John Goodman Regrets Filming These Two Critical Flops — But It Wasn't All Bad News

John Goodman's filmography is impressive, to say the least, but even Hollywood's biggest stars have flops from time to time, and he's admitted that he regrets doing the poorly reviewed "Blues Brothers 2000" and "The Monuments Men." That said, it wasn't all a disaster, and he's said even with the unfortunate responses, he had a blast working on both. 

Despite the popularity of "The Blues Brothers" in 1980, its 1998 sequel wasn't a success. Far from it, fans of the 1980 classic continue to criticize "Blues Brothers 2000" to this day. For many, one of the biggest problems with the film was that John Belushi (the "SNL" OG died in 1982) wasn't there and that Goodman couldn't possibly carry his baton. As one fan wrote in response to a review of the film by Roger Ebert, "I didn't like John Goodman when he went on SNL & tried to be a Blues Brother. Sadly, that started the problem. Goodman replacing Belushi — there's your problem." Harshness aside, the same fan went on to say they were typically a fan of the "Coyote Ugly" star. As for 2014's "The Monuments Men," that film was a let-down as well. Like "Blues Brothers 2000," "The Monuments Men" had an impressive cast (we're talking Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, and George Clooney), but was critically panned. In fact, one viewer went as far as calling the film, "A pathetic and self-indulgent piece of nonsense." Yikes. 

Of course, bad reviews could get anyone down, and in a career retrospective at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Goodman quipped about "The Monuments Men," "It's one of those movies that was like 'The Blues Brothers 2000,' I probably shouldn't have done." However, he added that another thing both films had in common was how much he'd enjoyed making them.

Speaking about his time on "Blues Brothers 2000," at the SAG-AFTRA retrospective, John Goodman said, "I had more fun doing it, working with these great musicians, you know, Wilson Pickett, Eddie 'Knock on Wood' Floyd, Sam Moore from Sam and Dave, all these great cats, and it didn't do well." Goodman went on to add, "George's movie, I had one of the best times I've ever had on a film. Nothing." In light of all that, he joked that his chief takeaway was, "There should never be fun." 

Jokes aside, later on in the retrospective Goodman once again mentioned both "The Monuments Men" and "Blues Brothers 2000" as two of the films he had the best time making. "Like I said, I had fun with 'Blues Brothers 2000,' it didn't turn out very well. Yeah, George's movie, 'Monuments Men' ... it's just the guys you're with, or the women you're with. If you hit it off with them, that's what makes it memorable, is the people you're working with," he said. 

While it's great that the casts had celebs who loved working together, it is a pity that "Blues Brothers 2000" didn't do well, because as Goodman told Bobbie Wygant back in 1998, he'd loved the original film and had actually sought out a part in the sequel. "I just wanted to do anything, be a cop, the guy that paints the lines on the highways, a repairman, I'd do anything just to be in the movie, just to be around the band ... because I've been such a fan for so long," he gushed. Likewise, speaking to Collider in 2014 about being offered his role in "The Monuments Men," Goodman shared, "It was an automatic yes before I even read it." Well, he had fun, and knowing that makes the movies a tad better in our eyes.