John Belushi: His Final Hours

Saturday Night Live and Animal House star John Belushi (1949-82) is the subject of this entry in the Final 24 series, which looks at the last day in the life of famous people. Combining dramatic recreations with actors, clips from Belushi's film and TV career, and interviews with insiders including Dan Ackroyd, SNL writer Anne Beatts, drama teacher Dan Payne, Belushi's widow Judith, and addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky, the tabloid-esque program features urgent narration and 24-style countdown graphics onscreen to pump up the drama. From a Sunset Boulevard power meeting with Michael Eisner and Bernie Brillstein to discuss his possible role in Martha Coolidge's The Joy of Sex, to borrowing money for “a guitar,” to spending most of the day using cocaine and heroin, the program inexorably moves toward the point where Belushi's binge came to an end with a speedball that left him dead in a luxury bungalow at the Chateau Marmont. Focusing heavily on companion Cathy Smith's involvement (she hooked Belushi up with the dealer, and gave him the final injection), the documentary purports to be a comprehensive record of the last 24 hours of Belushi's life, but it features notable omissions (such as the fact that actor Robert De Niro and comic Robin Williams visited Belushi at his hotel). Both incomplete and exploitative, this is not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (J. Williams-Wood)