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.
Subscribe to 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.
-
Why ghost guns are so easy to make — and so dangerousThe Explainer Untraceable, DIY firearms are a growing public health and safety hazard
-
The Week contest: Swift stimulusPuzzles and Quizzes
-
'It's hard to resist a sweet deal on a good car'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Alan Cumming's 6 favorite works with resilient charactersFeature The award-winning stage and screen actor recommends works by Douglas Stuart, Alasdair Gray, and more
-
6 historical homes in Greek Revival styleFeature Featuring a participant in Azalea Festival Garden Tour in North Carolina and a home listed on the National Register of Historic Places in New York
-
The best books about money and businessThe Week Recommends Featuring works by Michael Morris, Alan Edwards, Andrew Leigh and others.
-
A motorbike ride in the mountains of VietnamThe Week Recommends The landscapes of Hà Giang are incredibly varied but breathtaking
-
Nightbitch: Amy Adams satire is 'less wild' than it soundsTalking Point Character of Mother starts turning into a dog in dark comedy
-
Electric Dreams: a 'nerd's nirvana' at Tate ModernThe Week Recommends 'Poignant' show explores 20th-century arts' relationship with technology
-
Joya Chatterji shares her favourite booksThe Week Recommends The historian chooses works by Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and Peter Carey
-
Ballet Shoes: 'magnificent' show 'never puts a foot wrong'The Week Recommends Stage adaptation of Noel Streatfeild's much-loved children's novel is a Christmas treat
