Blues Brothers 2000 begins with a dedication to Belushi, Cab Calloway, and John Candy, the three original cast members who have died in the interim and whose spirits – especially Belushi’s – are sorely missing from this effort.

It’s 18 years after the events of the first Blues Brothers, and Elwood Blues (Aykroyd), the tall, laconic, harmonica-playing brother, is just getting out of prison and stepping into a world that is very different from the one he remembers. His brother Jake (Belushi) and his surrogate father Curtis (Calloway) are dead, the orphanage he was raised in has itself been razed, and his band has once again scattered. From this familiar beginning, Blues Brothers 2000 follows a story arc similar to the original film’s, as Elwood struggles to put the band back together and travels to compete in voodoo witch Queen Mousette’s (R&B diva Erykah Badu) battle of the bands in the bayous of Louisiana, all the while evading the wrath of the Russian mob, a white separatist group, and every law-enforcement agency from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico.

Along the way, many of the characters from the original film resurface, including Steve Lawrence as the group’s agent Maury Sline, James Brown as the Reverend Cleophus James, and Aretha Franklin as the mean wife of guitarist Matt Murphy. Kathleen Freeman also makes a return, reprising her hilarious role as the quick-with-the-switch nun Mother Mary Stigmata, who helps introduce Elwood to two of his three new “brothers”: Buster, an orphaned 10-year-old whom Mother Stigmata thinks would make a good protege for Elwood, and Cabel Chamberlain, the illegitimate son of Curtis and a commander in the Illinois State Police.

John Goodman, Dan Aykroyd, J. Evan Bonifant, and Joe Morton in Blues Brothers 2000, John Landis’ pale sequel to his 1980 hit.

Aykroyd has always been a better second banana (or, at best, co-banana) than a lead banana. His best films have always featured him in more of a supporting role, subservient to a more charismatic star like Eddie Murphy (Trading Places) or Bill Murray (Ghostbusters). In the original Blues Brothers, the energetic Belushi was the soloist who moved the film along at a satisfying clip, while Aykroyd provided able and frequently essential support.

But in Blues Brothers 2000, with Belushi now gone, Ackroyd is asked to take the lead, and though he gives it his best, it’s clear that he doesn’t have the chops. It doesn’t help, either, that he gets almost no support from the “new” Blues Brothers. J. Evan Bonifant as Buster is sufficiently cute but little else. And John Goodman, who has been a force to be reckoned with in movies such as Arachnophobia and Barton Fink, is inexplicably tepid as Mighty Mack McTeer, the bartender turned bluesman. That leaves veteran character actor Joe Morton as Cabel to make an impression, and he does, with humor and manic intensity that almost match Belushi’s and by displaying a great singing voice that makes him the best vocalist of all the Blues Brothers.

Music is about the only thing Blues Brothers 2000 does get right on a consistent basis. There are a few gags – Elwood’s use of shaving cream to elude police capture, the most over-the-top car pile-up ever, and a lot of great bits involving the Bluesmobile – but they don’t come nearly often enough.

But the movie’s musical highlights are plentiful. Blues Brothers 2000 does the original better by squeezing in a host of guest shots by some of the blues’, R&B’s, and soul’s greatest performers. Franklin performs her hit “Respect,” soul men Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett team with teen guitar phenom Johnny Lang on Floyd’s “634-5789.” Memphian Steve Potts plays drums with a strip-club band that also includes guitarist Lonnie Brooks and the late harp player Junior Wells. And “Blues Boy” B.B. King pops up, selling used government vehicles and, in the movie’s climax, heading probably the greatest all-star blues band ever.

Then there is the Blues Brothers Band itself. Featuring MGs Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn, the BBB get a lot more play this time out, becoming more realized characters in the narrative.

In fact, it’s in watching all these non-actors, obviously having a great time making this movie, that Blues Brothers 2000 finds its sole saving grace. They ham it up and deliver their silly lines with the glee that only natural-born entertainers can muster. So if, ultimately, Blues Brothers turns out to be nothing more than a vanity project, well, at least it’s in service to some people who deserve it. All the same, unless you’re just a hard-core blues lover looking for an all-too-rare screen appearance by these artists, you’re better off just buying the soundtrack, because as a movie Blues Brothers 2000 is a minor-key dud.