Road House (1989) Dir: Rowdy Herrington
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With a remake arriving onto screens around the world recently, I felt it was worth checking out the Rowdy Herrington directed original, with a view to watching the remake later on, in order to assess which was better. I had little knowledge of the film beyond knowing who it starred and that it had some action in it. Still, I was relatively excited for it.
The story was a bit ridiculous, but I had a lot of fun with the absurdity of it all. It was obviously very macho 80's, but, for what it's worth, I had a lot of fun with it. The fight sequences were over-the-top, but remarkably entertaining. Even the romantic subplot was surprisingly sweet, and added some much needed depth.
Patrick Swayze was very much his typical 80's self; charismatic, badass, and, of course, totally badass. His acting was kind of wooden, but he had moments where the serious delivery kind of worked. For Swayze, it was more about his screen presence and action capabilities, which, for what it's worth, he did well with.
Kelly Lynch was a sweet and sincere presence in the film, which certainly added some much needed light positivity to the otherwise action-heavy affair. She had good chemistry with Swayze, but stood out in her own right with a pretty memorable performance.
Sam Elliott gave a really random but very much welcome appearance, in which he exuded charisma and machismo, and showed off some great fighting skills. He was definitely a great addition to the supporting cast.
Ben Gazzara provided a rather weak villain, if I'm honest. Although he did have flashes of a more sinister nature, these were only really present towards the second half of the film. In regards to the rest of the cast, there were some fairly decent performances from Marshall R. Teague, Julie Michaels, Red West and Sunshine Parker.
Overall, this might be a cheesy, ridiculous 80s action film, but I thought it was pretty fun. Despite its kinda dumb elements, I had a really good time watching it. It may have had pretty limited substance, but the action makes up for it a fair bit. It certainly gives me some hope, in regards to the remake.
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