VOD film review: Road House (2024)
Review Overview
Action
8Cast
8Depth
5Ivan Radford | On 31, Mar 2024
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Conor McGregor, Jessica Williams, BK Cannon, Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen
Certificate: 15
You know a film is getting its action sequences right when you find yourself wincing out loud. Road House has you cringeing, wincing and yelping every few minutes – it’s a hard-hitting remake that doesn’t pull its punches.
The film takes its inspiration from the 1989 Patrick Swayze vehicle, which follows a reclusive lone wolf who finds himself protecting a community – and becoming part of it in the process. It’s a Western set by the sea, an 80s blockbuster injected with modern brutality, a B-movie given a glossy budget, and most of all it’s a whole load of fun.
Jake Gyllenhaal is Dalton, a former MMA fighter who has left the hexagonal ring after things got out of hand. Living out of his car and scraping – literally – by through backwater cage matches, he ends up at the Road House, a beach bar in Florida. The bar’s owner, Frankie (Jessica Williams), hires him to act as a deterrent after her business is targeted by a motorcycle gang headed up by Dell (JD Pardo). It turns out that Dell’s acting at the behest of evil property developer Brandt (Billy Magnussen), who has his eye on the prime slab of beachfront real estate. Not that plot is exactly the point of the movie.
That becomes clear the moment Jake Gyllenhaal walks on to the screen: he’s a winning presence who’s at once friendly and daunting, a slight smile softening the edges around his hulking physique. It’s not long until he’s in action, and his fighting style is ruthless and oddly considerate: he apologises to people in advance for injuring them, enquires where the nearest hospital is and gives them a chance to walk away. It’s at once an intimidating mind game and a genuinely show of kindness, and Gyllenhaal plays that mix for both laughs and charm. That means that we find ourselves easily rooting for him, despite the pain he metes out, and we also believe it when one henchman amusingly turns out to be a timid, overly polite fellow.
The script isn’t all that interested in anyone else, but the supporting cast flesh out the ensemble beyond their broad types: Lukas Gage and Dominique Columbus are endearing as the would-be bouncers, BK Cannon is entertaining as bartender Laura and Daniela Melchior makes the most of her underwritten role as nurse Ellie, a potential love interest with pertinent family connections. Williams, meanwhile, is enjoyably easygoing but equally underused as the business owner putting the past behind her.
The exception comes in the form of Conor McGregor, who makes his screen debut as Knox. The UFC veteran is electric as the unhinged villain who thinks nothing of breaking someone’s arm then torching down their home – he’s a swaggering psychopath with a manic grin and unblinking stare, and McGregor is clearly having a ball turning up the villainy to 11. The film ultimately boils down to one long punch-up between Dalton and Knox, and Gyllenhaal and McGregor are a fantastic screen pairing, both emanating charisma from every rippling muscle on display.
Director Doug Liman, who brought a distinctive brand of fisticuffs to The Bourne Identity, is adept at capturing the duo’s showdown with an immediacy that matches the intensity. The camera moves with the same impressive choreography as the actors themselves, resulting in a blistering face-off that’s worth tuning in for alone – and, to the film’s credit, it’s smart enough to know it.