‘Road House’ Review – Conor McGregor’s Craziness Carries Film

Jacob Smith   |  

Mar 25, 2024

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When it comes to making remakes that nobody asked for, Hollywood has become Michael Jordan in the 1997 season, and the new Road House might just be that. For you, LeBron James fans in the audience, think of Hollywood as that one time Kyrie Irving carried the Cleveland Cavaliers to a championship.

The 1989 Road House was an instant cult classic that continues to set the standard for what action B movies should be. With an over the top and ridiculous premise, when tested in the realm of realism, Road House became the textbook example of a man’s man movie.

Over three decades later and Hollywood decides to do a modern remake with a few notable changes. For one, instead of being set in a small town in Missouri, the new Road House is located in the Florida Keys. Also instead of the character of Dalton being a world-famous bouncer, he’s now a former UFC fighter. Lastly, instead of giving the film a theatrical release, the suits at Amazon opted to make this a Prime Video exclusive, upsetting quite a few people who expected to watch it on the big screen.

When you’re already causing multiple lawsuits and upsetting fans of the original, before the movie even sees the light of day, you’re not off to a good start. However, fans of the original Road House can safely say that the remake is a fun film, but that’s pretty much all you can say about it.

A former UFC fighter, the 2024 reboot introduces audiences to Elwood Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) who scams other fighters for a living. He is approached by a woman named Frankie (Jessica Williams), who offers to employ him as a bouncer in the Florida Keys roadhouse. After a failed suicide attempt, Dalton takes up the offer to clean up the place.

As Dalton begins to integrate himself with the locals, he realizes that he has been placed in the middle of a property war between Frankie and local mafia boss Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen), who wants to take control of the roadhouse to knock it down and develop property in the area. Because Frankie refuses to leave, Brandt sends a group of thugs to terrorize the roadhouse until Dalton steps in the way of his plans.

Realizing that the former fighter is a lot tougher than his paid goons, Ben has to prove to the criminal underworld, including his father, that he is competent enough to handle the job at hand.

Behind the scenes, a lot of work was put into this film to make it work on a realistic level. Last year, Amazon managed to film a few scenes during a UFC pay-per-view week — meaning that the Octagon scenes were filmed in front of a live crowd rather than relying on a studio and making use of CGI.

Playing off of the popularity of MMA, the film inserts former featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor into the fold. Road House being his cinematic debut, McGregor’s performance in the film comes off as deranged and over the top cartoonish. However, when you look at what his real life is, the difference between him and the character he’s playing on screen is virtually non-existent. That said, he does provide an intimidating presence in the movie.

Dalton is a depressed former fighter who went too far in his last fight and ended up severely injuring an old friend of his. After being disgraced by the MMA community, he wanders around looking for trouble to make a couple of bucks.

While a solid actor, Gyllenhaal plays a more stoic version of Dalton in this movie, one that doesn’t require him to display a lot of emotions, but his dry humor works very well in a comedic sense. One of the toughest things about remaking Road House is attempting to recreate a film that was very much a product of the era that it came from.

The original film came out at a time when audiences loved over the top, schlocky films that didn’t have to be ultra-realistic, which is a flaw for the 2024 film. Road House does its best job at portraying 1980-style movie thugs as it can, but there are aspects that simply don’t work in 2024.

When it comes to the remake’s supporting cast, some actors are far better than others. Daniela Melchior is a major waste, for example. The film tries to build her up to be Dalton’s love interest but that storyline goes next to nowhere.

Jessica Williams, known for her work on The Daily Show, is a complete and total miscast in the role of Frankie — her character has no presence on screen. As a result, her performance as a ragtag bar owner is not believable.

The only thing that saves this film is its two leads. McGregor’s on-screen presence as an absolute maniac and Gyllenhaal’s ability to make the best out of what he has been given is what keeps the film engaging for the audience all throughout.

If you’re looking for a fun film to watch over the weekend, the 2024 Road House will fill that void. It is, however, a film that would have been far better off as a standalone movie than a remake of an absolute classic.

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