Movie Details
| Title: | Road House | |
| Director: | Doug Liman | |
| Year: | 2024 | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 03.23.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (6)
- American Made
- The Bourne Identity
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Fair Game
- Jumper
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 03.23.24 | Internet | Uhh well... I'm not sure what I was hoping for with this. I guess maybe a glimpse of what a fun dumb action movie could be in 2024? I am certainly not one of those OG Road House fans... I remember renting it back in the day and finding it just one of many tough guy action flicks on the video store shelves. I basically remember "pain don't hurt" and them doing it standing up against a wall which looked logistically challenging. But here's the thing: I like Jake Gyllenhaal and I think Doug Liman often executes well with interesting projects so... maybe this was something? It kinda is. I feel like I don't have much of a leg to complain too much about this but I can't shake a few really head-scratching things about it. One is Gyllenhaal's character and demeanor. I like that easy-going practical thing in the beginning but it doesn't amplify when i think the script calls for it. When he's supposed to feel betrayed or angry he just still does this low-energy aww shucks thing which I don't get. Certainly whoever his personal trainer is deserves some kudos, as does Gyllenhaal's commitment because dude is ripped, but I wonder if he spent the whole time eating chicken breast and working out instead of working on the character. harsh I know but compare this to Southpaw (made by a director I don't much care for) and there's a real character there. I would say he's phoning it in here except he obviously worked hard to get that ripped. The second big negative for me is Connor McGregor. I thought every second he spent in the movie was laughably bad. It was definitely stunt casting from the start but he never lives up to the wild craziness he's supposed to embody. He's got the same weird smile on his face the whole time and (this is a script problem not a performance problem) his role is on auto-pilot. You know exactly what he's gonna do, which is sometimes fine if the actor can sufficiently chew the scenery to make it fun but I never felt anything other than him trying to act cool. The last big thing was how most of the fights were shot. I think they paid particular attention to try and show blows actually landing which would've been great if the camera was also not freaking out and flying in and out of peoples' heads and speeding up and slowing down and calling more attention to itself than the action. The beginning fight with Post Malone was the worst of this to the point where I think they were 100% digital people. None of it looked real in the slightest, which defeats the purpose of showing hits landing! Most of Gyllenhaal's choreography was better but he's still surrounded with people flipping and face-planting on the bar or suplexing onto concrete or whatever else. If the movie wants to be a cartoon that's one thing, but then why have Dalton be a meticulous precise fighter who knows exactly what he's breaking with every punch? You can't ask me to take a broken finger seriously then fling a guy 50 feet into the air and have him be fine. But I'm willing to accept the swings in tone because we're here watching this movie to see rowdy bar fights because it's Road House so... fair. I just wish everything wasn't so digitally manipulated to leave any chance of me suspending my disbelief. Even the interior of the bar has to always be these vaulted cathedral ceilings with god rays and shit. So maybe all this digital bullshit IS what a dumb action movie looks like in 2024!? Maybe in thirty years we'll look back on this movie and laugh and say "oh remember back when movies were so bad they were good before AI learned three-act structures and smell-o-vision implants really took hold? Those were the days." Guess we'll have to wait and find out, but right now it's just not as fun as the cocaine-fueled scripts, gratuitous nudity, throat-ripping generation of before |
