Road House
Director: Doug Liman
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior & Conor McGregor
Runtime: 1 hour 54 mins
Genre: Action
IMDb : Click Here
Road House, a remake of the Patrick Swayze 1989 cheesy classic had in January one of the most successful trailer debuts of this year so far.
The movie itself however has not been without controversy with the director himself, Doug Liman threatening to boycott the SXSW premiere as he was said he was originally promised a theatrical release by the studio for it only to be dumped onto Amazon Prime video. Liman did eventually turn up at the premiere only to stay in the audience and was not on stage to announce the movie, which fell to the movies lead actor, Jake Gyllenhaal.
As for the movie itself, let's break it down...
Story and Plot
Road House, it's not exactly Shakespeare, but it delivers on the promise of the premise. A trashy silly remake of a trashy silly original. A former UFC fighter takes a job protecting a bar from local scum as bigger forces start to come into play, whilst having to deal with the fallout of what happened to his career. That's it, that's the story. As for plot points, it's as you'd expect, Dalton's opponents start off as fodder for his fists and much like in a video game as the movie progresses so do the difficulty of his opponents, until the inevitable smack down with McGregor at the end.
I enjoyed the first act the most as the ever calm Dalton delivers some jaunty justice to local goons. After the introduction of McGregor's nut job the movie takes a more cartoonish turn.
Cast
Gyllenhaal is perfectly cast as Dalton. His sheer physical presence and ripped physique aside, it's the intensity that he has brought to previous roles, such as Nightcrawler (2014) that shows you he is an actor where it's all in the eyes. Like a pot of boiling water, he is nicely simmering through the first two acts and starts to boil towards the end. In the words of Dalton himself, "It takes me a lot to get angry, but when I am, I just can't let go". It's his intensity that is the heart of this movie.
Billy Magnussen suitably eats the scenery as Daddy's rich spoilt son who is trying and failing along with his various goons to scare the watering hole into submission.
Road House also marks the acting debut for UFC star Conor McGregor whose on-set presence due to his sheer physicality and very real fighting skills added a real sense of danger to the set. McGregor was keen though to dispel this image. He made it clear to Gyllenhaal that he was very much a newbie when it came to being on set. Gyllenhaal took him under his wing and together thanks in turn to McGregor's fighting skills formed an effective on-set partnership. As for his on-screen debut, the jury is still out, whether they are afraid to come back into the room I'm not sure, but they are definitely still out. He has an animalistic presence on screen and I'm sure he will be cast again in similar roles. When you look and fight like McGregor, you don't need RADA.
Unfortunately, Daniela Melchior's character Ellie as Dalton's potential love interest is really underwritten and there is not enough on-screen time for the two characters to develop any real chemistry. Their romantic relationship (which basically consists of a scene in A&E and then later on a beach) could have been cut and it wouldn't have made any difference to the story. The chemistry between Patrick Swayze and Kelly Preston was much more natural and if I remember pretty steamy in the 80's original.
On screen Action
It's a movie about fighting, so yeah there's quite a lot of action. Liman and his stunt team used The Four Pass process, employing a nifty use of pads, slo-mo shots and reaction shots to make the fighting feel more natural and less choreographed. Making you really feel the punches as they land.
The fights are also well shot, of course director Doug Liman is no stranger to on-screen action having helmed The Bourne Identity (2002) Mr & Mrs Smith (2005) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) he does a solid job. The movie is also produced by seasoned action producer Joel Silver, so the movie comes from experienced hands.
Sound and Spectacle
There are some decent set pieces, a little too CGI in one sequence but nothing that took me out the movie. There is also a particularly good sequence when Dalton (who is on foot) is chased down by a raging pickup on the Seven Mile bridge in the Florida Keys.
Music and Score
It's a good score by Christophe Beck, although it never plays a huge part in the movie.
On the subject of music though, I did find it curious that the various bands kept playing in the bar regardless of how trashed it became!
An enjoyable trashy tongue-in-cheek remake, Gyllenhaal is great in the lead and McGregor's debut is as unhinged as I'd hoped. Grab a beer, get some mates round and stick it on, you'll have a SMASHING time.
p.s. stay tuned there is a mid-credits scene.
Verdict - Good not Great
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