Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
After years and years of talking about it, Hollywood finally pulled the trigger on a remake of iconic Patrick Swayze 1989 cult ciassic. The once Southern fried martial arts film about a brotherhood of bar bouncers is taken on by director Doug Liman who tries his best to help his version stand on its own two feet. While original star Patrick Swayze sadly died years ago, there are no appearances from other former stars. That’s okay, because on its own, “Road House” 2024” is a damn good time. It’s overlong, but it’s a lot of fun and has a good sense of humor about itself. In a (so far) lackluster movie year, that’s all I need.
Elwood Dalton is a down on his luck ex-UFC fighter who spends his nights in bars fighting for cash. He’s recruited by a bar owner of the rowdy bar “Road House” to clean up the troublemakers. Sure he’s going to make some quick cash, Dalton becomes a regular bouncer and crosses paths with a corrupt land developer who wants to destroy the Road House to take the land. But despite having nothing to lose, Dalton is not so easily scared off by their threats.
“Road House” 2024 is by no means a perfect movie, but then neither was the original. Director Liman approaches this remake with a bigger emphasis on character development with the action becoming slightly secondary, for better and for worse. While the original film made the martial arts its centerpiece, Liman gives it a good try in fleshing out the new Elwood Dalton for a modern audience. His back story is told through flashbacks and brief cut aways here and there, all the while he attempts to pretty much build his life back up in the small seaside town he wanders in to.
For all intents and purposes Jake Gyllenhaal is very good as Elwood Dalton, a self-aware martial artist who always seems to know how to size up every opponent with ease. While he doesn’t take the role as deadly serious as Swayze did, Gyllenhaal is charming in his own ways, and seems to have a great time breaking faces and throwing down with the likes of Connor McGregor. While he isn’t in the movie as much as I thought he’d be, his time on screen is fun, albeit is somewhat bizarre. If anything the movie spends too much time developing side characters with no pay off (I’m still not sure what they intended with Danielle Melchior’s character Ellie), and there isn’t as much emphasis on the fighting and art of fighting as I hoped there’d be.
Nevertheless, director Liman adds a lot of style and breakneck action to his version of “Road House” with some genuinely exciting hand to hand combat scenes, and a novelty you can only really find in summer blockbusters. I don’t know how devotees of the 1989 original will respond, but “Road House” 2024 is a win for me. It’s a great companion piece with its own strengths and style that I had so much fun with.