ROAD HOUSE (2024) - Mark Reviews Movies

Road House, MGM Amazon Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 20, 2024

The new Road House has an obvious advantage over the original movie. Because of the existence of that weird 1989 movie, we know we're in for something silly and dumb, and the makers of this version are smart enough to lean into those expectations.

This is still ridiculous material, which follows a bar bouncer on his quest to make the roughest saloon in a small town safe, to face the demons of his past, and to take down a criminal organization that's terrorizing the good townsfolk of his new home. The plot of the first movie was an inconsistent joke, which at least tracked with the fact that the protagonist was an inconsistent mess of characteristics that shifted with the needs of that plot.

Yes, Patrick Swayze played the role of the mysterious Dalton with unflappable coolness and charisma, but let's not forget that he's established as essentially a pacifist but starts pummeling people as soon as there needs to be action, while his big dramatic moment has him ripping out a guy's throat. It's not the first time he had performed that move, either, because his entire backstory is that he's evading violence—except when he isn't—because he once killed a man in the exact same way. The movie argued it was "self-defense," but there are certain tactics that take enough effort and precision to suggest that maybe there's something, well, sociopathic about them. If ripping out a man's throat doesn't qualify, what does, really?

That's enough striking the easy target of the original movie, though. This one's better, not necessarily because it's good, but because it has enough self-awareness to realize that it's probably not going to be good. The screenplay by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry knows and subtly jabs some of the mistakes and oddities of its predecessor, such as pointing out that the title splits a compound word in two for some reason (a little but amusing detail), but it's probably most fascinating in how the script makes the main character into a more consistent and, hence, far more demented figure.

This Dalton is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who brings a decent replica of the cool swagger of Swayze's performance at the start. The key to the performance, though, is how that chill persona gradually reveals what a cold-hearted person he actually is. He's a former professional fighter, who apparently wanders the country, making money by getting into underground fight matches. Well, he doesn't really fight, if the introductory scene is any indication. The man he challenges at some club recognizes Dalton, refuses to fight, and simply leaves the building.

That catches the attention of Frankie (Jessica Williams), who recently inherited a bar in the Florida Keys from her uncle. The place has been attracting a bad crowd, and she's looking for a bouncer to keep such customers in line or eighty-six them when necessary. Frankie was going to hire the fighter Dalton scared, but instead, she asks him.

The rest of the plot is basically the same as before, with Dalton bringing some order to the bar, hiring deputy bouncers to help him, learning about the corruption within the town, and having a romance with a doctor named Ellie (Daniela Melchior), who at least knows enough about his deadly past and violent line of work that the character doesn't feel like a routine requirement (although she does essentially become a damsel in distress for the climax). It's still goofy, but one has to admire how the screenwriters, director Doug Liman, and the cast play up that element.

Take Dalton's first fight at the roadhouse, where he handily defeats an entire motorcycle gang—after repeatedly telling them not to bother and finding out where the nearest hospital is for the inevitable result—and then drives them to the emergency room because he feels responsible for the damage he's caused their bodies. It's a good joke, as is the performance from Billy Magnussen as the villainously spoiled Ben Brandt, who wants the bar gone so he can build a luxury resort along the coast. The bad guys here are an amusing bunch for the most part (as is the way one of them is dispatched via Chekhov's Crocodile), although professional fighter Conor McGregor's acting debut as the heavy called in to finally deal with Dalton is a bit too self-conscious of trying to be funny for its own good.

For what it is, the movie almost works as the junky, over-the-top piece of throwaway entertainment it's both trying to be and occasionally mocking. Plus, it does have this Gyllenhaal performance, which digs into the darker reality of a character like Dalton—a man driven by violence, the fear of what he can do, and the twisted thrill he gets out of being angry enough to use the full force of his skills on the right people.

To even suggest that this movie is "good" in any way, though, still feels wrong on some level. Road House does eventually take the action too far with chases, fights on and with boats, and a climactic brawl among the rubble a destructive crash. It's the simple, silly pleasures of this movie that are fun, especially when the filmmakers know exactly that's what they're doing, and as it turns out, too much of a dumb thing is, yes, dumb and too much.

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