as a 4K Blu Ray?
Bill Simmons
Well, I'll take both when they issue.
Sean Fennessey
Are you gonna do an update on your habit?
Bill Simmons
Yeah. You're slipping down the rabbit.
Chris Ryan
I watched this Blues brothers movie on 4k blu ray.
Bill Simmons
Did you? Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
And how did it look?
Chris Ryan
Fantastic.
Bill Simmons
Can I make a case? Okay, so I'm glad you brought this up.
Chris Ryan
Really good.
Bill Simmons
Obviously, you know, I love to talk about this. I was. I watched the movie on Blu Ray. I don't own it. On 4K. And then I watched the bonus material like I always do when we do these pods. And the bonus material was all converted from vhs.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
And I was like, it looks better this way.
Sean Fennessey
This is interesting.
Bill Simmons
This is a movie. Now, not all movies from the 70s and 80s are like this, but this is a movie that feels right to me.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
In vhs.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Does that make sense?
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Like, I don't feel that way about Predator. Like, some people would say, oh, Predator is like that. I saw it on vhs.
Sean Fennessey
No, but I feel that way about, like, Trading Places.
Bill Simmons
Right.
Chris Ryan
There's a griminess that I think works.
Sean Fennessey
For the cinema of John Landis, is really appropriate.
Bill Simmons
It is a VHS cinema, for sure. That's the only time he was a true powerhouse in the industry.
Chris Ryan
Farrell and Riley.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I guess have made a couple, but nobody thinks of them as a tandem necessarily.
Bill Simmons
It kind of fell out. Right. Yeah. You know.
Chris Ryan
So the Chicago movie renaissance is another piece of this CR. One of your favorite topics.
Sean Fennessey
Sure.
Chris Ryan
79 and 80. We have my bodyguard, Blues Brothers, the Hunter, Steve McQueen.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Solid movie. And Somewhere in Time with Chris Reeve.
Sean Fennessey
Oh, wow. I know.
Chris Ryan
And then it was because they had a new mayor, Mayor Daly, and she's like, let's grab some of that Hollywood. So eventually that leads to 1981, continental dividend, big chunks of Escape from New York filmed there, and a movie called Thief by the one and only Michael Mann. And then we're off. Risky Business, Sixteen Candles, Streets of Fire, Code of Silence Class. We're just off. But Booze Brothers is one of the first ones, and I think probably the one that. Probably the biggest Chicago love letter, I would guess. Like, they even figured out a way to put Wrigley Field in there out of nowhere. Yeah.
Bill Simmons
First Viewler is a pretty good one.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
But I don't think there is a Ferris Bueller without blues.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, I agree. I agree.
Chris Ryan
We also have musical numbers from James Brown, Cap Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker. We have cameos from or extended parts from Carrie Fisher, John Candy, Henry Gibson, Twiggy, Steve Spielberg, Joe Walsh, and Frank Oz. There's a Jerry Orbach cameo in the beginning.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, yeah. But that's like, I do kind of miss that vibe in movies where it was like, this guy showed up for a day. That's the guy who does Miss Piggy. And then there's a Miss Piggy joke 20 minutes later.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. We should have, like, Paul Thomas Anderson should appear as a clerk in more movies.
Bill Simmons
I would love that.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. Famously troubled production, as Sierra alluded to Ackroyd. Six months to write the script, and it was 324 pages and incoherent, and then they had to whittle it down.
Sean Fennessey
He had never read a script or written a script and wrote a 300. Yeah. The 300 is like a Bible with.
Chris Ryan
Like, just tangents and his thoughts about, like, Catholicism and weird shit in there.
Bill Simmons
You guys go into depth. On Acroyd. When you did Trading Places, did you have like an acroyd segment?
Chris Ryan
I don't know.
Sean Fennessey
We talked a lot.
Bill Simmons
So interesting.
Chris Ryan
He really is.
Bill Simmons
He has this crazy brain and this amazing career and he's still alive and he's still showing up in Ghostbusters movies and he's still selling Crystal Skull vodka. And he's clearly a one of one. I mean, there's never been anybody like him.
Chris Ryan
Canadian.
Bill Simmons
He is a Canadian, but, like, he also.
Chris Ryan
Women loved him, by the way, which is really weird. But Stickman, when you watch Landed, Donna Dixon, which was like no small feat.
Bill Simmons
In the early 80s, when you watch the Reitman movie. You know, he's got Dylan O'Brien playing him, who's like a young handsome guy and it like, it's legit, you know, he's like kind of the hunk of that show. But we know him as, I don't know, Ray from. From Ghostbusters, you know, goofball, nerd.
Chris Ryan
What happened? All of a sudden he was Tommy boy, like the big right. Portly, like Carson. Yeah, it's. I mean, he was so young when he was on a son. I think he was like 22 or 23 and then just does the blue she. It's always I. I think he was a little more. A little more randy in the late 70s, early 80s than maybe. Maybe Belushi gets too much credit for it and acronym. I think they were definitely running mates from time to time. Yeah, but I think everybody was like that back then.
Sean Fennessey
And also like this still an era where, you know, the people who wind up on television or in movies have had a life before that. And he's like, got a bar in Toronto and he, you know, is obsessed with this music and has all these like. It's invested in like, almost as like a public intellectual in some ways, but it's just translating it into the most absurd.
Bill Simmons
But he, he's in that. He's in a great lineage of kinds of SNL guys that I love. Like, like Hayter, like Phil Hartman could write for themselves. Had their own idea, had their own characters, were good at impressions and were like. Their brains were traps, like, and really, really good partners. And also sold people like, would do straight man, but also would do Julia Child. You know, I mean, like, he could do. He could do all that. I don't. He's. He's so interesting to me.
Chris Ryan
He created the prototype for Hartman, Hayter, all those dudes. He was the first one. And there's only a few people that have been on the show where everybody else was like, the guy was like a fucking genius. He just was. It was clear he was going to outgrow the show and do something else and do more stuff. Anyway, he ended a 324 page script and there was no budget and. And it was a mess from the beginning. Car crashes. The downtown scene at the end cost 3.5 million. Ackroyd worked cocaine into the budget because they had so many night shoots.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Ryan
People were cool with that because it was 1970.
Bill Simmons
Actually got that done the show too. Just a heads up.
Chris Ryan
BL is party like the maniac. They. I was going to do cocaine before we did the categories.
Sean Fennessey
Is this the closest you've ever been to cocaine? Cuz you famously like, I've never, never been in a room with cocaine.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is the. You can feel the cocaine oozing off the Blu Ray. When you put it in. You're like, oh, oh, yeah.
Bill Simmons
If you could have, you would have done the line off of the blue.
Chris Ryan
Belushi could have talked me into it. There is so much drugs and partying that they opened a bar on the set called the Blues Club for themselves, crew and friends.
Sean Fennessey
This is. Why don't we have a private bar called like the War Room, like the draft war room or something. Call it the Trade Machine, guys.
Chris Ryan
Drugs and alcohol.
Bill Simmons
That's good. Yeah, yeah. The Trade machine as the ringer speakeasy. People would line up like a bar.
Sean Fennessey
In the basement of this building at Spotify. They don't have to know. Daniel doesn't have to know.
Chris Ryan
No Daniel. Well, it ended up being a $27.5 million budget, which was like a kajillion dollars in 1979.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, that's like a Fast and Furious movie now.
Chris Ryan
There's a lot of Lou Wasserman being completely pissed off about how much and calling and killing guys day after day about how the budget spiral. They just kind of lost the control of this.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. And like, were. It sounds like there was documentation of the fact that this was going out of control and that Belushi was kind of out of control, but not in the tmz. We have this on film way. It was more of a like stealth urban legend. Like, did you hear Belushi close down like the old saloon last night?
Bill Simmons
Right.
Chris Ryan
Well, it made 115.2 million. It was 10th overall. 1980. It's still to this day the six biggest musical of all time. It was released on the same day as the Empire Strikes Back. What a movie theater day. That was incredible. That has to be one of the top. I remember we did that once about the best day in a movie theater. That's got to be up there. They launched a Blues Brothers concert tour the same day.
Bill Simmons
Do you know it was right above the Blues Brothers that year at number nine.
Chris Ryan
What?
Bill Simmons
It also had the word blue in its title. The Blue Lagoon.
Chris Ryan
Oh, yeah.
Bill Simmons
So funny how some movies are remembered and others are forgotten. You know, in that time, I think.
Chris Ryan
That movie's been canceled.
Bill Simmons
It has been canceled.
Chris Ryan
LA Times. Charles Champlin, great critic, called it a $30 million wreck, minus the laughs.
Bill Simmons
Mixed reviews on Blues Brothers, Charles.
Chris Ryan
Pretty savage. Because people knew it cost a lot of money. And they launched a tour the same day. And I think people were doing the whole egos gone awry kind of thing.
Bill Simmons
Didn't matter.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. And then. Then the movie did what the. The champs of it were Ebert and Cisco. Yeah, Cisco loved it. Ebert gave it three stars. He said the Blues Brothers cost untold millions of dollars. Kept throwing your girl completely out of control. But director John Landis has somehow pulled it all together. Belushi and Ackroyd come over as hardboiled city guys. Total cynics with a worldview of sublime simplicity.
Bill Simmons
There's even an overread there.
Sean Fennessey
They're on a mission from God, pulling a fantasy there.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
There's even room in the midst of the carnage and mayhem for a surprising amount of grace, humor, and whimsy. Raj, he loved. He must have loved Belushi.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
You know, Belushi. Like, Belushi probably turned up the charm of them at some point. So. Yeah, we forgot to mention that or I forgot to mention the. Landis directed Animal House and they got him for Blues Brothers, and they were pretty tight.
Bill Simmons
And Landis in the middle of an. An amazing run of movies.
Sean Fennessey
Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House, Blues Brothers, Werewolf in London. Coming soon, Trading Places. And then obviously Twilight. Twilight Zone.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Coming to America.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Of the top 10 movies that you're talking about this year at the box office, seven of them are comedies. That's a great time. Very different than how things are now.
Chris Ryan
Landis as a director, any movie nerd.
Bill Simmons
Notes, master of the comic set piece from that period of time. Obviously his career is seen in a completely different light because of the tragic events in the Twilight Zone movie. But I think he often, despite not having the nicest reputation as a person, got the best out of complicated comedy figures, including Belushi, including Eddie Murphy. Like, he really got chatty. He got really, like, their best movie performances most of the time. You know, three amigos. Like, he. He really captured something very special in them. And I think his part of it was because he created a lot of chaos. And those people are good in chaotic environments.
Sean Fennessey
It's a bummer that Craig's not here today, but I.
Chris Ryan
It's.
Sean Fennessey
It's a. It's one of those things where you like, is what Landis does best. Is that what's aged the worst? Like, is it. Does anybody find 80 car pileups entertaining anymore in that way? He.
Bill Simmons
In this movie, he takes it to an art, like a level of art.
Sean Fennessey
It's absurd.
Bill Simmons
That is so funny and exciting.
Chris Ryan
But, well, it's almost like they're making it like a comic book or something.
Bill Simmons
Totally.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
But like, through the first half of the movie, there's a part of me that is like, this is kind of boring. And then, like. Like, just, like. Just to like, to make us sit through, like, yet another car chase.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
But then. But by the time the car goes into the truck, I'm like, this is genius level stuff, you know? Like, this is. I've never seen this before.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
So I think it's pushing it. Like. Like you're saying, like, the pushing of the envelope is part of what makes him good at what he was going for.
Chris Ryan
One of the deleted scenes, they leave the gas station after Twiggy drives away and Belushi's smoking a cigarette, and he throws the cigarette and blows up the gas station. I was like, why'd they cut that? Like, they left 90 other terrible jokes in this movie.
Sean Fennessey
Or like, things that happen in this movie that he was lampooning in Kentucky Fried Movie like a couple of years before. But it's almost like, no, this is what happens when you give this guy.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. When you make a real movie.
Sean Fennessey
$30 million. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
We're gonna take a break through the categories. What's the exact perfect age to see this movie? I thought about this long and hard. I think it's like late teens. It's like 18, 19.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
I would say, let me tell my relationship to this movie.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, go.
Bill Simmons
When I was 16 years old, my uncle was an executive at Seagram's, and Seagram's was owned at that time. Vivivendi, Universal. And 1998 is the year of Blues Brothers 2000. Unfortunately for my 16th birthday. Chris has heard me tell this story many times. He lived in California and he flew me to Los Angeles for my 16th birthday. He was my godfather. And we went to the premiere of Blues Brothers 2000 and went to the after party and I met the entire cast. And that was the moment when I was like, I have to move to Los Angeles. I have to be here. I was already obsessed with movies. And I watched the blues brothers like, five times before seeing Blues Brothers 2000. So I was like, I gotta get ready. Like, I gotta prep just in case.
Sean Fennessey
Aykroyd is like, you.
Bill Simmons
You never know. But, you know, I was just really, really excited. And we didn' that Blues Brothers 2000 was gonna be such a fiasco. Like, there was kind of anticipation for it.
Chris Ryan
It's a sad one.
Bill Simmons
The movie is really rough, but you would never know at the after Party at the after party. It was like, we did it. Once again, another masterpiece from Dan Aykroyd and John Landis furthering this legacy of this franchise. But so I got the movie in my bloodstream because of that. And I was 15 going on 16 when I was watching it and getting obsessed with it. So that was gonna be my answer for that question.
Sean Fennessey
I have 16. I think it's a great age because you would be just getting into maybe, like, other kinds of music outside of pop music. So you'd be interested in, like, soul music. And, I mean, this is what it was case for me. It's like, that was right when, you know, like, Otis Redding box set was coming out the stack singles box set was coming out around then. And then you're also like, I like car crashes, and I like watching things blow up.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, the correct answer might be 10, because I really love this movie. And I was text someone this text story with a couple of my best friends from high school and the guy they went to, and I was just like, hey, we're doing Blues Brothers. And they're just like, Orange whip, Orange with three orange whips. And all of a sudden they're just texting lines. New old mobile Oldsmobiles are out the. It's just one of those movies. And I think, like, Stripes was like that Caddyshack. There's just a couple from the early 80s that they just lived on for four and a half decades now.
Bill Simmons
I think it's probably a little tough to watch this after 30 for the first time.
Chris Ryan
For the first time, yeah. Yeah.
Bill Simmons
That's also like, what's the wrong age? To watch this movie for the first time is an interesting counter question.
Chris Ryan
I don't know if, like, if you're 30 years old right now watching this, I don't think you can correctly capture the impact of, like, James Brown and Aretha and Ray Charles at that point of their careers.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Where it just felt like a huge.
Sean Fennessey
Deal that they were still functional, like, I don't know, working musicians at that time.
Bill Simmons
But they. Many of them were on an ebb, you know, they were like a lower.
Chris Ryan
But it was just amazing that they were in the movie because it was like this whole genre of music that was like, holy, this is.
Sean Fennessey
It's just like an SNL because they're characters. So it's like, there's the reverend, there's the waitress, there's the pawn shop guy. You know, it's like. Like they are being brought into the story rather than, hey, we found.
Chris Ryan
We.
Sean Fennessey
We Just happened upon a James Brown concert.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. Most rewatchable scene. I. I mean, the opening when Jake gets out of jail and they hug and. And the way they shoot it with the two things. And all of a sudden we're listening to Mule to Ride Day. I get out of prison. My own brother picks me up in a police car. We're just off and then we do the bridge jump. Like we're just coming out of the gate. Yeah. Really good opening. Reverend James Brown Cleopas.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. I've got Jake's epiphany written down here. I feel like that's an iconic moment.
Chris Ryan
From the epic James Brown epic Belushi.
Sean Fennessey
Jesus tap dancing Christ.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Think stunt double for some of the somersaults for the.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
For the handsprings. For sure.
Chris Ryan
The band. This is going to be a finalist for me. The. The first real car chase in the mall.
Sean Fennessey
The mall. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Kills me.
Bill Simmons
Dixie Square Mall. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Everyone imports baby clothes. This place has got everything. New worldsmobiles are early.
Bill Simmons
It's a good.
Chris Ryan
It's like they're all deadpanning and it's just. People are running for their lives. Diving.
Bill Simmons
That is what malls looked like. Though I do feel like malls are simultaneously exactly the same and completely different. There's something really janky about malls in the 1980s. They're not like that anymore.
Chris Ryan
Baby clothes. Belushi is like so zog. That is like, this place says everything.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
It's so good. I also love any scene in a mall from like 19. Like, fast times had this too. It's just so funny to see the malls back there.
Sean Fennessey
It's just not like that car chase needed to go up a level. And they're like, what if we just drove through a mall?
Bill Simmons
That's great.
Chris Ryan
That's what I had for the Dan Campbell skill for. Holy shit. Are they really going for this right now? I think this is like at least an 8 1/2 y. Chess Paul. God, I love is my favorite scene when they just destroy the French restaurant.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. How much for the women?
Chris Ryan
How much for the little girl? The women. How much for the women?
Sean Fennessey
What?
Chris Ryan
You're the women. I To buy your women. The little girl. Your daughters. Sell them to me. Sell me your children. Mater d Mater d. Little girl.
Bill Simmons
Paul Rubins.
Chris Ryan
The shrimp cocktail. Your life. I if One of the criticisms I'd have of this movie is you probably needed two more scenes just to unleash Belushi. They really like unleash Belushi in this scene. And they. I wish they had just Done it too much.
Sean Fennessey
So I guess Acroid quote unquote script. There was eight individual plot lines for the recruitment of every member of the band. And it was like, this is probably not like a functional story, but like.
Bill Simmons
Right.
Chris Ryan
Done. Doesn't need like a five minutes.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. But it probably would have been a lot more like just let Belushi cook in this venue.
Bill Simmons
Right. They compress it where you've got like. All of a sudden the fry cook comes out of the back in the restaurant and is like, he's in the band too. That we didn't get the individual origin stories.
Chris Ryan
Your woman sell them to me. Who else is pulling that scene off? I mean, he's asking the guy at the next table if he can buy his eight year old daughter. And it's hilarious. I know.
Sean Fennessey
And he's like eating the. Eating the wedge salad that they have. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
We're gonna come back here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Soul Food Cafe. That whole scene where we start, we just get some John Lee Hooker.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Boom Boom boom. What movie is that? What's the other movie that that's from? That's like. Is that Risky Business?
Sean Fennessey
Boom Boom Boom is in?
Bill Simmons
I don't know. I mean his. His song.
Chris Ryan
That song's prominently involved in a movie we love. I think it's Risky Business.
Bill Simmons
I always think of him with I need some money from blue chips. That's like a very.
Chris Ryan
That's good one too.
Bill Simmons
That's John Lee Hooker song. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
And then we get Aretha dry white toast and four fried chickens. We got two honkies out there dressed.
Bill Simmons
Like Hasidic diamond merchants.
Chris Ryan
Say what? They look like they're from the CIA or something. What they want to eat? The tall one wants white bread toast, dry with nothing on it.
Bill Simmons
Elwood. And the other one wants four whole fried chickens and a Coke and Jake.
Chris Ryan
Shit to blues brother.
Bill Simmons
The Dr. The dried white toast bit throughout the whole movie always cracks me up.
Chris Ryan
She sings, you better think. And we get some of the best acting of all time from Macatar Murphy who just kind of has to move along confused. And you know, they're filming takes for 10 hours and he's just wearing an apron.
Bill Simmons
There's a lot to discuss about the quality of acting from the backing band in this movie.
Chris Ryan
It's tough, but Aretha's great. Think about what you're trying to do to me I don't think that your mind go Let yourself be free oh, freedom, freedom she had to lip sync, I guess there's some stories about she had a Little trouble with the lip sync.
Bill Simmons
Maybe.
Chris Ryan
They could have let her belt it out, but yeah.
Bill Simmons
Landis, John Lee Hooker was recorded live, and I think he was the only singer who was recorded live for the entire movie.
Sean Fennessey
Right. That makes sense.
Chris Ryan
The song's really good. I really enjoy.
Bill Simmons
Think.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris Ryan
I mean, it's just like. It's just so much fun to watch. Then we go right to Ray Charles.
Bill Simmons
Yes.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. We go from Rita right to Ray Charles singing. And we're at Ray's music.
Bill Simmons
This is my. This is my favorite.
Sean Fennessey
This has the best dancing. The best. Like, this is the best musical number.
Bill Simmons
Yes.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Excuse me.
Chris Ryan
I don't think there's anything wrong with the action on this piano. Well, I heard about the fella you've been dancing with all over the neighborhood so why didn't you ask me, baby?
Bill Simmons
Or didn't you think I could?
Sean Fennessey
Well, I know that the bu is.
Bill Simmons
Out of sight, but the shingle thing tonight. Outdoor choreographed dance sequence right in front of the L train.
Sean Fennessey
And the dancing in this scene is. I did not know or didn't occur to me before. They just do this dancing during Twist and Shout in Ferris Bueller.
Bill Simmons
Yes.
Sean Fennessey
The same choreography and, like, all the jumping up and down and stuff.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. You think B.B. kane was like, what the.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, that's a good question.
Chris Ryan
What?
Sean Fennessey
Soul stars were like, what?
Chris Ryan
I'm ready here. Yeah. Bob's Country Bunker.
Bill Simmons
Got that, too.
Chris Ryan
Rawhide read in the Stand by your man.
Bill Simmons
It's really good.
Sean Fennessey
Lucy's just like, move him up, move.
Chris Ryan
Him out, would you? Live pod from Bob's Country Bunker. And the. That was chicken wire.
Sean Fennessey
Andy and I were actually doing our Landman recaps.
Bill Simmons
Just gonna say perfect for Sheridan recaps. Exactly.
Sean Fennessey
They're just throwing beers at us.
Chris Ryan
Mini the Moocher.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Palace.
Chris Ryan
Both Blues Brother songs. Carrie Fisher in the tunnel. The iconic line, it's 106 miles to Chicago. We got a full tank of gas.
Sean Fennessey
Half a pack of cigarettes.
Chris Ryan
It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Kid it. Boom.
Bill Simmons
Let's hit it.
Chris Ryan
And then the final car chase highlighted by the. The Nazis falling to their death for, like, two miles.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Is that a Pinto?
Chris Ryan
The Blues. The Bluesmobile collapsing, which I used as a joke in columns for, like, the next 20 years. And then all the guns pointed to them at the end. What do you got?
Bill Simmons
Most rewatchable scene, I'm gonna say Ray's music exchange. And here's why I think Ray Charles is the best actor. Who's not an actor in the movie. And he has comic timing which we later learned watching Pepsi commercials in the 90s. And I love that is like. That feels the most like a musical sequence. Not just because of the dancing that you're talking about, but because they really do need instruments from him. Like it's central to the movie plot. Now. It's not as fun as the car chase stuff, but I love the song that is played. I love the dancing and I love the comedy. So that's my pick.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. I have Shea Paul as the funniest scene in the movie. And this is my favorite scene in the movie. So I don't know what's the most.
Chris Ryan
Rewatchable I have Shea Paul or the mall. The mall kills me.
Bill Simmons
The mall is good.
Chris Ryan
The okay motherfucker award for the exact moment when the movie goes up a notch. Is that the same as the Dan Campbell scale? We really got to. Maybe I got to pick one. I think they've won both of those in the.
Sean Fennessey
In the church with Acroyd's or whoever's like. And God bless the United.
Chris Ryan
We're ready to go.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
What's the most 1980 thing about this movie? Would you go with the 1970s police cars that are just getting destroyed left and right or expensive suit being $10?
Sean Fennessey
I think probably the. Well, I have other ones, but I would. I have that. The other executive who was the rival from Paramount who wanted this movie and didn't get it was Don Simpson.
Chris Ryan
Oh, Jesus.
Sean Fennessey
Which I don't know if anyone lives through production if Don Simpson is running it.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
A production where they already had cocaine in the budget.
Sean Fennessey
And the other one was being so famous. You just decide you're a musician. Like being so popular and so beloved that you're like, you know what we gotta do? Make an album.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Mine is related to that. Which is just an R B musical car chase movie about two white felons. Like I don't think that would get made today on a mission from God.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
That's not that. You know that reminds me me of 1980. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
What's age the best Blue Shed, Elwood's crappy apartment. If you've seen this movie enough times, you really got to study it. When they're in there for it's. It is like 8 by 10.
Bill Simmons
I got some incredible takes about that one. I've decided that I do want to talk about that.
Chris Ryan
Okay.
Bill Simmons
We'll wait. We'll save it. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
What stage the best on white supremacists.
Bill Simmons
It's a good great one.
Sean Fennessey
It's a great villain.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
To learn that from Spielberg.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. Calling a head nun the Penguin.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, that was really funny. I don't think I got that when I was a kid. Good.
Chris Ryan
Carrie Fisher's hair salon was called Curl up and Die with a dye. It's so good.
Sean Fennessey
Also just like her bit of being like, I am learning advanced weaponry to kill this guy.
Bill Simmons
Such a perfect thing to happen. The year of Empire Strikes Back. You know that she's not the damsel in distress, she's the destroyer.
Chris Ryan
Her being in this is a wood stage. The best the. There we see a wide shot of Chicago and there's a movie theater. And the three movies are Escaped from Alcatraz, the warriors and up in Smoke.
Bill Simmons
Oh, that's. And it's just.
Chris Ryan
Sounds like a fucking unbelievable triple header.
Sean Fennessey
We used to really make stuff here.
Bill Simmons
That's a good trio.
Chris Ryan
Definitely not a triple header for a date. It's a. It's a. I'm not working today. I think I'll go see three movies.
Bill Simmons
The boys brought a six pack into the movie theater. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Ray Bans, Blues Brothers and Risky Business. Supercharged Chicago movies and Ray Bans. You mentioned Colleen Camp's Playboy magazine poster, which was also featured in Apocalypse now, that they carefully put in Elwood's apartment, I think, as a tribute to Apocalypse.
Sean Fennessey
Were you able to like, kind of.
Bill Simmons
Do you want me to do it now?
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
I don't know why I clocked that, but watching it this time, I did clock it that the poster that is in Elwood's apartment is Colleen Camp from Apocalypse Now. She plays one of the Playboy bunnies. But in researching this. Excuse me. That I was researching this. In researching this, I learned. And I don't think this is apocryphal. I think it's true that it was Linda Carter from Wonder Woman who was originally cast in the role that Colleen Camp was cast in in Apocalypse. In Apocalypse now, she went to the set of the movie and she filmed scenes. But Hurricane Olga hit during the production of Apocalypse now, so she had to leave. Because they closed down the production. Because the production closed down many times during the making of that movie. She goes back, and when she goes back, she gets cast in the TV series Wonder Woman, So she's not available to be in this movie. So Colleen Camp gets recast in this part. Thing is, by the time they. They had already done the Playboy photo shoot with Lynda Carter. So a very. I learned all this last night, I promise you. A very rare piece of movie memorabilia.
Sean Fennessey
Is the original posterfold.
Bill Simmons
Of Lynda Carter in the centerfold. And Colleen Camp is also shot in the exact same pose, background, styling, everything in the centerfold that appears in this.
Sean Fennessey
The Lynda Carter centerfold going for on ebay.
Bill Simmons
It just said sold on the site that I found. So I don't know. But Bill, if you want to try to contact me, I thought that was a great movie.
Sean Fennessey
Answers the. The piece of memorabilia you would watch from this movie.
Chris Ryan
So that's a more important Lynda Carter picture than the Philippine Shakies photo.
Bill Simmons
I guess so.
Chris Ryan
One of the great photos of all time.
Sean Fennessey
She's like, the pizza place.
Chris Ryan
She's wearing shaky's a Shakey's pizza shirt, but it says Philippine Shakies.
Sean Fennessey
Oh, my God.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. Let's just say she doesn't not look awesome.
Bill Simmons
There's a lot of Linda, like, Lynda Carter prop memorabilia stuff out there all the time.
Chris Ryan
Okay. What a legend. City of Chicago for what Sage. The best. It just uses a lot of it, and I really appreciate it. What else do you have?
Sean Fennessey
CR Conducting meetings and saunas.
Chris Ryan
Oh, yeah.
Sean Fennessey
The feel that the entire band is in the sauna with them. And the way Balushi's like, How's Mrs. Slow? I love that scene so much. And then, yeah, I curl up and die. I had the making of the movie being better than the movie itself. Just stuff like that, I think also.
Bill Simmons
Just SNL converting characters to movies.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
You know, really paved the way for a huge thing that became a big part of the show in the 90s. Also.
Sean Fennessey
This is pretty basic, but this music, like the 60s, R&B soul, is arguably the best music America's ever produced.
Bill Simmons
Never expires.
Sean Fennessey
And it's just like when you hear them.
Chris Ryan
That's one of the big things for this movie. I think the music has aged perfectly. Yeah, I had. I don't know if this A what stage the best or what stage the worst, but when Phil Hartman did the Sinatra group sketch and Mike Myers is Steve Lawrence, and he. They're just. And him and Edie Gourmet are just sucking up to Phil, and he's like, you tell him, chairman.
Bill Simmons
Is it Jan Hooks? Who's Edie? I can't remember.
Sean Fennessey
Was it Jan Hooks who played Sinead?
Chris Ryan
No, she played Jane Hooks.
Sean Fennessey
Okay.
Chris Ryan
Somebody else was playing because he's like, cue ball. But at some point, Sinatra gets mad at Steve Lawrence. Like, shut up. Guys are just swimming in my wake. And he's like, what's wrong, Chairman? And for some reason, anytime I see Steve Florence I think of that.
Sean Fennessey
We should do a rewatchables for Phil Hartman sketches.
Chris Ryan
Oh, my God. That's my number one favorite.
Bill Simmons
He's the best.
Chris Ryan
That's. That was the chunks of guys like you and my stool. Great shot, Gordo. Most cinematic shot. Jake's footsteps, when they're leaving prison, they go underneath for the shot. Up.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
But I really like the. The very end when it scales back and there's 300 people pointing guns at them. That one shot.
Bill Simmons
That's good, too.
Chris Ryan
It's really good. What do you got? Anything else?
Bill Simmons
I got the trooper going into the truck.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Okay. Kid Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness Award. Best needle drop. I don't know if the songs count when they're built in numbers, so maybe John Lee Hooker.
Sean Fennessey
I had Boom Boom. Just because it's not one of their songs. And it's also just. Just so sick the way they shoot it and, like, see him.
Chris Ryan
Okay. I agree. The Chess Rockwell and Brock Landers Award for best character name. I mean, Elwood Blues is pretty good.
Bill Simmons
Juliet Jake Blues.
Chris Ryan
Juliet Jake Blues.
Sean Fennessey
I like Matt Guitar Murphy, so I.
Chris Ryan
Had Matt Guitar Murphy.
Bill Simmons
Lulu Maroni. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Matar Murphago. All right, CR Flex category. What do you got?
Sean Fennessey
When would. When would I have died? I'm taking this from usually thriller and horror movies that we do. But one of the things you have to wrap your mind around when you're watching this film is just how many times you would have died. So I would have probably gone when Carrie Fisher detonated the SRO Hotel and the entire room came safe. Or I would probably be shopping for wicker furniture at Dixie Square Mall, Pier 1, and got hit by an Oldsmobile. Be like, oh, we could just put this right outside.
Bill Simmons
That's a nice piece.
Chris Ryan
That's a good one. The Vincent Chase Award for. Are we sure this character was actually good at his job? The Clarion Records head who just sees one song with his convicted fellow.
Sean Fennessey
$10,000. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Here's a. Here's a bag of 10,000 cash.
Sean Fennessey
And I'm also going to aid in a bet your felonious success.
Chris Ryan
I know everyone's looking for you guys, but here's 10,000 cash.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. There's a few people who are eligible for this award also maybe for the next award. But let me ask you this.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Are the Blues Brothers good at blues music? They're good at R B. Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
When do they. Do they ever sing a blue song?
Bill Simmons
No, no, not really.
Chris Ryan
It's more like 70s blues, I think, is the gimmick.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, it's I know. It's like electric blues, but they're not singing Muddy Water songs, really. They're singing, like, Sam and Dave songs. They're singing.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, well.
Sean Fennessey
And for the most part, they dance a bunch and do, like, speeches, which.
Bill Simmons
Is obviously not what blues musicians do.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. You know, Sean, they're entertainers.
Bill Simmons
That's. That's fair. They just. They called themselves the Blues Brothers.
Chris Ryan
Well, that is obviously your Butch's girlfriend award for the weak link of the film.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, I guess it was. Are they good at their job? They were good at entertaining. Were they great at blues music? Are we sure that Burton Mercer was good at his job? The parole officer.
Sean Fennessey
Well, I was going to say, are we sure the Penguin was good at her job? It doesn't seem like a huge tax bill to.
Chris Ryan
How about this? Nobody was good at their job in this movie.
Bill Simmons
Good point.
Chris Ryan
My weak link, though, is wanted fugitives trying to sell out a benefit concert that they're headlighting. Just seems like a bad idea.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Let me raise awareness for this thing that the cops are immediately going to find out it's a flaw in the movie.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. I think that there's probably one too many antagonists. So my weak link is maybe we could have consolidated some of the. Some of the.
Chris Ryan
Various people, the rednecks and the.
Sean Fennessey
Carrie Fisher and the cops. Yeah, right.
Bill Simmons
Could have made just all three of them, you know, redneck Nazi cops.
Sean Fennessey
Carrie Fisher, Nazi copy.
Bill Simmons
Right. Yeah, that would be good.
Chris Ryan
What stage the worst would you go?
Sean Fennessey
I have some manual steering. Usually see these guys fishtailing around a lot. And it makes you appreciate. Great thing, you know, just responsive. Responsive steering wheel. I tried once when I was. I was in high school, end of high school, I saw a must, like a 68 Mustang, like sold. Being sold out of a garage in Vermont. And I got my dad to let me, like, try and test drive it because it was only like five grand. I'm sure it was an absolute lemon. But I got like 10ft before I was just like, why isn't. Like. I don't know how to. How do you get this thing to respond to anything? Yeah, he was like, that's how cars used to be. Used to fucking turn it all the way to go, like, two feet to the left.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. No Paul Schaefer in this movie. And there's a backstory to it where they have the Blues Brothers. They're about to film the movie. Lorne Michaels is doing this Gilda Live project with Gilda Radner, who's The other biggest star in the show and Paul Schaefer is the one who's working on the concert album for it. Concert album's terrible. They're all upset about it. So they decided instead of trying to do it again, they're gonna do a live Broadway show. And that will be the concert album. And they need Paul Schaefer for it. So Paul Schaefer tells Belushi, I'm out for the Blues Brothers movie. I can't do it. And Belushi flips out.
Sean Fennessey
It's like, you're out of the band.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, you're dead to me. And SG style anyway. I'll hit you with my car identify.
Bill Simmons
I'll hit you with my. My bluesmobile.
Sean Fennessey
I'm gonna fishtail you into a lake.
Chris Ryan
But Paul Schaefer would have been. He would have been like the.
Bill Simmons
He put the band together.
Chris Ryan
Murph guy.
Sean Fennessey
He landed on his feet.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
It just would have been fun to have him in the movie. It's a bummer.
Bill Simmons
He would have been the keyboardist. But he's like, you know, know, he clearly with. With Ackroyd, they handpicked all the side.
Chris Ryan
Guys, you know, like, it's sad that he's not in it, but it turned out fine.
Sean Fennessey
Is it what seems the worst? Is it Howard Shore being like, you guys should be the Blues Brothers and then not being a part of this going forward?
Bill Simmons
He did okay for himself ultimately.
Chris Ryan
But yeah, I had for what stage the worst. I. I wanted more SNL cameos. Like, I just feel like Bill Murray could have been in this. I feel like Steve Martin could add like a minute.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I think if they're doing that, knowing everything we Learned in the 90s and 2000s, they would have probably like Lorraine.
Sean Fennessey
Newman could have been.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, they would of worked in a couple people.
Bill Simmons
We love when Hartman shows up in so Mar. Next murder. Right.
Chris Ryan
Right.
Bill Simmons
Everyone here calls me Vicky in prison parlance.
Chris Ryan
That was his Blues Brothers 2000. I have as a Wood stage. The worst we've all agreed not to talk about anymore. Here's a great story.
Sean Fennessey
I got to say, I don't know if I saw it.
Bill Simmons
Tough sit.
Chris Ryan
It's bad.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
So the most powerful theater chain was man theaters. Ted Mann was the guy that ran it. And Landis tells this whole story about. He basically said, I'm not booking this.
Sean Fennessey
I'm playing this in Compton.
Chris Ryan
No white neighborhoods at all. Like this will not be in Brentwood. He didn't want black patrons going there to see the film. He didn't think white People would want to go see a film that had all these black musical stars in it and the movie gets released and it has half as many theaters as it normally would have and yet still did really well. But yeah, not great. That's a. That's a definition of a what stage. The worst.
Bill Simmons
It's just dumb as hell too, you know, like, we're already coming off of like car wash and movies like that that obviously a lot of people went to go see. So I don't know.
Chris Ryan
But you have to think of the era this was when you think about who was on tv, who was in a movie. There were so few black stars. There was. I mean, there was like real racism back then, of course. So it makes sense that he was like, no. Unless it's like a stir crazy type of movie with Prior and Gene Wilder. Like, I'm not putting it in Brentwood.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, you could get it if it wasn't John Belushi and Dan Akroid. You know, it's not.
Chris Ryan
It definitely hurt the box office. The Ruffalo Hannah Ruben Partridge overacting award. I. I don't. I have one candidate. I don't feel great about it, but. Did you have one?
Sean Fennessey
I mean, it's. It's blasphemy to say it, but it's Aretha Franklin talking about blasphemy. Like her one. Like, like hair.
Chris Ryan
Oh, that's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that.
Sean Fennessey
Don't you blaspheme in here.
Bill Simmons
I. I think the entire band is a little over their skis here.
Chris Ryan
That's underacting.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, they're not acting. I guess they're. I guess so.
Chris Ryan
Matt Guitar Murphy, Sean's Choice Flex category. What do you got?
Bill Simmons
I already fired off my, My, my Playboy magazine poster for the criteria orgasm, which I just, you know, I'm happy to share. Another criteria orgasm here on the show. I'm really honored. Oh, yeah. You know, I just had one. What? How did it look?
Sean Fennessey
It was typical of a criteria.
Bill Simmons
I was quaking. Yeah. But. Yeah, I. I just can't. I couldn't believe that poster was on that wall in Elwood's house.
Chris Ryan
The CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford. Hottest. Take a word. I have a good one.
Sean Fennessey
I think that Belushi's cocaine problem and Ackroyd script probably led this production into disarray. But I wonder whether this would have come in under budget if they just cut the Carrie Fisher plot, which does not really have a whole lot to do with, like, anything. It' like this chick chasing John Belushi for like one joke in a tunnel at the end.
Bill Simmons
I love having her in the movie, though.
Sean Fennessey
It's great. And it actually does. It basically serves as like a transition for each part of the film where she blows something up so that they can go off to do something else.
Chris Ryan
But, yeah, there's some holes in Julia. Jake and this lady who owned a beauty salon apparently were engaged for three years and then, you know, showed the wedding. And it's hard to imagine Jake being engaged to anything or anyone. Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Did you have Carrie Fisher dating Ackroyd at the time?
Chris Ryan
Right. One of the many people he was like, engaged to.
Bill Simmons
The sequel invalidates this movie standing as the greatest SNL related movie of all time. Because Wayne's World 2 is solid and Wayne's World is great.
Chris Ryan
Okay.
Bill Simmons
That's my hot take. And honestly, MacGruber is in the conversation, in my opinion.
Chris Ryan
Wow, MacGruber.
Sean Fennessey
Would you ever do MacGruber?
Chris Ryan
Yeah, it's on the list. My hottest take. Cocaine continues to be underrated. This is a great era.
Bill Simmons
In what specific ways?
Sean Fennessey
But you don't know. Like, I. Okay, good.
Chris Ryan
Some of the stuff in the 70s and 80s.
Sean Fennessey
Overrated.
Chris Ryan
Underrated.
Sean Fennessey
Underrated. Okay.
Chris Ryan
As a creative slash cultural force, that wreck that wreak so much havoc and ruined lives and careers and killed people and all that stuff, it led to some fucking crazy great shit like this movie that I just don't think is made if everyone wasn't on cocaine.
Bill Simmons
Right.
Chris Ryan
They're just like, yeah, let's have Carrie Fisher. Oh, do you know her? Yeah. I'll write in a part where it's Jake's crazy girlfriend. He's just shooting grenade launchers at him. And like, this would just never happen in any other window than 1978 to 1986.
Sean Fennessey
Do you regret not having a cocaine era?
Chris Ryan
Me, personally, I think it would have been bad.
Bill Simmons
How? How?
Chris Ryan
I could barely handle Vegas.
Bill Simmons
How good would your columns be?
Sean Fennessey
Yeah, can you imagine your draft diaries.
Chris Ryan
Up until 5am I would have been like fucking Taylor Sheridan, cranking out. Cranking out 9,000 words a day. No, but it just. It led to. It led to movies and TV shows and choices. Yeah, that would just be inconceivable. Unless everybody around you was on cocaine.
Bill Simmons
You should just get into it now.
Sean Fennessey
Now that would. You're an empty nest.
Chris Ryan
But nobody knew any better. And back then it was like if we thought co Coffee was cocaine.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
You're like, oh, man, Sean's had two coffees.
Bill Simmons
Little concerning for me, sir. I'm sorry, but you've been using coffee your entire life.
Chris Ryan
Casting what ifs. Actually, let's take a break. Casting what ifs. Tough to find good ones. The only one they wanted Olivia Newton John to be either Twiggy or, I think the Twiggy part. But she was unavailable because she was working on Xanadu.
Bill Simmons
Tough beat. Right after Greece.
Chris Ryan
Yikes. And then.
Sean Fennessey
So the idea with Twiggy is like, just. We're gonna get Elwood love interest, right?
Bill Simmons
Guess so.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. I'm trying to think what the equivalent now of Twiggy is. It's like. Like a Kardashian. Not even like Kim. It's like having like, Kylie Jenner in.
Bill Simmons
The professionally famous cute girl.
Chris Ryan
It girl from like seven, eight years ago who wasn't even really totally a Nick girl anymore.
Bill Simmons
I think it's more like an Addison Ray type or something. You know, TikTok star.
Sean Fennessey
Do you see Julia Fox made it onto the Charlie XCX performance?
Bill Simmons
It was her birthday. I learned on that telecast.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, the studio wanted younger acts. They weren't happy with Aretha and Ray Charles and James Brown. And we're trying to get. Get Rose Royce from Car Wash to get in there.
Sean Fennessey
Seems kind of like. Didn't you guys know what you were buying? You know, of all the things that I think went wrong, it's probably. It's in the. It's in the title best.
Chris Ryan
That guy. Charles Napier doesn't count. I don't think because he's Charles Napier.
Sean Fennessey
He would. This would be his third or fourth victory of that guy.
Chris Ryan
I think when you win three times, you're not allowed to win anymore. But he does have the same scream that he does when Lecter's coming at him. When the cars. When that giant Winnebago's about to go in the water in the driver's seat is like.
Bill Simmons
Ah.
Sean Fennessey
The scene is so needlessly complicated by, like, the whole union thing where it's like. Have you, like, paid your union dues? Like that. That whole. Like that whole layer to it.
Chris Ryan
Henry Gibson or that guy or. No, I think that's who I had.
Bill Simmons
If you're a movie fan, like a hardcore movie fan, you know, it's not Gibson, but I think he. I think he's probably a. That guy.
Chris Ryan
I have an incredible. That guy for this.
Sean Fennessey
Go for it.
Chris Ryan
The young kid who tries to steal from Ray's guitar shop.
Sean Fennessey
Oh, yeah.
Bill Simmons
Who's that?
Chris Ryan
He. He grew up. Eight years later. Was the chauffeur in Die Hard.
Bill Simmons
Oh, de.
Chris Ryan
Whatever his name is. Yeah.
Bill Simmons
No way.
Chris Ryan
I recognized his face. I was like, I've seen that guy. And then, yeah, it's the Die Hard. Oh, my God. Dude, what a combo for that guy. I don't.
Bill Simmons
I don't know if it's a great cv.
Chris Ryan
I don't know if a lot of great things have happened in his life. Yeah, there you go.
Bill Simmons
I had Kathleen Freeman Penguin. Yeah. I feel like she's been in a ton of stuff.
Chris Ryan
Well, she's also eligible for the Dion Waiters Award along with James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Carrie Fisher, Steve Lawrence, John Candy, probably a bunch of other people we could mention. Who do you got C.R.
Sean Fennessey
Spielberg in this?
Chris Ryan
He can be in it.
Sean Fennessey
I have. I have an Aretha Franklin Ray Charles tie.
Bill Simmons
Is Henry Gibson in it too much?
Chris Ryan
Yeah, he's. He's in a little too much because he's.
Bill Simmons
He's going for it. Yeah, in a. In a big way.
Sean Fennessey
I think Aretha and Ray Charles just deliver, you know, like, you're like, wow.
Bill Simmons
Paul Rubens as the waiter.
Chris Ryan
Barely in it, though.
Bill Simmons
He gets one scene, but he communicates the entire Paul Rubens experience that we will soon be getting in America.
Chris Ryan
I would go Aretha Franklin recasting couch, director of City, just Paul Schaefer, just cgi. I am in here as the ban later. Let's go ahead and do this 45 years later.
Bill Simmons
Can I do a recasting director idea?
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
I think if John Landis directs 1941 and Steven Spielberg directs the Blues Brothers, they're both better.
Chris Ryan
That would have been a good hot take.
Sean Fennessey
This is actually my possibly unanswerable question is if Spielberg directs 1941 and goes right into Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers goes out of control. Does he ever direct Raiders?
Bill Simmons
Probably not. Probably not.
Chris Ryan
Does he ever direct Pulitzer guys?
Bill Simmons
I mean, how dare you. Please, please respect Toby Hooper. Please.
Chris Ryan
Half asserted research. They used 13 different Bluesmobiles cars. They were all bought in an auction. And then 60 other police cars cost 400 each. They had 40 stunt drivers. They had over 500 extras for the next to last $3.5 million. In Dilly Dilly Stunt center, the final chase scene, they dropped a Ford Pinto from a helicopter at an altitude of 1200ft.
Bill Simmons
It's amazing.
Chris Ryan
And the FAA had to give them a special certificate to be able to do it. It's just again, back to my cocaine theory. This just doesn't happen in any other decade.
Sean Fennessey
The FAA is on cocaine. They're a great idea. Let's do it.
Bill Simmons
This was a time too when directors were like, I don't care. I'm doing it. It.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
And you couldn't stop them somehow. Like they would just spend and spend and you couldn't stop them.
Chris Ryan
Well, think about it. There's no texting, emails, cell phones. So you could just lose communication with.
Sean Fennessey
Somebody for every day. My. My favorite piece of research. A lot of the behind the scenes stuff comes from this Vanity Fair article that was written about the. The making of the movie. But the. The chain of screaming that would happen every day when Lou Wasserman would wake up and find out what he spent. Spent the day before on. On Blues Brothers.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
And then he would call Ned Tannen and yell at him. And then Ned Tannen would call Sean Daniels and yell at him. And then they would call Landis and yell at him. And then finally it would be like down to Aykroyd, who was responsible for getting Belushi to get to the set every day.
Chris Ryan
So I read the Bob Woodward Wired, all the Blues Brothers parts.
Bill Simmons
Very controversial book.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, the SNL people were all like, really upset about it.
Sean Fennessey
It.
Chris Ryan
Because they were working on the SNL book by Hill and Wine Grad about the first 10 years and they were like 80% through it. And then Wired came out and was just like a Belushi cocaine hatchet job book. Although it's not as bad as I think it was represented. But it definitely dwells on the drug stuff. But there's a lot of Blues Brothers stuff in that. And that the Vanity Fair thing was basically a lot of that rehashing Wired. But. But that's a fun reread because it's just like. It's like we're on the set and then Blushy disappeared and then we had to go find him. And he was doing this turns up.
Sean Fennessey
He was like at this guy's house. Yeah, like two miles away.
Chris Ryan
It's like you almost could have made a movie about Belushi making this movie. Could have been the movie.
Bill Simmons
Don't give anybody any ideas.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, seriously. They destroyed 103 cars, which was a record. Matrix reloaded in 2003. Wrecked 300 cars broke it. There's a whole thing about how Belushi got hurt on a skateboard near the end and Lou Wasserman had to get the city's top orthopedic surgeon. Maybe this would be in the movie.
Sean Fennessey
He basically like patches together his knee enough to hold up for the end.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, the guy had just like worked on Mitch Kupchak or Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
Bill Simmons
What would the movie be called? Would it be like Singing the Blues you know, like what's just blues? Blues, yeah. That's good.
Chris Ryan
It would be a movie that just made people mad, whatever it was.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
So they filmed the, the big musical numbers was at the Hollywood Palladium, but they made it seem like it was Chicago.
Bill Simmons
And then, you know, one thing to add about that, the crowds are just great. You know, like in some movies you're watching, like these crowds are not really authentic.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, yeah.
Bill Simmons
But they're really selling how much they love Jake and Elwood in those sequences. People are standing up.
Chris Ryan
The only thing I don't like is that they weren't into it at the beginning of the first song. They kind of know something.
Sean Fennessey
You guys came all the way out here. $2.
Chris Ryan
You weren't excited at all. Dan Akroid said many theaters in the American south refused to show the film because there are too many blacks in it and that it would have done better if not for the racism in the American South.
Sean Fennessey
Okay.
Chris Ryan
And then Elwood, his, his data readout, I, I freeze framed it. 116 parking violations and 56 moving violations. Then it said, arrest driver and pound 56 moving violations is a lot. Yeah, I don't even think I had that in college.
Sean Fennessey
How many moving violations were you ever carrying at once?
Chris Ryan
I mean, I almost, I almost lost my license. Speeding I had was like a point system.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
And I had to go and it was. I was going to be at 10 points, so I had to go fight the ticket and I had to drive to like freaking middle Connecticut somewhere.
Sean Fennessey
Did you represent yourself in court?
Chris Ryan
Yeah, I was just gonna, I was gonna say they had like a faulty radar thing.
Sean Fennessey
I'm out of order. You're out of order.
Chris Ryan
The cop didn't show up. Cop had like something and didn't show up. And I would have lost my license for my whole junior year. Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Maybe he recognized the future takesman you and he didn't watch.
Bill Simmons
So you're saying he was a cap Howard, that man who wouldn't show up.
Chris Ryan
He wasn't expecting it.
Bill Simmons
You've been in a car with Bill. What do you think of that?
Sean Fennessey
I mean, I find the seatbelt thing distracting, but I think you're a pretty good driver.
Bill Simmons
Your eyes just went very wide.
Sean Fennessey
3:29 from Vegas to 3 hours and 29 seconds.
Bill Simmons
We're Speed Brothers.
Chris Ryan
3 hours, 29 minutes to Burbank. Dropping off Corolla at his house.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah, but you wear a seat belt.
Bill Simmons
I do wear a seatbelt.
Sean Fennessey
And he's, he's a big. Hangs a U turn in the Middle of Wilshire guy.
Bill Simmons
Or he was. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Ryan
Like I said, there's two ways to drive. Either you're a coward or you're the. Or you're the king of the jungle.
Bill Simmons
Busy living or busy dying.
Chris Ryan
Apex Mountain Balushi is an interesting one. I think it's probably 78. Animal House SNL when he's still on there. The combo of that would be my official opinion.
Sean Fennessey
I. I think you're probably right. I do love the idea of him being both. Apex Mountain. Like, it's like not only his. His movie stardom, but his like, city stardom.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Like, is this Apex Mountain of a famous person in Chicago?
Chris Ryan
How about a famous person in any city?
Sean Fennessey
Is it Michael Jordan? You know, like. Yeah.
Bill Simmons
O.
Chris Ryan
But Belushi was like a man of the people, though.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I'm sure, like everybody who was in Chicago.
Sean Fennessey
Steakhouses available, open to the public.
Chris Ryan
You know, he's sitting in the back. I'm sure Belushi from 75 to 81 in Chicago.
Bill Simmons
Cool.
Chris Ryan
Probably everyone who lived there. Probably has one blue shoe story be my guess.
Bill Simmons
Like you said, he never carried a wallet. He. He ate for free. He drank for free. Every day.
Chris Ryan
It's like Dave Jacobe Ackroyd. I'm gonna say no, I think Ghostbusters. Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Is this Apex Mountain for getting your personal belongings back after leaving prison for that scene. Just.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
The only other one that matches this is Rounder.
Chris Ryan
Oh, yeah.
Sean Fennessey
When Worm gets his toothpick.
Bill Simmons
There's another famous one, though. I was reading about it. What is the other famous one?
Sean Fennessey
Is it 48 hours or does he. I don't think he gets anything special back.
Bill Simmons
So.
Chris Ryan
Cr. When Red Art. Yeah. He gets his suit back, though.
Sean Fennessey
He gets the suit back.
Chris Ryan
The suit was $957. I wore the in.
Bill Simmons
Yes. There's like a. This kind of set the template for that move.
Chris Ryan
So when we read our heist movie.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
We have a scene where they get their stuff back and it's like, here you go. You know, it's like Pack of Marlboro legs. Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Your FanDuel account.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. One Soile condom one's.
Sean Fennessey
One used prophylactic one.
Chris Ryan
Same game parlay.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Chicago is a movie locale.
Sean Fennessey
No.
Chris Ryan
Probably Ferris, right?
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I would say that's gotta be the greatest scene ever filmed in Chicago.
Bill Simmons
I love Thief.
Chris Ryan
Well, but that's like a different.
Bill Simmons
That's.
Chris Ryan
That's not the answer.
Bill Simmons
It's my emotional apex. It's.
Sean Fennessey
It's either Ferris or. Or Fugitive.
Chris Ryan
Were you on the Thief rewatch? I was.
Bill Simmons
And I'm so happy. It's one of my favorite episodes of all time.
Sean Fennessey
That was a pin down pandemic, era one.
Bill Simmons
That's, you know, let's get on with this big romance.
Chris Ryan
Oh, that's right. You did your whole thing about the diner date.
Bill Simmons
That's the best.
Chris Ryan
You know, I don't remember anything after the vaccine.
Bill Simmons
No. I love.
Chris Ryan
The blues. I'm gonna say no.
Sean Fennessey
Probably not.
Chris Ryan
Bushy sideburns.
Bill Simmons
Oh, I think Elvis in Vegas.
Chris Ryan
Okay. Carrie Fisherman. This comes out same day as Empire Strikes Back.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I guess this is pretty good day for her.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Wow.
Chris Ryan
Not bad.
Bill Simmons
Good call.
Sean Fennessey
She's a little bit marginalized to Empire, I think. Right. It's more Luke's story.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Yes.
Sean Fennessey
I think Jedi is like her real. Like she chokes out Jabba, you know.
Bill Simmons
Right. She's sex slave in Jedi.
Sean Fennessey
Have you seen Return of the Jedi?
Chris Ryan
I saw it in the theater.
Sean Fennessey
Okay.
Bill Simmons
Is that the last time you saw it?
Chris Ryan
Probably. I remember being pleased.
Bill Simmons
You remember being pleased?
Chris Ryan
I thought Jedi was my favorite of the three.
Sean Fennessey
Ewok guy.
Bill Simmons
Classic Bill take there. Come on. Favorite of the three?
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Good lord.
Chris Ryan
Well, I remember I. I really liked Han Solo and. And Chewbacca and I felt like they really got to cook in the third one.
Sean Fennessey
The original Blues Brothers, kind of M.
Bill Simmons
And Parish of the Star wars universe. Yeah.
Chris Ryan
JC Pennies. Has it ever gotten better than those guys going through the window and had.
Sean Fennessey
J. Apex for Pier 1. Right.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, probably. They. These are stores that were. Was right around their apex. Anyway. The 80s, late 70s, early 80s.
Sean Fennessey
Called out by Jake and Elwood. Oh, pier one imprinted on you.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
You shop there to this day.
Chris Ryan
Illinois Nazis. I think definitely the theme song from Rawhide. I'm going to say no.
Bill Simmons
Probably the height of Rawhide is a television show.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Orange Whips. What is it? Orange Whips here.
Sean Fennessey
I don't know.
Chris Ryan
Three of them.
Bill Simmons
I think it's. I think it's like a dole whip in that. It's like a kind of somewhere between ice cream and a drink.
Sean Fennessey
It's like an Orange Julius. Right?
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
Okay.
Chris Ryan
Cocaine.
Sean Fennessey
I think cocaine's had some big moments. I think Scarface is honestly like Apex Mountain.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. I think a lot of just Richard Pryor in the 70s is kind of in the competition.
Chris Ryan
It's a tough one because it has to be like a positive Apex Mountain. It can't be like this person died doing cocaine.
Bill Simmons
But it's more like live on the Sunset Strip. The Richard Pryor is like him talking about being on Cocaine and getting high. And then what he did to himself.
Chris Ryan
Might be like a Michael Ray Richardson triple double. Like 1979. Like a 29, 17, 14. The new Oldsmobile is definitely Apex Mountain.
Sean Fennessey
Absolutely.
Chris Ryan
Came out early. James Brown. No. Horrible apartments. Probably there's been worse.
Sean Fennessey
Is there been a worse apartment than Elwood's apartment that was next to the L?
Chris Ryan
My least favorite apartment ever in a movie is the seven one where the person was being starved to death. Oh, yeah, that's my number one sloth. Yeah, that's. That's the one you don't want to rent right after sloth.
Bill Simmons
It is sloth.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. That's why.
Chris Ryan
Tough beat for the next tenant.
Bill Simmons
Dick.
Chris Ryan
You know we did silence as. As basically a comedy. Should we do seven as a comedy? Seven. Ready to just have just fun with that?
Bill Simmons
I'm so in.
Chris Ryan
What's in the box?
Sean Fennessey
The RE7.
Chris Ryan
A laugh riot detective Lives Blues Brothers as a band, I'm going to say yes.
Bill Simmons
This is their Apex over going platinum.
Sean Fennessey
Is that or on. What was that one called? Bag Briefcase full of Blues.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. It sold 4 million albums, which is pretty nuts. It's a lot of albums. Vengeful ex girlfriends? No. John Landis? No.
Sean Fennessey
What is checking out for vengeful ex girlfriends? Just out of curiosity.
Chris Ryan
Fatal Attraction.
Bill Simmons
I will not be ignored is coming to America. Landis's Apex Member him?
Chris Ryan
I think so.
Bill Simmons
It's a trick.
Chris Ryan
Unless you want to go.
Sean Fennessey
That's post Twilight Zone, isn't it?
Chris Ryan
Oh, yeah. No, it's. It's. It's probably Animal House.
Bill Simmons
Is it an Animal House?
Chris Ryan
Yeah, that thing was.
Bill Simmons
All three of them are in a similar range. Box office.
Chris Ryan
Wise Cruiser. Hanks.
Sean Fennessey
Why not both?
Chris Ryan
No, that you can't.
Bill Simmons
That was my answer too.
Chris Ryan
Cruz and Hanks, don't be cowards.
Sean Fennessey
Then Hanks is Elwood.
Chris Ryan
Hank says Elwood is the answer.
Bill Simmons
Okay, I won't argue.
Chris Ryan
Scorsese or Spielberg. Clearly Spielberg.
Bill Simmons
Wait a minute. Hold on. But we know Cruz knows how to do a back handspring because of the firm. Just like Jake does in the movie.
Sean Fennessey
Are we sure?
Chris Ryan
No, it has to be Hank.
Sean Fennessey
Imagine Cruz being like, how much for the women?
Chris Ryan
Yeah. How much for the little girl? Spielberg for versus Scorsese. Although Scorsese's version of this of Scorsese gets to make the making of the movie.
Sean Fennessey
If he makes it, he makes blues.
Bill Simmons
Who's doing the.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, yeah.
Bill Simmons
Like you could see that.
Chris Ryan
Jennifer Roulette, Aniston, Coolidge, Connolly, Garner. Lawrence or Lopez? For the Carrie Fisher part, I had Lawrence.
Bill Simmons
I had Four question marks. I'm not sure that any of these women make sense in this movie.
Sean Fennessey
I like the idea of.
Chris Ryan
I'm not sure I like the category.
Sean Fennessey
Younger Lopez. Carrie Fisher is pretty cool.
Chris Ryan
Oh, just.
Sean Fennessey
Or Jennifer Coolidge as the penguin.
Chris Ryan
Oh, Jennifer Coolidge is the Penguins.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
All right. Coolidge. One's a. That one.
Sean Fennessey
Are we. Did you skip calling Rosillo?
Chris Ryan
Are you.
Sean Fennessey
Are you backing away from that idea?
Chris Ryan
No. Call him right now.
Sean Fennessey
All right.
Bill Simmons
I received a text from a friend today who said the most exciting moment in podcast listening he's had this year is hearing that we were going to call Ryan for on Before Sunrise and he was at the edge of his seat.
Sean Fennessey
He's going to think it's because Durant got traded. Oh, come on, buddy.
Chris Ryan
Him. Oh, for two.
Bill Simmons
At least hit us with a. Hey, you've reached Ryan. Not here right now.
Chris Ryan
Cuz he was like.
Sean Fennessey
You called right before.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Son of a.
Chris Ryan
What role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played in the movie?
Sean Fennessey
The John Candy role.
Chris Ryan
That as well.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Burton Mercer.
Chris Ryan
The Ed Norton reverse Dunk award. Did this movie need a random sports scene?
Sean Fennessey
I think that there's a. There's a even more coked out version of this where they, the 1980 Cubs come into play here and they are like, like we get. Is Ron say on that team? Like, what are we talking about?
Bill Simmons
This is the height of Walter Payton. Where is Walter Payton?
Sean Fennessey
Well, it's summer, right?
Chris Ryan
Those are both noble answers, guys, but you're both wrong.
Sean Fennessey
Okay?
Chris Ryan
It's a pickup hoops basketball scene where he goes to find one of. One of the band members because they're playing in a game, okay. And it's put. There's. There's cameos from like Mark Aguirre, Magic Johnson in the game.
Bill Simmons
And we're just like, who's on the 80 Bowl?
Sean Fennessey
He's just saying local.
Chris Ryan
I'm saying like we use local Chicago dudes.
Bill Simmons
Oh, Chicago guys. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Chris Ryan
And then that's how we get it. Picking it. I have a million, so I'll let you guys go. I.
Sean Fennessey
It's more just like of a general comment, which. This is a movie where if you subtract certain elements from it, there's no movie. There's. If you took out the car chases and the music, this would be like a 42 minute movie movie. Which is fine. I love. I like love this movie. But it's just a note that there's not really much of like a plot.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, I have some.
Chris Ryan
Took a cheeseburger out of bun. It's not a cheeseburger.
Sean Fennessey
It's called picking it.
Chris Ryan
Jesus.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, I have some just questions at the Money in general. So Ray lets them take out $1400 in musical instruments on an IOU. Well, they say 1400 is what they would return on out of the $10,000. And $1400 in 1980 is roughly like 100 grand right now. So he gave them a 100 grand IOU. I don't know if my conversion may be off. Let's just say for the sake of conversation, it's $50,000.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
He let them walk out with $50,000.
Chris Ryan
It's a good friend.
Bill Simmons
That's not ideal. On top of that, $5,000 in back taxes or the IRS is going to close an orphanage.
Chris Ryan
That was my biggest one. What? It's a church owned orphanage that has to pay a property tax bill.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I'm going to guess it's tax exempt. I think orphanage.
Bill Simmons
I think so. I guess the whole movie on this we could have done a little better.
Chris Ryan
How did nobody get run over in the mall as a picket?
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. How did nobody carry Fishers?
Bill Simmons
But the way that they did it is great because that was a mall that was closed then never reopened. Where they shot, the Dixie Square Mall had been closed for two years and they shot it in there while it was closed fully.
Sean Fennessey
But it had interest in there.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, so it was.
Chris Ryan
But yeah, I'm saying in real life, if you're making this movie, somebody gets hit. How did Carrie Fisher's character get a rocket launcher? Could you just buy one of those?
Bill Simmons
I ran contra. Let's go.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah, get Gaddafi ready for that one.
Chris Ryan
This, this is my wife who watched the middle half of the movie with me and then went to go watch Below Deck, the Soul Food Cafe. She felt like had 40 health violations.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Was disgusting.
Sean Fennessey
Also, Matar Murphy, as soon as he finds out Jake and Elwood are there, just leaves a live grill going.
Chris Ryan
He's like, Jake Elwood and a wife.
Bill Simmons
In a business saxophonist standing on the countertop. Not what you want.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I mean, the biggest nitpick in this whole movie. What happened to the good old boys? Why were they so late? They had a gig. They just showed up at the end. Everybody at the bar is gone. They're like, we're the good old boys. We're here. It's like, yeah, you guys are four hours late.
Sean Fennessey
Probably a lot of road closures because of all the car chases that have been happening. So just traffic was a bitch.
Chris Ryan
How did the band drink $200 worth of beer at Bob's Country Bunker. It's a lot. In 1980, beers are like 50 cents.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, that is a lot. Nine guys in the band, they had 400 beers.
Sean Fennessey
That's like Wade Boggs numbers.
Chris Ryan
Is Twiggy really just like, I'm going to wait at this motel for that weird guy who smells that.
Sean Fennessey
That I give $94.
Bill Simmons
Elwood. Magnetism. You know, Game.
Chris Ryan
There's a nighttime daylight thing that's a little dubious in this movie. Oh, yeah. They escape after the concert. Probably 11 o'clock.
Bill Simmons
Okay.
Chris Ryan
10:30. Concert started like 8 May. Let's say 9:30. And they're on chase. And they're in Chicago. They weren't that far away.
Sean Fennessey
They're like two hours in Chicago.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, but now it's the morning and people are at work at 9:00. So there's 11 hours unaccounted for again. Cocaine.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Hell of a drug.
Bill Simmons
Continuity errors.
Sean Fennessey
That's how you lose. 11 hours.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
Sequel. Prequel. Prestige TV. All by cast are untouchable. Untouchable.
Bill Simmons
Well, unfortunately there was a sequel, so.
Chris Ryan
Or there wasn't.
Bill Simmons
Okay.
Chris Ryan
You could apply Fletch to Rocky V Rules and just live your life like it never happened.
Bill Simmons
That's good.
Chris Ryan
Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Treo, Doris Burke, Sam Jackson, Nell Byron Mayo, Barney Cousins, Tony Romo, Harley Mays, Chris Collinsworth, Daniel Plainview Long Legs or Wilford Brimley in the Firm?
Sean Fennessey
I was thinking that it would be amazing if Daniel Plainview was the third blues brother and introduced them at the Palace Hotel. It was like. We're so glad to see many of you lovely people here tonight. And we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of Illinois's law enforcement community that have chosen to join us here in the Palace Hotel ballroom.
Bill Simmons
You, me, them, everybody.
Chris Ryan
Let's sing the blues. I had Romo during basically any car chase. The Nazis are falling. J. They're not going to make it. They're falling about 130 stories. Jim. Him.
Bill Simmons
The same energy that he brought to Mark Andrews dropping that pass.
Sean Fennessey
Oh, Mike. This is just a woman scorned with a heat seeking missile launcher. You can get those from Gaddafi any way you want, man.
Chris Ryan
She's got to move on. She's just got to. I know it was three years. Left her at the altar, but come on, just one Oscar. Who gets it? The soundtrack. Acride.
Bill Simmons
I say Belushi.
Chris Ryan
Belushi. She best actor.
Bill Simmons
Just nobody can do what he can do.
Sean Fennessey
I was going to say AC For. For. Not scream.
Bill Simmons
For story.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. For inspiration. Yeah, was.
Chris Ryan
Was best movie. That only makes sense if you know that cocaine was involved in Oscar category.
Bill Simmons
They should add that.
Sean Fennessey
That should be a rewatchables category. Does cocaine make this movie make more sense?
Chris Ryan
So the 81 Oscars DA wins for raging Bull. Duval Great Santini, John Hurt, the alpha man man. Peter O'Tool the stuntman. Maybe Belushi bumps Jack Lemon in tribute.
Bill Simmons
Oh, I've not seen that.
Chris Ryan
I don't.
Sean Fennessey
I don't think I've ever seen tribute. Otherwise I don't know if she's getting in. In that.
Bill Simmons
Probably not getting past Bobby D on that one. Yeah, probably.
Chris Ryan
Unanswerable questions. The owner from Bob. Bob from Bob's Country Bunker just is now in a jihad trying to find Jake and Elwood like he just closed down his business. What happened for 200 bucks? Was. Was anyone working there?
Sean Fennessey
I just think he, he, he hates being made a fool of.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, that's it. He's going to follow this guy all around. Why was Bob country. Bob's Country Bunker so close to Chicago and Illinois when it seems like it's.
Sean Fennessey
In like Arkansas kind of in Indiana?
Chris Ryan
Is that what it is?
Sean Fennessey
I think so. Because Indian like it doesn't take long to get from Chicago to Indiana. Then once you're in Indiana, you can get to some country bunkers pretty fast.
Chris Ryan
I have one more. Did they ever think of just having characters do cocaine in these movies when the movie is so clearly fueled by cocaine?
Bill Simmons
It's funny. There's not a lot of, not a lot of cocaine use in the 70s in movies ever. Yeah, it's a good point. The 80s in the 90s it changes.
Chris Ryan
Only like in Cruising.
Sean Fennessey
That's like only when Scorsese get gets to Last Temptation of Christ.
Chris Ryan
Right?
Sean Fennessey
He's got.
Chris Ryan
Cruising. What does he do in the handkerchief diff.
Sean Fennessey
He's doing like formaldehyde or like he's doing. He's doing like. He's doing like uppers or something.
Chris Ryan
Sniffers recruis it.
Bill Simmons
I'm in. I'm. I'm there.
Chris Ryan
I haven't coming out on Blu Ray soon. 4K Blu Ray?
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
It's like $70. Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Thank you, Arrow. Thank you for all your work that you're doing $70.
Chris Ryan
Who's buying cruising?
Sean Fennessey
Not you. But you're gonna wait till it's 35.
Chris Ryan
I'll wait. There was a total recall was $10 the other day. I was like, all right, I'll take it that down.
Sean Fennessey
Cocaine bill buying full price DVD. 80s. That's a documentary I would watch yeah, that's what.
Chris Ryan
If I was doing cocaine, that's the kind of stuff I'd do.
Bill Simmons
I'd be like, oh, my God, you should get it. All the Hitchcocks, you should get. You should get a GoPro, but only put it on when you start surfing for Blu Rays. You know, when you're just like, do I add it to the cart? Do I Not add it? Is 49.99 too much for me?
Chris Ryan
They had Eternal Sunshine was on, and I almost bought it, even though I don't really like. You don't like that? Yeah. This is that.
Sean Fennessey
To have Lebowski, and you're, like, never seen it?
Chris Ryan
No, I'm not going to. I'm not crossing that line.
Bill Simmons
This is Bill. Bill is one of the great collectors, and I knew this would happen one day.
Chris Ryan
What piece of memorabilia would you want?
Sean Fennessey
I have an go. How bad did these guys smell?
Chris Ryan
Oh, Jesus.
Sean Fennessey
Not a shower in sight. He gets out of Juliet. He's wearing the same clothes he wore going in. The guys at Shay, the family at Shay Paul is like, they smell. We want them move. In 1980. Can you imagine how bad when you start smoking sections in restaurants?
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
How bad somebody has to smell to ask them to move? I think, well, in sewers.
Bill Simmons
Were we more okay with people's body odor 40 years ago?
Chris Ryan
Good question. I talk about this with my wife a lot when we watch, like, 1883 and 1923. We just watched American Primeval.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
And I was just thinking of, like, the odors as somebody who, you know, has bad eyesight, so I have a super nose. Like, I just. My wife said the odors are just so bad all the time that eventually you kind of. Your brain kind of phases it out. It's like, if you hear a loud noise all the time, you don't hear the noise the same way.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, that's what it is.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
I think if you become overpowered, your brain, like, is able to shut off that scent.
Sean Fennessey
In the Westerns, it's like, there's no indoor plumbing. So you have to imagine, like, anywhere where there are people, it's pretty. Pretty bad. Right.
Chris Ryan
You know, the only way to compare anything to it now is the smell of a hockey locker room. That's it. That's how. If you want to know what the 1880s. 1880s were, like, pretty rough. Just going to, like, after a triple OT game in a hockey locker room.
Bill Simmons
My nephews play hockey. It's not ideal.
Chris Ryan
Wrestling's up there, too. I think I.
Bill Simmons
Why is the guy who invented deodorant not more of a. A saint.
Chris Ryan
A hero.
Bill Simmons
Yeah. Why is he not someone whose name we know? Or one woman? Maybe it was a woman, but way back when, they.
Chris Ryan
They kind of liked malodorousness.
Bill Simmons
A musk. They liked a man musk.
Chris Ryan
If there was that famous story about Napoleon telling his. His girlfriend or his wife, like, I'll be home in three weeks.
Bill Simmons
Don't wash. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how you are.
Sean Fennessey
But that was supposed to be like a kink. He's like, don't even bother getting clean for me because I'm about to kick Rush's ass. And they didn't come home.
Bill Simmons
It's a tough beat.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Probably an answer. But to the point about the poster. Does this take place in the same universe as Apocalypse Now? This movie? Like, is there a. Oh, it's like.
Sean Fennessey
Captain, Is there a Colonel Kurt going to see the good old boys when he gets back from.
Bill Simmons
Did he have a copy of Briefcase Full of Blues? Yeah, could be.
Chris Ryan
He's like, oh, I didn't realize. Elwood and Jake are playing.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, that would be fun. How many of these movies would Belushi have made if he'd lived?
Sean Fennessey
So this is the question. I was curious about this as well. Is do you think that he keeps making reliably like. Like blockbuster comedies, or do you think he starts really pushing. Pushing out his boat to do drama and stuff?
Chris Ryan
He's one of those I want to be treated as a real actor people. So, though, all bets are off with that. But it's possible, like that America's Guest thing you mentioned earlier, it's possible that they're doing cocaine one night and they're just like, I wrote this script called America's Guest, and all of a sudden they're making it. Because I really think that's what the early 80s were like. I just think like. Like somebody had an idea, they had a typewriter. They're just like typing it out for eight days at the Chateau Marmont and then they're making a movie.
Sean Fennessey
I added one more unanswerable. But just also just curious about. Do you think this is the reason why, like, Lorne became more hands on with people's adaptations of SNL stuff? Because he wasn't really a part of this. Right. And kind of turned. It didn't.
Bill Simmons
He wasn't. But I. I could be wrong about this. You're more of an expert on this sort of thing. But when he came back to the show, I think he put some things into his deal that anything that was an Snl produced movie would be part of the universal agreement that they made, and Broadway Video would participate and it would all be licensed through the show, whereas this was not.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Ryan
And. And also he had been on the show longer, and I think by the 90s, people were more scared of him. Okay, Right. So there was like the. The famous story of when Conan did the Tonight show show, when he took it over and he didn't kind of bring Lauren into it, and then Lauren couldn't protect him. Lauren's like a mafia boss.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Chris Ryan
So then Leno was able to do the shit he did that. If Lauren had been involved in the show. They're never with Lauren.
Bill Simmons
Right. He could have been the shield.
Chris Ryan
So I don't think he had that kind of power in 1980.
Bill Simmons
Right.
Chris Ryan
You read all the stuff you read from the late 70s is just him realizing, like, oh, God, like you're just. Once these people hit a certain point, they're just going to leave or I'm going to lose them. Loyalty doesn't matter. The whole thing. What piece of memorability would you want or not want from this movie?
Bill Simmons
When I went to The Blues Brothers 2000 premiere, they gave everybody a hat and Ray Bans and everybody wore them and looked ridiculous. And I did, and there's a photo of me wearing them. I look whole.
Chris Ryan
That sounds great.
Bill Simmons
So stupid. But, you know, Elwood and Jake's hat and Ray Bans would be a sick item of movie memorabilia.
Chris Ryan
So I researched this and apparently belushi lost like 500 ray bans during the filming. There's just no way to even know.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, yeah, there's no way.
Chris Ryan
I think the Ackroyd. The briefcase that Elwood had, I think seems reasonable. The car. The broken down car after the fact. Yeah, I think could be cool. But I think the answer is probably the poster, the Colleen Camp poster. Just because of the.
Bill Simmons
A lot of history there.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you basically would try to get that one.
Sean Fennessey
Captain Willard cranking it to Colleen Camp.
Chris Ryan
Or the harmonica would be another good one. Like the harmonica they use in the. The big scene. Coach Finstock. The word. Best life lesson.
Sean Fennessey
Sometimes you need a mission from God.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, Mission from God trumps everything else.
Bill Simmons
I got two.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
One pair parking tickets. Yeah. Like this. They could have avoided a lot of problems if they'd done that, too. I love that. The sign in the prison at the end of the movie. It's never too late to mend. That's what it says, like, in the lettering above the prison. I feel like that's a good message to take away from this movie.
Chris Ryan
Don't leave your girlfriend at the altar.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah, well, especially not if she's got an inroad to Gaddafi.
Chris Ryan
Yeah. Guns at Ammo magazine. Best double feature choice. Animal House.
Bill Simmons
I got a weird one.
Sean Fennessey
Wayne's World, Bertolucci's the Leopard.
Chris Ryan
Old Girlfriends, Continental Defy.
Bill Simmons
There's a very a little known Walter Hill movie called Crossroads.
Chris Ryan
Not little known in this movie.
Sean Fennessey
Oh yeah. Ralph Macchio.
Bill Simmons
Ralph Macchio and Joe Seneca. About Robert Johnson and the history of blues. That is a cool movie. And that is like. That's a movie about the real blues Blues. This is a movie about.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
Modern blues.
Sean Fennessey
My. My double feature would be the Commitments.
Bill Simmons
Oh, that's good.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. That's a group of Irish kids who.
Chris Ryan
Started 60s soul band the Zawantine Award for what happened the next day. From adding this in. How many years were Jake and Elwood in prison? What do we think?
Bill Simmons
He just did a three year bid.
Sean Fennessey
So he's a recidivist.
Bill Simmons
Yep. So that's held against him. I think we're talking about 10 to 15 years here.
Chris Ryan
Lot of property destroyed. A lot of cop cars destroyed. Malls destroyed.
Bill Simmons
Multi time offenders.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah. Does he save the orphanage though?
Bill Simmons
You know, I think Blues Brothers 2000. Doesn't it start with Jake getting out or with Elwood getting out? No, but that, but that would be 18 years.
Chris Ryan
Doesn't matter.
Bill Simmons
The other thing I was thinking about last night is it we are now further away from that movie movie than the sequel was from the original. Which is like fucking devastating time wise.
Chris Ryan
Well, we also, we talked about Belushi movies he didn't make. He was supposed to be in Ghostbusters which was the fork in the road with that movie. That was why.
Sean Fennessey
What was he gonna play in Ghostbusters?
Chris Ryan
Aykroyd was writing that for the two of them.
Bill Simmons
Yeah.
Sean Fennessey
So he was gonna be like Venkman.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, he was gonna be the Bill Murray character, I think.
Sean Fennessey
Oh my God.
Chris Ryan
Yeah.
Bill Simmons
It's time to do Ghostbusters. It's time to do Ghostbusters.
Chris Ryan
We were supposed to do it last year and I don't know what happened because it was the 40th anniversary last year.
Bill Simmons
I just watched it randomly last year and I was like.
Sean Fennessey
I watched it on a plane the other. The other month. I was like, this movie is perfect.
Chris Ryan
Well, it's another movie that got really helped by the widescreen because it had a really strange cable TV run. The way it was shot. It was like a lot of this stuff.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, yeah. It's a great movie.
Chris Ryan
Who won the movie? We never do two people for this, but I don't think it. It has to be Blue Shinacrid.
Sean Fennessey
Yeah, It's Luca and LeBron.
Bill Simmons
Oh, God.
Chris Ryan
Luca and LeBron. It's Luca and a Miller Light.
Bill Simmons
Yeah, I'm with you. I agree. It's both of them.
Chris Ryan
All right, that's it for the pod. Thanks to Jack Sanders. We did not have producer Craig this week because as we're taping this, he is at the super bowl. At.
Bill Simmons
Do we. The super bowl know if he has seen this?
Sean Fennessey
Well, I think because he's obviously become. He is something of a huge SNL fan, he'll @ least respect it. But I think he might find it a little bit dull.
Chris Ryan
Got some great emails. I'm not sure when we're doing the next mailbag, but got some really good ones@the Rewatchables33mail.com. You can also watch the Ringer Movies YouTube channel where we put up. Oscars are coming soon.
Bill Simmons
Less than a month.
Chris Ryan
You gotta tell me what to bet soon.
Bill Simmons
I don't fucking know. That's part of what makes this a fun one. It's a lot harder to make picks this year.
Chris Ryan
Fun one or not fun at all? It's one or the other.
Bill Simmons
Well, well, I would say the scandals are a little unpleasant. The movies are okay, but not knowing is exciting.
Sean Fennessey
It's time for the zag king to put all his money on Carlos. Sofia.
Chris Ryan
I'll never top. What was the movie in Gloucester two years ago? We hit that.
Bill Simmons
You hit coda hard. You. That was extra work from you.
Chris Ryan
Yeah, but there's no coda this year where you'd be like, oh, that one's going to win.
Bill Simmons
Well, well, I. I'll. To me right now it's a complete un. Unknown.
Chris Ryan
Which is a Dylan movie.
Bill Simmons
Which a movie that everybody likes even if they don't love it and has no scandal attached to it whatsoever and has been a box office success.
Chris Ryan
Man, that's hard for me to believe that would win the best.
Bill Simmons
You can still get good odds on that movie right now. You can't get good odds on the other top three.
Sean Fennessey
You think it's going to be helped by preferential? Was it preferred choice? Preferential choice voting?
Bill Simmons
Yeah. A lot of people may have it at 2, 3, 4, maybe not as many at 1, but that's what matters this year.
Chris Ryan
Oh, that's right. So you can just be like third, fourth. God, imagine if sports work that way. That'd be so stupid. Cr. Thank you, Fantasy. Thank you. See you next week.
The Rewatchables: 'The Blues Brothers' Episode Summary
Host: Bill Simmons
Guests: Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey
Release Date: February 11, 2025
In this episode of The Rewatchables, host Bill Simmons, along with guests Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey, delve deep into the iconic 1980 film, The Blues Brothers. They explore the movie's cultural impact, John Belushi's legacy, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and the film's enduring appeal.
The Blues Brothers, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, originated from the popular Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketches. The hosts discuss how the film became a pop culture phenomenon, bridging the gap between 1970s soul music and 1980s excess.
Chris Ryan:
"This was the first SNL movie. Blues Brothers is a movie that we've been saving for the right time. I feel like this is the right time."
(02:18)
A significant portion of the discussion centers around John Belushi's unparalleled charisma and talent. The trio reflects on how Belushi, compared to later SNL alumni like Chris Farley or Will Ferrell, brought a unique blend of comedic genius and genuine musical prowess to the screen.
Bill Simmons:
"He was such a phenomenon. Belushi was really, literally, like, he was America's guest, right?"
(04:52)
Sean Fennessey:
"Belushi was like the Olympian of the funniest guy in every bar in America. And the fact that tragically, I guess, but he truly was, like, a man of the people."
(13:32)
The guests discuss the tumultuous production of The Blues Brothers, highlighting the rampant cocaine use among the cast and crew. This not only affected the movie's budget but also Belushi's performance and ultimately contributed to his untimely death.
Chris Ryan:
"He just was a complete original. And then there's cocaine, too, which became a big part of the legacy of this movie."
(05:06)
Bill Simmons:
"They had to whittle it down. The production spiraled out of control."
(25:05)
The Blues Brothers is renowned for its stellar lineup of musical performances and cameo appearances. The trio praises the inclusion of legends like James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and John Lee Hooker, noting how these performances are integral to the film's rewatchable quality.
Sean Fennessey:
"We also have musical numbers from James Brown, Cap Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker."
(23:39)
Bill Simmons:
"Sidemen. They're in the conversation for the best sidemen guitarists of all time."
(20:12)
The discussion moves to specific scenes that have cemented The Blues Brothers in cinematic history. From the high-octane car chases in Dixie Square Mall to the heartfelt musical performances, each iconic moment is dissected for its creative brilliance and storytelling.
Chris Ryan:
"The best scene is when Belushi's character, Jake, performs a somersault after getting out of jail."
(37:50)
Sean Fennessey:
"The mall car chase is a quintessential 1980s moment. It's absurd, yet genius."
(38:23)
The hosts compare The Blues Brothers to other SNL cast movies like Wayne's World and discuss why The Blues Brothers holds a special place as possibly the best SNL-related film. They highlight the unique chemistry between Belushi and Aykroyd, which set a benchmark for future on-screen duos.
Bill Simmons:
"This is one of the great tandem duos, like Laurel and Hardy before them."
(20:47)
Chris Ryan:
"There's never been anything like Belushi and Aykroyd before or after."
(07:13)
Engaging in a playful segment, the trio assigns humorous awards to various aspects of the film, such as the "Most Rewatchable Scene" featuring Ray Charles or the "Worst Scene" involving excessive car chases. These categories add a lighthearted analysis to their deep dive.
Bill Simmons:
"Most rewatchable scene, I'm gonna say Ray's music exchange. And here's why I think Ray Charles is the best actor who's not an actor in the movie."
(44:54)
Sean Fennessey:
"My favorite scene is Ray Charles' musical performance. It's the best musical number."
(42:46)
The conversation wraps up with reflections on how The Blues Brothers remains relevant decades after its release. The hosts discuss its influence on music in film, the rewatchable nature of its set pieces, and its role as a love letter to Chicago's vibrant music scene.
Chris Ryan:
"The music has aged perfectly. It's timeless, and that's a big part of why this movie is so rewatchable."
(51:00)
Sean Fennessey:
"It's just like an SNL because they're characters. They bring life into the story rather than just being part of a background."
(18:27)
They touch upon the sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, discussing its shortcomings compared to the original. The guests lament the loss of Belushi and ponder what more the film could have achieved had production challenges been managed better.
Bill Simmons:
"The sequel invalidates this movie standing as the greatest SNL related movie of all time. Because Wayne's World and MacGruber are also in the conversation."
(61:15)
Chris Ryan:
"It's a sad sequel, but the original was right at its peak."
(34:59)
Concluding the episode, Bill shares a personal anecdote about attending the Blues Brothers 2000 premiere, which deepened his appreciation for the original film. The hosts encourage listeners to revisit The Blues Brothers and recognize its multifaceted brilliance despite its flaws.
Bill Simmons:
"When I was 16, I went to the Blues Brothers 2000 premiere, and that solidified my passion for movies."
(34:01)
Chris Ryan:
"It's hard to watch this movie after 30 for the first time. It captures a spirit that's unique to its era."
(36:26)
Bill Simmons:
"Belushi was really, literally, like, he was America's guest, right?"
(04:52)
Chris Ryan:
"The Blues Brothers is a movie that shouldn't have ever worked, probably didn't totally work, and yet became one of the great pop culture documents of this entire era."
(09:14)
Sean Fennessey:
"Belushi was like the Olympian of the funniest guy in every bar in America. And the fact that tragically, I guess, but he truly was, like, a man of the people."
(13:32)
Bill Simmons:
"It's weird how much this movie is instrumental to his legacy too, because he just didn't make very many movies."
(05:50)
Chris Ryan:
"He could have played like a boxer. You could see him playing like how..."
(15:31)
The Blues Brothers episode of The Rewatchables offers a comprehensive exploration of the film's enduring legacy, the brilliance of John Belushi, and the chaotic production that shaped its final form. Through engaging discussions and memorable quotes, Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey provide both nostalgia and critical insight, making this episode a must-listen for fans and newcomers alike.