Doug Liman’s latest film, the remake of Rowdy Herrington’s cult classic Road House, is charming and endearing… but does it live up to its predecessor?
Doug Liman’s latest film, the remake of Rowdy Herrington’s cult classic Road House, has finally released and it is certainly endearing. In the original film, Patrick Swayze (James Dalton) is hired as a bouncer for the Double Deuce, a bar that’s been attracting rowdy customers. When Dalton takes on this job, he finds out that things are a bit bigger than it initially seemed. The 2024 remake essentially follows this same plot, just slightly reimagined and modernised. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dalton (with the new first name Elwood), an infamous ex-UFC fighter, who travels to the Florida Keys to take up his role as a bouncer; when he gets there he finds a threat in the form of criminal developer Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen) and his new enforcer Knox (Conor McGregor).
Road House has a simple enough premise that allows the film’s more technical and craftful elements to be on display. The story is far from something special but has just enough pulpy elements that many have come to love. The stunt work, personal fitness work from the main cast and ambience created by the lighting make this film hard not to enjoy. Another element that really grounds this film and allows it to entertain a world of its own is the costume design. It’s very basic and down to earth and it’s hard not to believe this is what the film requires to reach its full cheesy potential. Tropical but dirty in the best way possible.
Additionally, the casting is impeccable. Jake Gyllenhaal is phenomenal in the role as expected, but that comes with the territory as the man is one of the most versatile actors in the industry today and also having played a boxer in Antoine Fuqua’s 2015 film Southpaw. He provides a very sturdy and likeable lead that manages to portray this washed up guy who is still very much physically at his peak but is mentally drained following his UFC career, that would make his predecessor and Donnie Darko co-star, Patrick Swayze, proud. To counter this, Conor McGregor (Knox) plays a physically intimidating and foul mouthed character that we don’t know much about other than he works for the overarching antagonist’s father. His character is solid and does all needs to do: provide a foreboding and dangerous physical enemy to be the evil to Dalton’s good. And what comes from that is an interesting dynamic that will have you howling with laughter.
As stated previously, the plot is simple, however the sheer amount of characters in the film complicates things. The film has both the ‘protect the girl’ and ‘damsel in distress’ aspects where the film probably only needed one. It’s not as if the actors playing these roles (Hannah Love Lanier and Daniela Melchior respectively) are bad but having more than one of these feels redundant and inflates the runtime drastically, causing the film to drag in its third act.
The choreography is probably the most enjoyable thing about this film for me, there’s some usage of CGI with some of the fights but you can tell a lot of hard work was put into it to make it look fun. It’s enjoyable in the same way the Fast & Furious franchise is fun, it’s not high brow art but it does get the job done. Hiring actual professional fighters for your cast to do this too is a great idea and Conor McGregor gets the job done. These scenes are played to an interesting choice list of music that sometimes doesn’t fit the mood but I particularly loved the usage of Rina Sawayama’s cover of “Enter Sandman” during a pivotal scene. And although it’s true that the music choices aren’t anything special for a lot of the runtime, the same can be said for the score. I really do not remember anything about the score and it is easily one of Christophe Beck’s most forgettable scores and this is the same talent that composed Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Road House is a return to pulpy cinema classics, and although you won’t be able to enjoy it with a theatre audience like director Doug Liman intended, it will probably be best enjoyed amongst a group of friends at home on a nice comfy couch. Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor McGregor deliver an interesting dynamic and dedicated performances that carry a slightly jumbled third act. As I watched the film alone, I can only guess how much more fun this would be with others. Please watch this film for yourself and form your own opinion.
Road House is directed by Doug Liman and stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Elwood Dalton), Conor McGregor (Knox), Daniela Melchior (Ellie), Jessica Williams (Frankie) and Billy Magnussen (Ben Brandt). It also stars Post Malone (Carter), Joaquim de Almeida (Sheriff Black), Lukas Gage (Billy) and Hannah Love Lanier (Charlie) in supporting roles. It is now streaming on Prime Video. All images are courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.
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