Road House

This weekend, Road House, a remake of the 1989 film of the same name, releases on Amazon Prime Video. Road House follows former UFC fighter, Dalton as he is hired as a bouncer for a bar in the Florida Keys. After beginning the job, he soon learns that the dangers of the job may be more than what he signed up for. I didn't have many expectations going into this movie. I saw the trailers and was just hoping for a fun time with an over-the-top action movie.

Essentially, I got what I came for with this movie. It is an unashamedly goofy throwback 80s action movie. The movie is very self-aware of the type of movie it is and doesn't take itself too seriously. Many subtle goofy moments made me laugh. I wouldn't describe it as a funny movie but just being a cheesy throwback movie makes it very humorous at times. I thought a lot of the fight scenes were very fun. It was fun to see Dalton beat up all of these terrible people. There really isn't much to this movie. It is just a fun turn-off-your-brain kind of film. I found it very entertaining from beginning to end and was never bored with it.

While I was entertained, this is by no means a good movie. I thought the movie was a bit unfocused with its plot. The whole premise is supposed to be about Dalton working at The Road House, but that ends up fading into the background about an hour into the movie. I also thought the plot was pretty bland and forgettable. It is just another generic story about a town newcomer taking down a tyrant who runs everything. It is never really clear why anyone is doing what they are doing and what the big plan is. I also found the characters to be very bland and not well-written. We don't get to learn anything about Dalton other than he used to be a UFC fighter. There isn't much about his background or any growth for him. The other characters are just as bad. We don't get any traits for any of the side characters. They are all just there to add bodies to the story.

Overall, while the plot and characters are not very good, the movie does its job of keeping me entertained. I had fun with this movie which is pretty much all that matters for a movie like this. It goes down in the same realm as recent movies like The Beekeeper and Plane

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+ Recommendation: Stream it if you already have Amazon Prime.