This Ain’t Your Mama’s Road House: The Road House Review

You either love it, or at least, appreciate it, but I find it unfair to compare the two versions (1989 and 2024) as they are different movies. The original is brimming with ‘80s action film characteristics and cliches that wouldn’t work for today’s mainstream audience. They had different opinions and cinematic needs that they had to accomplish, and viewers' tastes have changed in the 35 years since the original’s release. With that out of the way, let's talk about Doug Liman’s 2024 remake of Road House. 

 It’s been a tough 10 years directorially for Doug Liman. His 2014 adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s manga “All You Need is Kill,” Edge of Tomorrow, was released to little to no fanfare despite being an incredibly smart and well-directed film starring Tom Cruise. In 2017, he came back with The Wall starring Aaron Taylor Johnson and John Cena, quickly followed by American Made also starring Cruise. Again, two competently made and enjoyable watches that went completely out of sight by the general population. The pandemic begins in 2020 and his adaptation of Chaos Walking starts to slowly crumble despite having been in the oven since 2017. His subsequent heist movie Locked Down dropped on Max (then HBO Max) to people questioning whether or not it was too soon for movies about the ongoing global pandemic. 

Doug Liman needed a win. Enter Road House (2024). 

Road House is a remake of Rowdy Harrington’s 1989 classic starring Patrick Swayze. Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an ex-Ultimate Fighting Champion in an underground fighting ring when he’s approached by Frankie (Jessica Williams) who asks him to work as a bouncer for her bar down in the Florida Keys. Frankie needs help: a local biker gang keeps coming into the bar and causing trouble, and she’s ripping through security guards faster than a nervous teenager with a pack of chewing gum on a first date. Reluctantly, Dalton goes down to help out and finds that the job might just be a little bit bigger than he can handle. 

The film starts with a high-octane fight between Austin Post (or as most know him, Post Malone) and somebody being used as a punching bag, while it eases you into understanding the pacing and visual language of its fight scenes. It takes its time to really get into the bare-knuckle brawling that you come for. Sure, there are fight scenes but the first hour of the film is just getting the viewer acclimated with the vibe of it all. Liman pulls off a magic trick here, relaxing the viewer with scenic shots of the Gulf Coast and then smacking them across the face with dizzying movements that somehow never seem disjointed or unwatchable. Seriously, the camera does a lot during these moments, and it’s always engaging, almost putting you in the middle and asking you to duck and weave through the chaos. 

Gyllenhaal plays a compelling Dalton: a joker but still playing the straight man, he makes the role work for him. With his physique in top condition, he moves through Garrett Warren’s choreography like a ballerina on the stage. He makes the role so much fun to watch when it could have easily just been played so one note. There’s a certain pain in his eyes and when the operation becomes too big and he’s forced to lock into his inner demon, he comes at it so aggressively that you almost wonder if it’s better for Dalton to go to therapy or just keep fighting big dudes.  

But the energy of the movie shifts into top gear once Knox (Conor McGregor) enters the frame. Despite this being his first acting role, you would think he’d been playing the heavy on-screen for years, and there is something kinda poetic about that in comparison to his real-life UFC career. The world loves to hate McGregor, and he likes that. A superstar showboat both in and outside of the octagon and all of that translates to this role. The first encounter between McGregor and Gyllenhaal is a contender for one of the best fight scenes of the year, with both stars delivering blows that you feel. Sweaty, hot, and muscle-bound, watching this fight was like seeing two huge briskets being slapped together in the best way possible. 

Really, everyone brings their A-game to this movie, and you can tell that this was a labor of love and fun for everyone in it. Arturo Castro is a huge standout in this, playing one of the cronies with a motor mouth and no filter. He absolutely steals the show, but everyone brings their own distinct performance to the film. A bit role can be nothing to scoff at and here the entire cast is coming to show out. Hannah Love Lanier is such a warm presence as Charlie, a child whom Dalton forms a bond with upon his arrival in the Keys, in a role that although small, could have been played annoyingly by anyone else. She gives a character with not a lot of depth something to work with and takes a good bite out of the role.

But finally, the Liman of it all. Is Road House (2024) the win he rightfully deserves? Absolutely. No one else could make this movie. His intuition for what audiences need to see in an action film, where jokes are appropriate, and his pacing is why he’s who he is. This isn’t the first time he’s remade a film (2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and made it witty and compelling for a modern audience. In his willingness to remake a beloved classic in an era where people are complaining about having too many remakes and sequels on the market, he takes the story and makes it his own. Liman allows for the actors to act and feel the weight of the punches they’re throwing and taking. He lets cinematographer Henry Braham take control of these shots and make them something beautiful. In a time with big-budget movies going wrong, this feels like a film built on trust that everyone was competent. It’s a disservice to the movie that it had to pass on a theatrical release and go straight to streaming, because this is the type of movie you go to the movies for.