1989’s Road House became a cult hit after its underwhelming box office run. The film starred the late Patrick Swayze which some say it’s his best film. I wouldn’t go that far but it’s an entertaining action thriller that fits the era. It’s full of female nudity and hand-to-hand combats, and when I first saw the film in my early teens, I had a blast. A remake has been in development for several years and finally became a reality thanks to Amazon/MGM Studio.

A disgraced MMA fighter named Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) is being pursued by Frankie (Jessica Williams) to come and work for her at her bar called The Road House in the Florida Keys. The place is being tormented by troublemakers every night, and she needs someone to keep things in order. Dalton whose reputation is known in the MMA world as a very dangerous person. But he’s banned from the sport, and he’s also broke and sleeps in his car. To make ends meet, he goes around and fights in underground matches.

Desperate to make more money, he accepts Frankie’s offer and heads down to the Keys. Once Dalton arrives, he must deal with Brandt (Billy Magnussen) and his goons. Brandt wants to take control of The Road House to help his father build a kingdom, and Dalton finds himself in the middle of ongoing troubles. He then catches the attention of a local doctor, Ellie (Daniela Melchior), who’s curious about the new man in town who seems to welcome pain. Dalton also must deal with another person who likes pain, Knox (MMA fighter Connor McGregor).

The screenplay is credited to Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, they didn’t try to reinvent the original idea from the 1989 version. Switching the location from the boring Midwest to the Florida Keys is a welcome change. Making Dalton an ex-pro fighter also made sense. In the original film, we don’t know much about that character except that he has a reputation as being a badass and somehow people all over the bar scenes know who he is.

By turning Dalton into an ex-MMA fighter, it makes sense that people would know who he is and how dangerous he can be. But sadly, that’s all we know about him. There’s a hint that Dalton is a psychopath who enjoys hurting people, but the movie never explores that idea. The story also lacks action, which is very disappointing. Except for a few fight scenes and the showdown between Dalton and Knox, the movie didn’t have any big action scenes at all.

I think Doug Liman is a good director and he’s done some good action films. But his direction here seems lackluster. Just like a lot of movies that go directly to streaming, it looks like it was shot entirely on a green screen. With a reported budget of $85mil, I would’ve liked to see more action and better cinematography.

Gyllenhaal is in the action phase of his career. He’s been in a lot of action movies within the last few years and he’s good as Dalton. His mano-a-mano against McGregor was a fun watch. Speaking of McGregor, he hams up his role to the max, and not in a good way. I can firmly say that his performance is one of the worst that I’ve seen. I like it when actors decide to ham up their roles, it worked for Jason Momoa in Fast X and Mark Dacascos in John Wick: Chapter 4. Here, McGregor was just bad. The love interest played by Melchior was bland, her character is like Kelly Lynch’s role in the original film. Magnussen played another obnoxious villain, similar to his smaller villainous role in No Time To Die.

After seeing the movie, I can understand why Amazon refuses to show it in theaters. Is it worse than the original? No, but I never thought the original was that good. It’s an entertaining cheesy action film and this remake is no different.

So have you seen The ROAD HOUSE remake? Well, what do you think?

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