Movies
“Road House” Reboot Forgets What Made The Original A Classic
Swayze’s Road House has one major trait on its side that Gyllenhaal’s does not. There are no throats being ripped out in this reboot. Nothing of the sort.
“Ex-UFC fighter Dalton takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse, only to discover that this paradise is not all it seems.”
Director: Doug Liman
Writers: Anthony Bagarozzi, Chuck MOndry, R. Lance Hill, Hilary Henkin
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Conor McGregor, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida
Release Date: March 21, 2024
IMDB
Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an ex-UFC fighter living through the emotional pain of a traumatic event in the ring. The wanderer makes money driving to various underground fights until Frankie (Jessica Williams) approaches him with a job opportunity. Frankie owns a bar called The Road House (yes, it’s a bad joke), and she needs a bouncer. She will pay well, and give him a place to stay. It’s an offer too good to refuse.
Dalton’s kill them with kindness mentality starts to rub various members of the local community the wrong way. Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen) is the son of a criminal overlord and he has made it his mission to overtake The Road House. He wants a monopoly over the land, but Frankie just won’t sell it. Dalton finds himself in the middle of their spat and as tensions grow higher, so do the violent stakes. The Brandt family calls in a ringer to try and notch Dalton off his stool, but it’ll take more than a swagger-filled strut to spook Dalton from his increasing appreciation of the neighborhood and its people.
Director Doug Liman is a journeyman filmmaker with many hits and a few forgettable ventures. The Bourne Identity (2003) is an all-time classic, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) was a cultural touchstone that had ramifications for years on end. It was also a good movie. Nine years later Liman introduced us to the action star Emily Blunt with Edge Of Tomorrow (2014). There are some winners, but not every venture can be a knockout victory.
Road House does not spin itself in as tidy a web as previous Liman action adventures.The script Liman is working with makes the common mistake of adding in additional context for our hero instead of leaving it a mystery. The efforts to humanize the town and its habitants come off as half-assed, and never once does one actually fear for their safety. And then the worst mistake made is in who the movie makes out to be its big bad.
Ben Brandt is 2024 version of 1989’s Brad Wesley, but with none of the southern charm or devilry. The movie knows this and tosses him to the side as a comedic incompetent weasel.The overarching conglomerate of local tyranny is casted in the shadows. Ben’s father is in prison, which means it’s up to himself and the local sheriff to enforce the rules. The high-on-his britches gun wielding badge bearer is played by none other than Joaquim De Almeida. The perfect man to fill in the role of an anonymous threat to our hero.
The overarching evil of the original Road House is in the open. Wesley isn’t hiding in the shadows. He is the white collar white man dominating the local town and economy with an iron fist. He is a visible goliath to the underdog Dalton. In 2024’s reboot, the face of maliciousness isn’t corporate greed. Instead it’s a man who needs no grand introduction, though he still gets one.
Cue Conor McGregor’s music.
McGregor is not a good actor. McGregor is not a good line reader. McGregor is a presence. In Road House, McGregor plays Knox, the ultimate version of hired muscle. When Ben Brandt can’t get things done with his own professional goons, his invisible father calls upon Knox to deliver the knockout blow.
How can I say this in the nicest way possible? Better to just be honest.
Road House becomes a worse movie when McGregor enters the picture. The movie, which was already skating on thin ice in terms of story and flow, becomes more focused on making Knox look like a 80s bad guy rather than a needed foil. The action, which was infrequent at the start, becomes the main priority. All things need to lead to a Dalton vs. Knox final showdown.
Yes, yes. The hero should face off against the evildoers in the climax, but Knox is simply a guy who was hired to do a job. He’s got a screw loose no doubt, but the confrontational relationship Knox and Dalton have is missing many tools that’d make up a set.
For example, every attempt at long lasting one-liners in Liman’s version of Road House fall woefully short of Swayze’s classics. “My Way…or the highway” is a line I still quote semi-regularly.
And then there’s the way Dalton approaches the final fight. In the 1989 version, Swayze has remorse for his violent past and we don’t hear or see anything of it. The only context clues we get to the badass inside Swayze’s Dalton is from his friend Wade Garrett (Sam Elliott). In this 2024 version, Dalton’s backstory is shown to use through flashbacks and very poor character-plotting dialogue. Gyllenhaal’s version of Dalton is like the Incredible Hulk, hiding his furious anger. Swayze on the other hand brings a bit of empathy to his character. He looks at violence as a bad thing. Nobody ever wins in a fight. Swayze’s Dalton seems burdened by the fact that his gift is violence, while Gyllenhaal’s niceness seems baked in and smirky.
I know I should be judging Road House on its own merits. It’s not fair to this reboot that everything about the 1989 version is better.
I acknowledged my faults, so now I am going to continue piling on.
The fight choreography is bad. The way the camera moves in one take that doesn’t feel like one take is nauseating. The first time Knox and Dalton duke it out in the bar and it becomes POV is a strange and unnecessary flex.
The music in 2024 Road House does not fit seamlessly into the background like its predecessor did. Liman’s version puts the music front and center, often as the introductory crescendo to a scene that’s destined for violence. This version of Road House also made it a point to have the band keep on playing despite the chaos that’s unfolding. It makes little to zero sense.
Both movies have an element of Western ethos to them. The lone ranger, entering a foreign place with a unique attitude that takes everyone by surprise. There are some notorious personalities who want to flex their muscles, but they must deal with this unexpected hero and will go to drastic measures to do so. 1989’s Road House has more classic western swings, including the friend who is too old for the job, and the general setting of the midwest. 2024’s Road House does carry some of those same traits, yet one of its biggest faults is bonking the audience on the nose with it. There is no room for audience interpretation when a young girl tells the hero that he is like a cowboy.
Also, while modern day Dalton is positioned as a white knight, the air of western mysticism is nothing like that of old school Dalton. When Swayze’s Dalton walks into a bar, people know his name from only legend. His reputation precedes him, and nobody knows what truly to make of him.
Florida based Dalton doesn’t have nearly the same mysticism because we know his backstory as an ex-UFC fighter. We knew about his character before the movie even happened with all the PR surrounding the filming of Gyllenhaal at a true UFC event.
It should be stated for the record that Jake Gyllenhaal is not the reason Road House fails. The slick smiling son of a gun has fun with the part and leans into his character during most of the important moments. It’s the rest of the movie that falters around him. Gyllenhaal is left alone in a crumbling landscape. It’s the classic animated Looney Tunes bit.
One last thing. Swayze’s Road House has one major trait on its side that Gyllenhaal’s does not. There are no throats being ripped out in this reboot. Nothing of the sort.
And who doesn’t love a good throat grope?
Road House is an Amazon Prime original.
And keep an eye out for another Doug Liman review of mine coming up; Fair Play (2010) with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.
STANKO RATING: D+
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