Road House (2024)
“Road House” is a movie that absolutely did not need to be remade. The Patrick Swayze classic was fine as a stand alone slice of the 80s. So when I heard it was being remade, like many others, I let out a deep, guttural groan. Then I heard the villain was going to be Conor McGregor and I think my eyes rolled so far back in my head I suffered some long term damage. This was surely going to be an absolute garbage fire, right? Well now that the Jake Gyllenhaal remake has debuted on Prime Video, I can honestly say, this is a way better movie than it has any right to be. Way better.
That's not to say this is the best movie of the year, or even a classic in the making. But there are a lot of fun moments in this movie that knows exactly how silly it is, carried by honestly a great performance by Gyllenhaal. He commits fully to the gimmick of an always prepared, ex-UFC fighter. And I never thought I'd type these words, but Conor McGregor does an alright job in his acting debut. Again, he's not amazing, it's clearly his first time, but he's doing his best and he manages a few funny moments.
My expectations were slightly lifted when I saw that the director was Doug Liman. A veteran director whose made such other films as “Edge of Tomorrow” (great movie), “The Bourne Identity”, and “Swingers”. This becomes evident when you see the film, because this easily could have ended up a direct to video slop-fest carried on the weight of involving McGregor, like all the “Kickboxer” remakes did. Terrible films with some alright fight scenes just jam packed with cameos of real fighters. They make for fun single watches, but then immediately get deleted from my brain the second they end. “Road House” is crafted much better. Better action sequences, tighter editing, and relatively good acting across the board, and dare I say even some memorable moments.
The plot is pretty paper thin, as one would expect from a movie like this, but that's fine. It's just an excuse to deliver action sequences with a minimal story peppering in between, like cut scenes in a video game. Bad guys want to destroy the Road House, and when Jake Gyllenhaal gets hired as their new bouncer, it becomes a 1 vs 100 type situation. As simple plot as it can get. But by keeping it simple I feel they did in fact retain a bit of that 80s film spirit. Like the town banning dancing in “Footloose” because it leads to rowdy teen behaviour. It can be that simple, then let the characters go nuts.
Speaking of “going nuts”, McGregor basically plays himself. Which is pretty hilarious since his character is supposed to be an unhinged psychopath. They even cover him up in fake, yet almost identical to his actual, tattoos. They clearly wanted to “character” him up, but let people know this is obviously McGregor. This isn't like Dave Bautista in “Bladerunner 2049” or “Guardians of The Galaxy”. This is McGregor wearing a dollar store McGregor disguise, playing McGregor if laws didn't exist. And honestly it's pretty fun. He has some good fight sequences and a couple of laughs which is about all you could hope for for a role such as this.
All in all, “Road House” doesn't reinvent the wheel, but if you go in with zero expectations, you'll be rewarded with a better-than-it-should be ride.
6.5/10
