Doug Liman’s Road House Remake

I had Amazon Prime for a bit, when I got the free offer after making a purchase. While I had it, I decided to check out Road House, the remake of the Patrick Swayze actioner with Jake Gyllenhaal. I honestly wasn’t expecting much. 

But darn, that was a fun movie. Fun—that is—for those who enjoy action and violence, which I do. Not sure what that says about me—hoping that catharsis is actually a thing. 

If I had to complain about anything, I think there was too much story being stuffed into the movie, and maybe a couple too many characters, meaning that few of the characters outside of the protagonist—even the love interest—don’t have enough time to really make a mark. It could have just been that I was in the right mood, it could have been that the cast are generally enjoyable and a pleasure to watch, but the script didn’t actually seem undercooked at the time. 

I don’t think the movie would have worked as well as it did without its cast. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Dalton is great. Conor McGregor leaves no scenery unchewed as Knox. Daniela Melchior as Ellie the love interest delivers with what she’s given. And I want to give a shout out to Arturo Castro whose Moe made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

I didn’t realize Doug Liman directed this until I looked the movie up on Wikipedia after I finished watching it—I had to know who was involved in this—and it made a lot of sense since I loved so much of his output. Remember, this was the guy who brought us both The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow. but started with Swingers and Go.

If you are looking for a fun actioner with a couple of good fight scenes and some actors that understood the assignment, I would recommend Road House. I’ll give it 4 refurbished house boats out of 5. 

Note: there’s a one-page adventure up at SEP loosely based on Road House.