Best: The Blues Brothers (1980)

Saturday Night Live movies set the bar extremely high by launching with this cult classic, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the eponymous musical brothers.

The Blues Brothers acted as a template for the formula, if not the quality, of most of SNL 's movie output, as it follows obnoxious (but popular, often loveable) central characters, on a mission that is basically a thinly-veiled excuse for a string of skits.

While it's mostly remembered for its music, The Blues Brothers lays claim to some of the most hilariously crazy car chase scenes ever filmed. The final chase goes all out, as the bros are pursued by police, SWAT teams, various armed forces, the Fire Service, enemy band 'The Good Ole Boys', and the American Socialist White People's Party.

It set the benchmark for SNL movi♒es with its surreal, insane, and wildly funny antics.

Worst: It's Pat (1994)

Arguably the most bizarre movie birthed from the SNL family was this particular curio. Julia Sweeney is Pat, a loser of indistinct gender, who embarks on a difficult relationship with Chris (Dave Foley), a kindred spirit in terms of gender confusion.

The sketch's single joke, that the audience fails to find out Pat's gender, works as part of a brief skit. One joke is not a suitable premise for a feature film (well, there are two jokes if you count the fact that the idea was recycled for Dave Foley's chararacter).

Yes, this could have been an insightful, thought-provoking look at the role and function of gender in contemporary sociey. Or it could have been a disturbing, Cronenbergian body horror.

Instead, its unique point of interest is its see-it-to-believe-it awfulness, worth catching only as some kind of endurance test.

It's Pat curr🎃ently sits at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, and falls inside IMDb's bottom 100.

Best: Wayne's World (1992)

Back in the days when Mike Myers was still funny, Wayne's World was his crowning glory, and the biggest box-office hit to emerge from the SNL stable.

Dorky metallers Wayne and Garth broadcast a local TV show from Wayne's basement (well, his parents' basement actually), which is a pretty big hit. Tensions arise between the pair of presenters though, what with Wayne's burgeoning relationship with Tia Carrere's rock chick, and the arrival of Rob Lowe's sleazy exec.

The show stayed true to The Blues Brothers formula, though it took the absurd humour to the next level (the film contains three endings, including a Scooby Doo denouement!).

Wayne's World ensured its longevity w🏅ith some of the finest cult lingo to enter the pop culture lexicon in the 90s: including "Schwing!" (combined with pelvic thrust), the greeting "Party on, Wayne" (which drew the response: "Party on, Garth"), and, of course, "We're not worthy!"

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Perhaps we'll still see Wayne's World 3 yet...

Worst: Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

Wayne's World 2 proved that an SNL sequel could work, but Blues Brothers 2000 left it a little too late. Arriving almost twenty years after the original, and lacking one half of the famous twosome, this just didn't cut it.

Aping the plot of the first movie, BB 2000 sees Elwood Blues (a returning Dan Aykroyd) leaving prison, and being inspired to play another epic show as part of a divine mission. The dearly departed John Belushi is replaced as lead singer by John Goodman's Mighty Mack, and Joe Morton and an irritating kid (J. Evan Bonifant) also join the line-up.

You can't deny the ambition here: the tunes are still toe-tappingly contagious, and the calibre of music stars involved rivals the first film. But it feels like an unnecessary rehash, too late in the day for anyone to really car🅷e.

Despite the fact Aykroyd and John L💧and𝓀is were involved, this feels like a distant relation to its superior predecessor.

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