This movie is the freaking holy grail of comedy musicals. I can’t praise it enough. It stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood, two of the most ice-cool bastards you’d ever want to come across.

The movie’s premise is simple. Elwood has just helped his brother Jake get out of jail, and they discover the orphanage that raised them will soon be repossessed for property taxes owed. After a hilarious encounter with a not-so-friendly nun known as “The Penguin” (the best scene of the movie) they set out on a mission from God to earn the money by reuniting their old band and playing a series of gigs across the country.

The thing is, Jake and Elwood are not the most diplomatic of men and everywhere they go they cause chaos. They upstage a pissed-off country and western band in one town, they disrupt a neo-Nazi rally in another, and so on until it seems half of the US is out for their blood. The movie’s apocalytic showdown is the most go-for-broke thing you’re ever likely to see in a musical.

The jokes are gross and retarded, but if you can look past that you’ll find a very charming movie. It’s fun watching these urban characters interacting with each other, even in the rare times when nothing much is happening. If you’ve seen a Tarantino movie you’ll know the drill. The songs themselves are a very-well done collection of blues and soul standards, and the way the movie transitions into the songs is quite well.

Jake and Elwood themselves are so underacted it’s funny in itself. They never raise their voices and are dispassionate in the extreme. In one scene, the phone booth they were standing in moments ago is blown up by an RPG. They literally get blasted off their feet by a huge fireball. What are Jake’s first words? He looks at the change littering the ground and says “hey, there must by 7 dollars here.” They’re not bumbling dumbasses, but intelligent men who are seemingly disconnected from the world they live in.

Bottom line? A goofy yet stylish comedy/musical. It is a movie, simply put, for those of us who are plugged in.

“Holy shit, it’s the BLUES BROTHERS!!!”