There is no shortage of trends within the current movie landscape. In recent years one of the most popular involves the many sequels, reboots, and remakes of 1980s movies. “Top Gun”, “Ghostbusters”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, Bill & Ted”, even “Beetlejuice” are just some of the films that have been given the treatment or are on the way. I can honestly say that out of all of the movies to remake, 1989’s “Road House” wasn’t one of the first to come to mind.
The original “Road House” wasn’t a great movie. It was silly, full of cheesy action, and it latched onto the immense popularity of its star Patrick Swayze. Yet the movie had its charms. It also had the infinitely watchable Sam Elliott. In several ways 2024’s “Road House” is much the same. It’s not a great movie and is hampered by shallow characters, stilted dialogue, and an outrageously bad debut performance that we’ll get into shortly. Yet it admittedly has its moments – maybe enough to make it a pretty good bad movie.
This reimagining from director Doug Liman and co-writers Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry sets out to tell a story similar to the ‘89 film but with a “modern twist”. Minus a few surface-level changes, I’m not so sure about the “modern twist” part. In many ways their “Road House” is a pretty by-the-numbers action flick and its adherence to the old formula pretty much strips it of any suspense whatsoever.
On the flip side, “Road House” (smartly) doesn’t take itself too seriously. The movie is peppered with some genuinely funny lines and its efforts at being rowdy can lend to some pretty good laughs (though maybe not always intentionally). As for the fight sequences, they are fittingly brutal. And the larger action set pieces (despite the occasional shaky CGI enhancements) deliver some big jolts.
The movie is also helped by its star, Jake Gyllenhaal. His performance is a weird one in that it takes some time to get a feel for what he’s going for. At first he almost seems disconnected and uninterested. But over time what he’s doing begins to feel more in tune with his character. That isn’t the case for everyone we meet. Again, more on that in a moment.
Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a down-on-his-luck former UFC fighter who now dukes it out in rigged underground fights to make ends meet. One evening he’s approached by a woman named Frankie (Jessica Williams) who owns a beachside Road House in the Florida Keys. Lately her establishment has been attracting the wrong clientele – a pack of rowdy bikers who come in every night and trash the place. Desperate for help, she convinces the equally desperate Elwood to take the job as her head bouncer.
Elwood hits it off with several of the locals including a young girl named Hannah (Hannah Lanier) who owns a small bookstore with her father (Kevin Carroll). He also connects with an attractive nurse named Ellie (Daniela Melchior) who becomes his semi-explored love interest. But he also discovers that the island is full of trouble, namely in the form of Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen), the spoiled and obnoxious son of a local crime boss who’s running his family’s business while his father is in prison.
In a nutshell, the Brandt’s want Frankie’s place for a lucrative land development deal. She doesn’t want to sell. So they send their goons, under the protection of a crooked sheriff (Joaquim de Almeida) to make a mess of things. But they run head-first into Elwood who is no pushover. In fact, we learn he has a particularly violent past that makes him a nightmare for bullies like Brandt.
As you can guess lots of bloody knuckles, busted noses, and broken bones ensue. And the violence only ramps up with the arrival of one ridiculously over-the-top Conor McGregor. He plays a brutish mob enforcer named Knox who’s called in to take care of Elwood once and for all. Admittedly, Knox is meant to be unhinged and sociopathic. But McGregor’s wildly overly exaggerated performance turns the character into a cartoon rather than a menacing threat. He’s laughably bad and a huge distraction whenever he pops up on-screen.
So this new iteration of “Road House” ends up being a hard movie to figure out. For everything it offers that’s entertaining, there are just as many problems that leave you scratching your head. It’s as harmless as it is forgettable which may not be a ringing endorsement. But it’s a fitting description of this kinda fun yet glaringly flawed time-passer. “Road House” is now streaming on Prime Video.
VERDICT – 2.5 STARS
Keith & the Movies 
Doesn’t appeal, can’t abide the boxer guy.
Oh he’s preeeeeetty bad in this one!!!
Urk.
Nooooooooooo !
HeHe…sorry.
I’ll watch it at home if I can. Not thrilled about the endless remakes but Jake is the draw. Does he have a hot sidekick like Sam?
It’s streaming exclusively on Prime Video. And nope, no sidekick
To me the buddy relationship between those 2 was a big part of the film.
Most definitely
Nah…. I’ll stick to the original. Plus, I’m sure it doesn’t have things like “pain don’t hurt” and “I used to fuck guys like you in prison!”
It has some pretty funny lines to be honest. Not many, but some.
Great review! I wasn’t planning to see this one but the talent of that cast is undeniable. Jake Gyllenhaal has often been one of the most underrated stars in Hollywood rarely recognized for his work. I loved his performance in Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler”.
He’s an actor who has really grown on me over the years. He was really good in Nightcrawler.
I watched this thing for some reason, it makes the first one look good. I thought Gyllenhaal basically went through the movie with two expressions – puppy dog, or half asleep.
I eventually warmed up to Gyllenhaal’s performance. Felt it suited the character.
this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. It’s an insult to the late Patrick Swayze!!
It’s hard to say it’s a good movie, that’s for sure. I enjoyed it as a time-passer. Not sure I’ll ever watch it again.
truth
Wanted to like Road House more than I did. The CGI augmentation was a lil wonky, but it was more so the souped-up camera movements that took me out of the fights at times.
Really curious though how I’d feel about this movie if I got to see it in theaters (or better yet at a bar). Kinda the perfect bud light movie/UFC substitute on a Friday night. Been interesting seeing the enthusiasm out of SXSW and the more polarizing reactions from the rest of us who saw it at home.
I admit to being surprised at those early reactions. Suffice it to say the movie didn’t live up to that hype (for me).
I made the mistake of watching the original before the remake. The remake was mind-numbing. I didn’t make it to the end. The only good thing was looking at Jake’s abs, but not enough to make me continue watching. Also, there wasn’t enough bass in Jake’s voice. He was not a convincing hard-ass.
I can completely see where you’re coming from. I kinda went with it as a rather fun ‘bad movie’ but I can see where someone would bail out early. It has its problems.
I am not sure why anyone would expect a work of art from the Roadhouse remake. This movie was exactly what it set out to be – a light hearted fun flick. I enjoyed it, got a few chuckles passed the time, enjoyable. McGregor was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing, the over the top, cartoon character he created was fun to watch and it was interesting to see how him and Jake met in the middle during the last fight, from their starting points on the opposite sides of the spectrum. No need to overthink this one.
Oh I agree. I never went into it expecting a work of art. Just a better movie.
This movie was awful. I am a huge fan of the original and wanted to love this one too but it is just bad. Terrible acting, bad story, and atrocious cgi for no reason. The original was pure camp but everyone knew the movie they were in and played their parts to perfection. This iteration has none of the charm or heart of the first. They should have given it another name cause this was just a generic action movie with almost no connection to the original story.
It’s hard to argue with any of that. I’m not a huge fan of the original movie but know people who are. I’m doubting this one will have the kind of fans the Swayze movie has.
It was Roadhousey but not Roadhouse. The original he was a philosopher not just a pure brute, which made it ridiculously interesting. Not to mention as others have- the lack of the lovable sidekick in the reboot (which was probably omitted since no one could fill Sam Elliott’s shoes). I saw someone post somewhere the other day that said instead of remaking good movies, why don’t they remake bad movies that had a good premise and plot but for whatever reason just missed the mark? I couldn’t agree more. There are so many old movies where you read in reviews that it had potential, why not take those and tweak them into a good movie? One that comes to mind is The Black Hole (1979). Look at that cast and somehow it still flopped, but had an awesome story.
Hey that’s a pretty cool idea. Goodness knows there have been plenty of bad movies to remake. I haven’t thought about that but it makes perfect sense. And it could be a lot of fun for those of us who remember the originals.
The original film was an action flick which contained elements of romance and character development. Dalton could be complex (it was expected.) Movies have become so sub-stratified and specialized since then that this one is now in a sub genre of action category: a fight film. I reckon most who didn’t like this film are people who were surprised that an action film no longer follows the format of an action film. Those who liked it were expecting a fight film.
Hollywood remade Point Break as well.
Same result.. T*I*L*T.
Point Break remake was bad too.
All flash, no substance.
Ooooh yes! It was a stinker.
The original was a classic and a great movie. I could not even finish the new one. The story was stupid. The villan was some Neanderthal scotsman whose character made the story ridiculous. Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t have the charisma that Patrick Swayze had to pull this role off. Some shows should just be left alone and not remade. It was tragic!!!
road house 2024 an insult to the actors in the original road house.its a joke
I still find it strange that they felt the need to remake Roadhouse.
Conor McGregor walks like a complete dip shit in this movie the whole entire time. Just makes this movie funny as he’s walking around with him all puffed up looking like he’s got a stick up his ass. Lmao.
Never looked up movie reviews but having sat through this movie I googled “why Is the new Road House movie so bad” ? And I found this. Why all the mickey mouse characters…the kid and her dad …why ? The sassy barmaid who brings him breakfast …why ? The young protege bouncers ….why ? The smart attractive owner and obvious love interest…barely see her ….why ? The rude judgey nurse who basically kidnaps and assaults him then tells her in her best ‘non French’ accent “I grew up here”… then her Spanish speaking father turns up….the wise old harbour master, then Mc Gregor is unleashed and yes it’s comical but at least he brought something to the party. The hest characther was the over friendly biker baddie …he was good. It was absolute rubbish if you fast forward to the fighting scenes you’ll thank me.
I really don’t get the enthusiasm over it. I found it to be middling at best and for a lot of the reasons you mentioned.