Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: ROAD HOUSE [South By Southwest Film Festival 2024 - Austin, Texas]

The constant of reinventing a classic comes down to story structure and essence of character. While the new "Road House" [Headliners] (Opening Night SXSW 24) starring Jake Gyllenhaal does have its interesting moments, some of the core essence elements of what made the original so good are missing. Produced by Joel Silver and directed by Doug Liman, it does have a certain feel and intent to it but at times not as much soul as one would want. At the premiere, many of the cast said it was about paying homage. But Patrick Swayze and by specific extension his sidekick Sam Elliott had a much different approach. The baddie here in Billy Magnussen has his mome ts but but nothing like Ben Gazzara in the original. This version sets the action in the Florida Keys (with Dominican Republic standing in]. While it does look like it, the drug baron trying to create a real estate intention with the aspect of one bar as a road block is a little flimsy but geographically feasible.

The Dalton here is a little more internal and a little less atruistic. He has a temper and can be broken when necessary. That relationship to his psyche is noticable in his flashbacks to being a UFC fighter (which was the sequence that got all the hype when it was shot in Vegas). The primary location is of course the bar. Run by Frankie (Jessica Williams), who asks Dalton to clean up the place offering 20K for 4 weeks (which likely turns out to be not enough), the movie progresses along with Dalton meeting a attractive female doctor who patches him up and the owner and daughter of a book store (akin to the convenience store in the original). But there is less strategy here and more angst. Dalton here is a lone wolf (not a fight philosopher)...the whole element of "be nice" is lost for the most part. The most interesting addition though he seems to be almost in another movie is Conor McGregor who is not so much acting but just being. He knows he is playing pretend but even on stage at the premiere he took over the whole shebang much to emcee Dax Shepherd's shagrin. His character Knox is just an utter force of nature. His casting in many ways is more for the sport of it but it uplifts the movie with bit of humor and gusto for sure.

Gyllenhaal has this too but in many aspects of the character he is extremely brooding (which you have to believe in order for this film to work). There are some interesting sequences and the through line makes sense. The ending does prove this is a Doug Liman film because of course it ends much bigger. This refkects in how it leads into the ending fight (which is brutal). Glyllenhaal is ripped and keeping up with McGregor in those scenes. The ending does not mince words but a post credit scene was not needed. It had more power with it not there. The interesting thing is that "Road House" feels more like a Joel Silver film than a Liman film (though Silver was removed it seems from the production post filming). He was one of the producers on the original.

This background of course makes an impact with Liman becoming upset pre-SXSW that the film wouldn't get a theatrical release (which is also supposedly what Silver was upset about). But the film might have been agreed upon purely as a streaming aspect. That said, the film does look good on a big screen but not necessary. A big screen outing does give much bigger visibility since most streaming releases get lost in the noise most times (and that isn't changing save for some Marvel and Star Wars series). And Amazon has the disitribution of MGM, something that Netflix and Apple don't have directly. It is all a matter and cost of marketing. Taking away the industry backstory on the film, as far as plausible story and improvment on the original, it doesn't deliver. But just existing in its own right for those young enough to not remember the original, it is a fun watch with very different but intense performances from both Gyllenhaal and McGregor. It is mot one of Liman's best by far but seems like a film that would be fun to make. B-

By Tim Wassberg