Review: Road House (2024)
Jake Gyllenhaal steps into the shoes of Patrick Swayze to try and clean up a rowdy bar in the Florida Keys in the “reimagining” of the 80s classic Road House, which recently hit Prime Video.
Jake Gyllenhaal is Elwood Dalton, a disgraced UFC fighter trying to make money by scamming underground fights. At one of these fights, he’s approached by Frankie (Jessica Williams), who wants to hire him to help her gain control of her roadhouse in Florida which is constantly seeing brawls break out. Dalton reluctantly accepts the job and immediately runs afoul of local thugs hired by corrupt business tycoon Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen), who wants to take the land “The Road House” is on for his masterplan of opening a luxury resort on the island of Glass Key. One of the main issues with the new Road House is overly complicating the plot. The original was a simple story of Dalton cleaning up the trash at the Double Deuce and facing off against local business tycoon Brad Wesley. The new Road House throws in corrupt cops, crime families, tragic backstories, and more that don’t add much and aren’t original ideas we haven’t seen before, with plot turns you can see from a mile away if you’re an avid action movie fan. The simplicity and ridiculous charm of the original are lost for a “grittier” and more “modern” plot.
Jake Gyllenhaal is playing a much darker and tortured version of Dalton compared to the zen ease of Swayze, but he still has a charming side and the “Be Nice” philosophy in his approach to bouncing, like a fun sequence where he drives all the guys he beat up to the hospital. There are some strange choices involving him trying to kill himself early on and his switch into killing mode later in the movie that is pretty jarring and give some whiplash. Still, overall Gyllenhaal keeps the movie watchable and carries the plot through. Conor McGregor, in his feature film acting debut, seems to be having a blast as the completely unhinged Knox, called in to take out Dalton and destroy The Road House, but he also feels like he’s from a more cartoonish and ridiculous movie, something like a Fast X. He brings tons of energy and insanity to the movie once he’s introduced and his fights with Gyllenhaal are some of the best parts of the movie. Billy Magnussen probably could have tried to hit McGregor’s level of crazy for the main villain but he doesn’t have the delicious smarm that Ben Gazzara had in the original Road House and he doesn’t have any memorable quirks or personality traits to make him a memorable or fun villain. He’s fine but it could have been something more. There also feels like a missed opportunity to cast someone fun as his imprisoned father. There’s constant talk that Brandt’s crime boss father is in prison and is manipulating things from behind the scenes but (spoilers), we never see him. It feels like there could have been a fun cameo opportunity with that character. The rest of the cast is fine but the new movie’s characters all feel kind of generic compared to the cast of crazy characters from the original Road House.
The fighting and action of the new Road House are solid across the board, with the fights between Dalton and Knox being the highlights. Director Doug Liman does go a bit overboard with some of the stylistic shots and tricks, like switching to a first-person POV and other elements that feel a bit unnecessary and are just there to show off. The action would have probably been fine without all the fancy effects and gimmicks. The movie does utilize Dalton’s UFC background decently, with some jiu-jitsu style holds thrown in, which McGregor is familiar with being an actual UFC fighter.
Overall, the new Road House is a decently fun time but it feels much more generic than the original, which has such a unique, idiosyncratic charm between Swayze’s zen and the crazy characters and situations he finds himself up against. Jake Gyllenhaal is great as usual and Conor McGregor definitely makes a memorable debut for his acting career but there’s not a lot here that you haven’t seen before. There’s solid action and fights and it’s a perfectly fine movie to throw on during a lazy weekend day when you’re scrolling through Prime Video, but it’s definitely a lesser movie compared to the OG.
