Starring Patrick Swayze as the bouncer with a past, who is hired to restore calm to a rough roadside bar in Missouri, "Road House" was slated by many critics when it came out in 1989, "but has since become a cult favourite", said Nicholas Barber on BBC Culture.
Now, we have a loose remake, starring a "ridiculously buff" Jake Gyllenhaal in the Swayze role. He plays Elwood Dalton, a mixed martial arts champ whose career ended after he "pummelled an opponent to death". Elwood is inhabiting a seedy world of bare-knuckle boxing when he is persuaded by Frankie (Jessica Williams) to come and drive the brawling bikers out of her beach bar in Florida (which is called Road House, but isn't one). Cue a host of fight sequences in which Elwood breaks arms, cracks heads and sends bodies flying. It's all watchable enough, but the punch-ups are not as well choreographed as in the original, and though it contains decent lines, the film as a whole contrives to be both mindless and over-complicated, with lots of characters and subplots that are thrown in, but not developed.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Jeremy Hunt picks his favourite booksThe Week Recommends The former chancellor shares works by Mishal Husain, Keach Hagey, and Johan Norberg
-
Is the UAE fuelling the slaughter in Sudan?Today’s Big Question Gulf state is accused of supplying money and advanced Chinese weaponry to RSF militia behind massacres of civilians
-
Peter Doig: House of Music – an ‘eccentric and entrancing’ showThe Week Recommends The artist combines his ‘twin passions’ of music and painting at the Serpentine Gallery
-
Film reviews: ‘Bugonia,’ ‘The Mastermind’ and ‘Nouvelle Vague’feature A kidnapped CEO might only appear to be human, an amateurish art heist goes sideways, and Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ gets a lively homage
-
Book reviews: ‘Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity’ and ‘Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice’feature An examination of humanity in the face of “the Machine” and a posthumous memoir from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who recently died by suicide
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago
-
Salted caramel and chocolate tart recipeThe Week Recommends Delicious dessert can be made with any biscuits you fancy
-
6 trailside homes for hikersFeature Featuring a roof deck with skyline views in California and a home with access to private trails in Montana
-
Lazarus: Harlan Coben’s ‘embarrassingly compelling’ thrillerThe Week Recommends Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin play father-and-son psychiatrists in this ‘precision-engineered’ crime drama
-
The Rose Field: a ‘nail-biting’ end to The Book of Dust seriesThe Week Recommends Philip Pullman’s superb new novel brings the trilogy to a ‘fitting’ conclusion
-
Nigerian Modernism: an ‘entrancing, enlightening exhibition’The Week Recommends Tate Modern’s ‘revelatory’ show includes 250 works examining Nigerian art pre- and post independence
