Michel & Michel stop by for a drink at Double Deuce, just to pick up Patrick “Dalton” Swayze’s fake connections…
In 2024, the doors of Road House open to a new audience with a new, even more muscular version, led by a physically impressive Jake Gyllenhaal and signed Doug Liman. If the director of Memory in the Skin and Mr & Mrs Smith has since expressed his disappointment that his remake will not be released in cinemas (it will be available on March 21 on Prime Video), Michel & Michel have decided to look into on the original film.
“Stay cool…”
In 1989 in Road House, Patrick Swayze slipped into the shoes of Dalton, a bar bouncer who is as cool and philosophical as he is efficient (despite the fact that we imagined him to be “bigger”), haunted by a dark past then that he is hired to clean at a nightclub in Missouri. There, he will discover a small community under the control of the local owner and his henchmen…
Behind this somewhat basic pitch (let’s be honest) hides a pure B series from the 80s/90s, with its clichés, its cult lines (and dubbing) and its improbable looks. Modern Western, which transposes the figure of the solitary cowboy who arrives to bring order into the world of the night, Road House was a great success in theaters at the time (30 million dollars in US box office revenue, 640,000 spectators in France) before becoming a true cult film thanks to its video release. And this despite its five (!) Razzie nominations: worst film, actor, supporting role, director and screenplay.
It’s heavy, very very heavy!
Released after Dirty Dancing, Road House greatly contributed to launching the career of Patrick Swayze (who also sings two songs in the film), who will shine in the following years in Ghost, Point Break or The City of Joy. And it was certainly at the origin of some vocations, the image of the cool bouncer having been greatly popularized by the film.
Thirty-five years later, it is therefore Jake Gyllenhaal who will take over from Amazon. In the meantime, just to wait, the technical specialists at AlloCiné invite you to (re)discover the original film through the prism of its false connections: blunders, errors and failures, it’s heavy, very very heavy!
Road House version 1989 is available on Prime Video, Road House version 2024 will be released on March 21 on the platform