A remake will in a remake walk into a weekend. Who wins? Probably the one that was theatrically released was up with the streaming BS. Roadhouse is a remake of the 1989 cult classic Roadhouse. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dalton, who's not a bouncer this time around. When he becomes a bouncer. He's a former UFC fighter who's a drifter, a soldier of fortune type, a one-man, seven Samurai. He's a one Samurai. Anyhow, there's a roadhouse that's called Wait for it, Roadhouse. They're having some problems with some of the local douchebaggery. So the owner's like, Hey, can you just come take care of it? I'll be honest with you, I'm not personally overly attached to the original roadhouse. I caught it much later in life. So I didn't have that classic, They're ruining my childhood with a remake reaction. I was like, All right, that could be fun. Let's see what a roadhouse remake has. The setting is very different. Know that right out the gate. Takes place in the keys, Florida keys. The original roadhouse smelt like cigarettes and beer. This roadhouse smells like Rum Runners. But what carries this movie? Jake Jelenhall. Simply put, end of story.
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| Road House 2024 Movie Review |
Whatever fine line this movie is trying to walk between camp and taking itself seriously, and yes, it does have both tones at intermittent times. Jake Jelenhall makes it work and owns it. His on-screen charisma in this movie, absolutely untouched. He became Jacked Jelen Hall for this, which isn't new. We've seen him jacked before. Remember that movie Southpoth? But his care-free, no-nonsense persona in here. There are moments people are like, So you got our message? He's like, oh, I got it. He's the walking persona of speak softly but carry a big stick. I just slapped you. Are you all right? What? There's something cathartic, even therapeutic, and watching a guy operate like this. Someone who can kick ass, not raise their voice, even be nice to the douchebags at times. That one in front of yours? No, I just broke his arm. Gives him the impression of being a superhero. This movie is missing that bouncer culture that the original movie had. I like that stuff. It just feels like a peak behind the curtain. Swayzey's like, You're to be nice. You want someone to leave, you ask nicely. If they refuse, you escort them out.
But be nice. Also, you and you, you're skimming from the top, you're stealing from the company, you're out, you're fired. While Jelen Hall-Dalton in this movie is doing what Swayzey Dalton in the original did in which he He's given the bouncer in this bar confidence to actually do their job and do it well. I like seeing that mentor mentality. You don't get a sense that he is a bouncer. He's the head bouncer in this place. He's essentially a mercenary. That said, as the original movie is essentially walking tall with a bouncer played by Patrick Swayze. This does feel like that with Jake Jelenhall. He is this guy protecting this bar from ground-level douchebags who are essentially working for the corporate overlords who have a stranglehold on this area. As for the fights, it is a roadhouse movie. I thought the fight choreography was interesting. A lot of these sweeping shots going around the actors makes it feel like that one-shot fight that they're trying to essentially emulate that one fight in every season of Daredevil. I thought that Daredevil was the first to do it, but that's just what I think of at this point.
As cool as that was at first, the execution of that makes you feel disconnected from the fights at a point. It feels exhausting, probably because it being movie magic, it's not how you do stuff. I don't know if they used green screen. I don't know if they actually did these fights all in one shot. But it felt fake. It felt like green screen because there's just a disconnect. I'm not ever Ant-Man. I don't shrink down and zoom around fighters while they fight. Not that I'm in a lot of parts that have fights. While I did appreciate the fact that the fight sequences in this movie weren't plagued with what we've seen a lot of fight sequences and action sequences in movies be plagued with, which is a lot of shaky cam in which you can't see what's going on or a lot of quick cuts and edits like some YouTuber edited the movie or something. The fight sequences in Roadhouse, though they felt cool and stylistic at first, at a point ended up feeling overproduced and fake. I felt myself going, I could go for a fight that feels like a a normal fight. Which brings us to Conor McGregor.
I felt Conor McGregor felt broadly out of place in here. Yeah, Conor McGregor felt broadly out of place in a movie about bar fights in which there's this guy played by Conor McGregor, who's essentially a psychotic ball of walking chaos and violence. The Conor McGregor persona works just fine. Let there be many jokes about him not even knowing he's being filmed in this movie. But the fact that he doesn't come in to actually start some shit until about halfway into the movie, in which for the first half, you had another antagonist in entirely just feels odd. That can work. You look at the Thomas Jane Punisher in which there's just a lot of phone calls going out to Hitman, like, Can you take care of him? You got taken out. Can you take care of him? That can work just fine. But when you actually start to have tension between Dalton and the lead douchebag for the first half of the movie, the fact that lead douchebag goes away and then Connor McGregor is brought in, it almost makes him feel like an afterthought. There is an official UFC backstory with Dalton in this movie.
You feel like one did play into the other. Like, UFC is like, Yeah, we'll sign off on that. You can use our name. You can actually film in our octagon for the flashback scene. Connor McGregor needs to be in your movie, though. Again, I don't know. I don't know the business element, but that's just what it feels like. That and funny enough, when Connor McGregor was hamming it up, all the villains in here ham it up. At first, Billy Magnuson, I felt like he was hamming it up a bit too much, but I ended up getting what he was going for. But I do make the argument that the UFC, Conor McGregor persona, does land so much better than this roadhouse variant. This felt like someone trying to act like Conor McGregor. If that makes sense. These nitpicks aside, sure. Did I have fun with the movie? For the most part, yeah, I did. The fights were fun, but at a point started feeling overproduced and almost making me feel numb in terms of tension. When the movie leaned into its simple premise in terms of the execution, that's when I felt the movie was in the pocket and had its stride.
Then it overcoops that and starts feeling convoluted at a point. Director Doug Lyman has hits and misses under his belt. This movie, like the director, also has hits and misses. But I think there is some fun to be had here, namely with a group of friends and some Rum runners. Yeah, now it's a roadhouse. I keep saying Rum runners. I was going to say Mai Tais or Pina Coladas or something. I literally googled, What's the Drink of the keys? Rum runners came up. Fuck, if I even know what one is? I'm a Scotch guy myself. Let this be a lesson. Always just stick to what you know. Ours are the 2024 Roadhouse remake. Have you seen it? What? Did you think about it? Whatever you thought, comment below.
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