ROAD HOUSE -- Contemporary Reimagining of '80s Classic is Just as Good as Original

Review by Daniel Lima

JAKE GYLLENHAAL stars in ROAD HOUSE Photo: LAURA RADFORD © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC.

It might come as a surprise to learn that the 1987 film Road House was once widely considered mediocre at best, as it has in the decades since become a quintessential part of the '80s movie canon. I must admit that as someone who saw it for the first time last week, I just thought it was okay. Doug Liman's contemporary reimagining boasts some of the same charms of the original while making some of the same mistakes and even finds room for some new boons and banes along the way.
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The Dalton of 2024 is an ex-UFC fighter — a friendly but withdrawn man brought out of a depressive stupor by a job offer as a bar bouncer. He travels to the Florida Keys, quickly ingratiating himself in the tight-knit community, but soon learns that powerful interests are committed to making sure his job is not an easy one.

​The greatest strength of the original film was its atmosphere and how it cast its small Midwest town as a modern-day outpost in the American frontier. Colorful performances gave life to eccentric and unique characters; every set carried with it the feeling of decades of wear and tear and love; even the music played in the bar evoked the feeling of a time since passed. Though it leaned heavily on Western iconography and tropes, that movie still felt wholly self-possessed.​

Liman's remake is a mixed bag. Though it is set in the tropical Keys, an idiosyncratic microcosm of the already idiosyncratic state of Florida, the visual language does not convey the sticky heat and humidity, the loud and kitschy buildings built to attract tourists, the Latin influence found throughout the state. Instead, the film takes on that familiar made-for-streaming sheen: a muted color palette, shots that get everything important in the frame and nothing more, a general lack of personality. The change in setting is welcome, but the filmmaking does not capitalize on it.

Photo Credit: Laura Radford

Where it does succeed is in its ensemble. Though the inhabitants of Glass Key lack the same amount of attention paid to the townsfolk of Jasper, the cast does a great job imbuing them with a healthy dose of charm despite clunky dialogue. Minor supporting players Hannah Lanier's precocious young girl and Arturo Castro's reflexively good-natured henchman give the film a distinct flavor it desperately needs, with reliable turns from the likes of Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, and Joaquim de Almeida, except Jessica Williams, who gives the impression of someone who read the script for the first time before every scene.

Two performances in particular stand out even among these. Conor McGregor makes his acting debut here and gives one of the most exhilarating performances of the year. Unsurprisingly, he is just as forceful a presence within a fictional narrative as he is in real life; the only issue is that he's not in the movie enough. For his part, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dalton with the humility and softness that makes him every bit a delight to spend time with, doing a much better job engendering audience goodwill than Swayze in the original. When the action ramps up this time, you actually care about this guy.

The plot follows the first Road House closely, with a handful of deviations accounting for the more personable disposition of Gyllenhall's interpretation of Dalton. The one significant change is in how the action is executed. Over the past couple of years, a new style of fight scene has arisen that employs long, robotic arm-controlled takes, in which the camera shifts from position to position with some CG assistance to smooth things over. On the one hand, it is slightly more dynamic than the workmanlike slugfests of the first movie. On the other hand, it gives the fights an artificial feel that undercuts their impact, and the long, medium shots still present the choreography with little energy. It's serviceable, but it's a shame that out of all the movies to carry this name, the 2006 direct-to-video sequel has the best action by far.

As disappointing as the action might be, the emotional stakes are much greater simply because spending time with these characters is so enjoyable. Though it deviates from its predecessor in some significant — and occasionally detrimental — ways, this contemporary iteration of Road House ends up being every bit as enjoyable. ​

Road House arrives on Amazon Prime Video on March 21.
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Rating: 3.5/5