Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) Blu-ray Movie Review

Despite the box office disappointment, The Blues Brothers had gone on to cultivate a healthy cult following, such that Universal commissioned a sequel nearly 20 years on. It's unfortunate too, because it does nothing but cheapen the classic original.

Upon leaving Joliet state penitentiary for the crimes committed during the first Blues Brothers film, Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) learns that his brother Jake has died, his foster father Curtis has also passed on and the orphanage he had saved is now gone. Elwood decides to put the band back together for one last show, making enemies fast, including the Russian mafia and the state police, along the way. But there is a silver cloud - a brother from another mother.

With the death of John Belushi and a script which Universal insisted included a superfluous child actor, Blues Brothers 2000 is almost completely bereft of the same edge that the original had. Everyone is significantly older and the energy of the original is gone.

This is a concept that should have been well and truly abandoned and let the original speak for itself. But this is Hollywood and smelling a buck, the show was put on once again. Director John Landis admitted as much that it was done 'strictly for the music'. Well I'm sure the music didn't need their help.

Video

The Blues Brothers 2000 is presented in the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with AVC compression.

Gone is the grungy look of the original Blues Brothers, replaced with a much slicker and updated look than the original.

True to Universal's cheap form, they've clearly recycled an old transfer and scrubbed it with a little DNR. It's not a terrible transfer, but when their 30 year old original looks in better shape than the 14 year old sequel, then you've got problems.

The image is reasonably sharp and defined, although the DNR dulls it just a bit. There is a fine amount of grain, but also a bit of unwelcome video noise.

Overall, a reasonable effort, but based on the box office bombing, clearly Universal weren't going to spend too much cash on sprucing it up.

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Audio

The Blues Brothers 2000 is presented in DTS HD Master audio encoded at 24 bits.

Now this is more like it. With a bigger budget and more advanced technology, Blues Brothers 2000 sounds significantly crisper and more detailed than its predecessor. This time around, Universal has also encoded the film with a lossless audio track, which instantly gives it a leg up.

Whilst it is the main soundstage that supports the majority of the soundtrack, there is a reasonable amount of surround usage which is fairly impressive.

The bass channel is used reasonably sparingly, but springs to life during the climactic car demolition scenes.

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Extras

There are no extra features on this Blu-ray. Nothing. Nada. Zip.