Road House (2024) | REVIEW

Directed by Doug Liman (Chaos Walking) — Screenplay by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.

Whether its fans liked it or not, for more than ten years, there had been talk of an attempt to remake the Rowdy Herrington 1989 action cult classic Road House starring Patrick Swayze. Now in 2024, it is finally here, as it has been remade for modern audiences by The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, whose remake stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the role popularized by Patrick Swayze’s iconic performance — Dalton. Like in the 1989 film, Dalton is hired to be the bouncer at a bar early on in Liman’s film, but there have been significant changes, including the fact that now Dalton has a background in UFC fighting. He doesn’t have the steely focus as a professional bouncer either. Rather we first meet him as he gets ready to scam fighters in an underground circuit. In these opening scenes, Dalton is suicidal and only narrowly survives a suicide attempt early in the film. When he finally gets to the bar that he is supposed to be the bouncer at — a sunny, tropical Florida-set bar called ‘The Road House’ — it doesn’t take long for him to get involved in a fight to get a motorcycle gang off the premises. Soon, a local crime boss (played by Billy Magnussen) tasks the psychotic enforcer Knox (played by Conor McGregor) with taking out Dalton for good.

Frankly, I only just saw the original Road House about a week or two ago, as I was intrigued by the remake and didn’t think it would be right to engage with the remake before I had familiarized myself with the original cult classic, which I was shocked to learn was a multi-Golden Raspberry Award nominee (the awards show dedicated to celebrating the worst films in Hollywood). The original Road House is the kind of ’80s action movie classic that, even if you haven’t seen it, is so iconic that you feel like you know many of the lines (as well as the basic plot) due to cultural osmosis. Is it cheesy? Sure. Is it a whole lot of fun? Also, yes. You can’t take your eyes off Patrick Swayze or Sam Elliott in the original film, and their charisma and looks are just pitch-perfect. But, and it may be sacrilegious to say this, it’s not without flaws. While some of the brawls are executed quite well, it is a little bit repetitive, the romance doesn’t have the sizzle it ought to, and it does feel a little bit long. That said, I did really like the original film, so I was intrigued to see how the remake would compare. And, well, I have to admit that the modern update doesn’t favor well in comparison. 

Not only are the new character background details about Dalton quite strange and sad, but there also seems to be an attempt to have the character feel and be performed differently. It felt to me like Swayze’s version of the character had his thing together in a way this modern update does not. Swayze’s performance feels steely but charming and features subtle facial changes in early scenes that make him appear as such an effortlessly cool character. The character that Jake Gyllenhaal has been asked to play — and the performance that the gives — felt, to me, less like the original Dalton and more like a frustrated MMA fighter mixed with Mel Gibson’s Riggs from the Lethal Weapon films. Don’t get me wrong, Jake Gyllenhaal is very good in the film, and, arguably, the best part of it, but it is an example of some modern changes that don’t ring true to the source material (i.e. the original film). There are some outright baffling exclusions in the modern update, which has, among other things, omitted one of the best parts of the original film (i.e. Sam Elliott’s Wade Garrett). So, the exclusions do the film no favors, and, frankly, most of the new additions also feel off (including a completely unbelievable bit of stunt casting in Post Malone playing an underground fighter). 

Also, the filmmakers thought it was a good idea to change the name of the bar Dalton is recruited to from the ‘Double Deuce’ to ‘Road House,’ which isn’t necessarily the worst idea in the world, but it becomes quite annoying eventually as they say the name of the film so many times that if you made a drinking game out of the number of times you hear the title of the film, then it would undoubtedly overwhelm some of the participants in said game. In addition to some puzzling inclusions, Road House also consistently insists on classifying itself as a western or neo-western type of film, which I found to be extremely strange.

Again, Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance is, despite some eyebrow-raising changes to the character, one of the best things about the film. Like with his entertaining performances in Michael Bay’s Ambulance and Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, his Road House turn fits right at home in Gyllenhaal’s action era of his career. Other things that I quite enjoyed about this remake are, first, the supporting performance from Arturo Castro who earns several chuckles, but also the entertaining attitude that Daniela Melchior brings to her romantic interest character.

Unfortunately, there is also a performance that, on the other end of the spectrum, completely takes you out of the film in the worst way possible. Road House is real-life UFC fighter Conor McGregor’s first film acting job, and he sticks out like a sore thumb. McGregor, admittedly, looks elated to be in the movie (he basically smiles non-stop), which is maybe charming, from a certain point of view. But he also just overacts in pretty much every second of screen time. It always looks like he knows that he is in a film — it’s in the way he walks and holds his arms out, and it’s also in the way he performs on-the-phone acting. 

Doug Liman’s Road House remake is by no means offensively bad, and I can understand if a lot of people will have fun with it as a disposable popcorn movie. But fans of the original will probably struggle with the additions and exclusions to the original narrative. Furthermore, there are issues with stunt casting, overacting, and, in general, fistfights that never feel particularly real. For its director, it’s certainly a step up from his last two efforts (Chaos Walking and Locked Down), but it doesn’t come anywhere close to his best films.

5.5 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.