Blues Brother, Musician, Confidant, and Comedic Legend, John Belushi deserves better than this tasteless movie, loosely based on the 1984 non-fiction book of the same name by American journalist, Bob Woodward. While, many friends and relatives of Belushi, including his widow Judith Belushi Pisano, Dan Aykroyd and James Belushi, agreed to be interviewed at length for the book, they later felt the final product was exploitative and not representative of the John Belushi they knew. The movie version written by screenwriter, Earl Mac Rauch only made things, worst, by taking took much liberties from the book, and turned it into a non-linear fantasy drama about torturing, berating, and ripping apart Belushi's corpse, played by Michael Chiklis like it was sushi, while showing gloom & doom flashbacks. However, the film doesn't end it there, oh no, while the soul of John is playing a fantasy game for his life with Judith (Lucinda Jenney) on a Blue's Brothers ping-ball machine with his enigmatic, guardian angel, Angel Velasquez (Ray Sharkey). The actor that plays, Bob Woodward (J. T Walsh) goes to the place that John died, Château Marmont, and has a surrealist conversation with the ghost on his death bed, belittled him. This was all, done with real-life Bob Woodward permission and none, from the friends & family of the comedian whom chose to instead, boycott the movie. Honestly, I don't blame them. Other offensive fantasy scenes like the autopsy and the airplane moment, made this movie hard to watch. It no way, matches the original request from John Belushi's family or his manager, Bernie Brillstein. They wanted a fun, but factual book about the actor to counter the speculation and rumors that had arisen after his death. Instead, the book and film spent more time, kicking the man while he's down, without a shred of dignity than praising anything about him, when he was alive. They don't show, much of anything about the guy. No scenes of Belushi upbringings, how he got into comedy, how he met his wife & friends, and most of all, his time in SNL. It only focus on the negative things about him. Hints, why the characters and events of Wired are a mixture of real-life people and obvious facsimiles. Nearly nobody wanted to their depiction or name in the film at all. They all threatened to sue the film for invasion of privacy, if they did. Even, if they could get the film rights to use all of the characters and locations that Belushi belong to, in his life. I still think this movie still would be as offensive as it was. Honestly, I really don't get, what the film's message, was besides being over sensationalized exploitation with a vast ocean of awkward humorless slapstick, and postmodern mindfuckery. I can only guess, that the film directed by Larry Peerce was going for a Frank Capra aura like 'It's a Wonderful Life', or worse, Charles Dickens reworking of 'A Christmas Carol', but they fail badly with the confusing time sequence and mystical scenes. It doesn't help, that this movie also has supporting characters appearing & disappearing, unannounced. It also jarring to see, actors like Ray Sharkey, lecturing to a dead Belushi about the dangers of drugs abuse. Does nobody else, see the weird irony of that!? Yes, I get that John Belushi was a drug addict and made a lot of bad decisions, however, that doesn't give the right for writers to over scrutiny his life like this. He was a human being with good things, about him. Just because, he did drugs, doesn't make him, the worst person in the world. It felt like a mean-spirited one-sided after school special. A miserable PSA. No wonder, why this movie had a hard time, finding a distributor for it. Nobody wanted a movie that exposed the dark side of Hollywood in the late 1980s. The only good thing to come out of this movie was Michael Chiklis. Unlike the other critics, I found his performance to be great. He really gave the role, everything, he has. You see it, with the singing and dancing scenes, the intense drug abuse moments, and the made up SNL skits. He does a bang up job of capturing John's mannerisms and deportment in any of the scenes that he's is. It's sad that he got blacklist in Hollywood for the longest time, after making this movie. It wasn't until, television shows 'The Commish' (1991-1996) & 'The Shield' (2002-2008) kinda save this career. He was a good actor. I can't say, the same with his co-stars. Gary Groomes looks and acts, nothing like Dan Aykroyd & Lucinda Jenney whom, I nearly forgot, was in this movie. For the movie about a comedian that supposed to be funny. It felt a little too dark & serious. In the end, the story of one man's excesses was just a miserable watch. I really can't recommended, watching this awful blue screen of death.

(Some Spoilers)Very confusing movie about the last days of actor comedian John Belushi, Michael Chiklis, who after shooting himself up with the help of his personal drug suppler Cathy Smith, played by Patti D'Arbannille, with a combination cocaine heroin concoction-speed-ball-went into cardiac arrest and expired.It's then alone in the L.A County morgue that Belushi suddenly comes to life and ends up riding in a taxi cab with Angel Velasquez, Ray Sharkey, whom we find out is also like Belushi really dead, for some eight years, of a drug overdose. The rest of the movie has Belushi with both Angel's and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's, T.J Walsh, help review his short life, Belushi was 33 at the time of his death, and how he so royally screwed it up.The film "Wired" is so confusing in it going back and forth in time that you have trouble following it not knowing if the John Belushi on the screen is either the live or the dead one. We do have John doing a number of his memorable acts on TV and in the movies but their more or less padding giving the film, thats seems far to long, its 112 minutes of running time. The film really gets interested when it focus on Belushi's drug addiction that lead to his untimely death on the morning of March 5, 1982. Losing control of both his career and wife Judy, Lucinda Jenney, due to the pressures of being on top as a Hollywood super star John's reliance on drugs, mostly cocaine, took precedent over everything else in his life. Too strung out to work and feeling that he's soon to become poison, after a string of flops, in the box office Belushi just about gave up on himself. Belushi spent all his time when he was supposed to be writing a script for his latest film in his plush L.A hotel room getting himself high on the drugs that ended up killing him.Depressing movie that shows what drugs, legal as well as illegal, can do to you and those you love by letting them take control of your life. John Belushi's life as well as death is all too common in Hollywood with drugs like cocaine being readily available to big time actors and actresses like himself. Belushi's serious drug addiction wasn't a secret to those who knew him which makes his death even that much more tragic. Instead of trying to get him help, in drug rehabilitation, Belushi's desperate plight was put aside-by his employers- as long he brought the big bucks into the studios. It's when his career started to wane that Belushi's drug dependency started to intensify and get out of control. John Belushi wasn't alone in having himself end up on a cold slab in the L.A County morgue! He had a lot of help from those who encouraged and supply him with illegal drugs over the years. But in the end it was John and only John, by giving into his drug addiction and refusing to get help, who was more responsible then anyone else in having himself end up there.P.S It's Bob Woodward's biographical book on John Belushi's wild and stormy life as well as his tragic but not at all unexpected death that the movie "Wired" is based on.

This is one the worst pieces of garbage I have ever seen. Tasteless,vile and total piece of crap best describe this useless waste of time and effort.The plot revolves around the lifestory of the late John Belushi. Belushi's corpse rises out a bodybag,eats a cheeseburger and is met by his guardian angel,together they walk through key events in his life.The film goes downhill from there.Belushi is portrayed as bullying slob of a junkie,the film is poorly cast and directed and the storyline is horrible. Don't even waste your time renting it.

Someone once said that John Belushi was a combination of Lou Costello and Vlad the Impaler! He wanted to grab the whole world and snort it. This was Michael Chiklis's first big part (he's now the rogue cop on The Shield). He does a convincing job bringing Belushi to life in all his madness. They do a good recreation of him and Dan Aykroyd doing their Blues Brothers routine. Did Belushi have a sub-conscious death wish? It would seem he did. Like the phantom cabbie tells him "Life is not for everyone". The whole "angel" thing is original but it does make the movie confusing and hard to follow. Belushi wanted it all but it was too much. Like Elvis, Belushi was a case of too much and too fast.