Doug Liman, 2024
Road House stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Elwood Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter looking to escape his previous life by making money at underground fight clubs. One night, he is approached by Frankie, a road house owner, who convinces Dalton to come and work for her as a bouncer in the Florida Keys. Dalton is her last shot at stopping a violent gang, working for a crime boss called Ben Brandt, from destroying her beloved bar. Soon, his life will be reignited as he faces a new danger.
The original Road House, starring Patrick Swayze, didn't get off to the best of starts with poor reviews from top sites like Roger Ebert. Since the release and after a few years to age, it's become a cult classic. It really is a fun movie, with charm, cheese and plenty of fun. That is the key word, Fun. It didn't take itself too seriously, and this is something really important to remember with this remake.
It is very easy in an age of social media, where reviews are more readily available than ever, to form a very quick and snobby opinion of a film, but it's crucial to see a movie for what it is, or at least what it is trying to be. Some films aren't made to be Oscar winning, or critically acclaimed. Some films are there to be enjoyed by the right audience, in the right frame of mind. This film absolutely caught me in the right frame of mind.
Road House keeps a lot of what was great about the original in it. One of those aspects is the use of the road house as a character of its own. The setting is different to the original but works really well. This remake itself is different enough to avoid comparisons but keeps close to the core just enough to feel like the original. Oftentimes, 80's films like this would lean in to the silliness and absurdity and view that as a positive. Roadhouse 2024 is trying to capture the same vibe. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
As for performances, Gyllenhaal turns in a great, if not understated performance as Dalton. I don't say that as a slight on him, I just don't think it's his usual style. Conor McGregor is surprisingly impressive. His lines are very cheesy but he makes a great, almost comicbook-esque villain. I don't know what future roles lie in wait for him, unless he manages to find similar roles like this, but he puts in a great performance. What isn't gripping with McGregor actually isn't anything to do with him as an actor. The character wasn't needed, and felt almost too ridiculous. They had a villain already set up from the very first night in the road house, McGregor as a secondary villain actually wasn't needed, and I think the film underestimated how much the audience wanted to see McGregor as Knox. The location in Florida was a great setting, and there were great characters to compliment them like the bookstore owners, and the harbour master who Dalton rents a boat from.
There is also an ultra-hyper way in which the action scenes are edited, filmed and pasted together with CGI transitions. The fight scenes are brutal and effective, and gives a great sense of a true action film, but in these scenes, the camera whip pans around so fast and zooms in and out so much. This, along with the CGI transitions really took me out of the scene.
I enjoyed the film for the most part. It is a true lone character action film, topped with a great Jake Gyllenhaal performance, but I actually can't help but think I would have enjoyed it if the film was given a theatrical run. The 90's style credits sequence with the great soundtrack as you are walking down the aisle and in to the foyer would have given audiences a better lasting memory of the film, rather than it finishing it and going back to the Home Screen on an Amazon Fire Stick. There are pluses to home media, but this for me will affect the longevity of the film.
When watching a remake of a cult classic, there is always skepticism when heading into the film, and more often than not, rightly so. However, Road House 2024 is a fine reboot of an 80's staple, but when comparing to Top Gun Maverick or the Hairspray reboot, it really pales in comparison. As a common saying suggests, I preferred the original.
My Rating: 6.5/10
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