“Road House” Movie Review

Amazon Prime’s adaptation of the classic 1989 “Road House” puts up a valiant effort to compare with the work done by late star, Patrick Swayze, but misses the mark.

However, this is not the opinion of Rotten Tomatoes, which gave the remake a score 19% better than the original. Appalling to say the least.

Jack Gyllenhaal is famous for many reasons: being an acclaimed actor, a notable ex of Taylor Swift… okay, maybe he is just famous for two reasons.

Casting Gyllenhaal in a role that had huge shoes to fill was a bold choice. He is a good actor, however, one with a wildly different repertoire than Swayze.

If this choice was made to make the film stand alone, they did it.

The 2024 revamp generally follows the plot of the original. A bar called Road House is in danger of being bought by a rich local, Ben Brandt, who plans to destroy it, and of course, that is not working out in Brandt’s favor.

The only logical answer is to send out goons to terrorize the town.

The reprisal of bar owner, Frankie, is to hire ex-UFC fighter Dalton to become a bouncer and protect the bar.

That is the first aspect that is different between the remake and the original. In the original, Dalton was always a bouncer, never a professional fighter.

Having Dalton be an ex-UFC fighter feels like a cheap excuse to have unnecessarily aggressive and graphic fight scenes along with providing the opportunity for Connor McGregor to have his acting debut.

As soon as Dalton shows up, of course all hell breaks loose. Predictably, the goons attack the bar and the plot continues into a chaotic mess of violence and introductions of random characters.

The biggest advantage of the ex-UFC fighter plotline is that the fight scenes are incredibly well done. Overdone? Maybe, but entertaining to watch nonetheless.

Conor McGregor’s character, Knox, is called in by the main villain's imprisoned father when Brandt is not getting the job done.

There are some brutal interactions between Dalton and Knox that may be unnecessary to the plot, however, they are extremely well-choreographed and contain a few oddly timed one-liners from Dalton.

The humor of this movie feels terribly out of place at times.

Gyllenhaal’s comedic delivery is incredibly dry, and it takes about half the movie to realize that his character is trying to offer some sense of comedic relief between brutal blows.

The story as a whole is unquestionably serious so his random snide comments are understandably hard to interpret.

In the original, Swayze’s character has a strong love interest and that is what keeps him from leaving the town along with keeping him grounded throughout.

In this adaptation, Gyllenhaal’s character has a love interest, Ellie, but he quickly pushes off her advances in a classic “you can’t fix me” type of way. However, she is still the one he ends up saving at the end.

Along with Ellie, there is Charlie. She is a young girl who runs a bookshop with her father whom Dalton gets attached to. Frankly, their relationship seems deeper and more meaningful than what is between him and Ellie.

This felt like a strange choice. Either storyline would have been good and would have given the protagonist a reason for why he does what he does, but having two made both feel half-hearted.

Another large difference to the original was that this film took place on the Florida Keys as opposed to the middle of nowhere Missouri.

The setting change added a separation to the two films.

One of the greatest scenes in this movie was after the first time Dalton obliterates a handful of goons outside the bar. He offers to drive them to the hospital after absolutely beating the living daylights out of them.

The goons decline and then they jumpcut to all of them in a car driven by Dalton silently listening to “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys.

This was the moment it became clear that this film was striving for some sense of comedic interlude.

Standing alone without comparing to the original, the film was entertaining, but not worth another watch.

The violence is extreme and not for all audiences’ taste.

Rating: 2/5

Savannah Swartz is a third-year majoring in communications. To contact her, email sms9072@psu.edu.