Film - Road House

With all the news around the Road House reboot, kick-ass pisky Romeo Kennedy looks back at the original and asks why...

When writing anything about the movie remake/reboot conveyor belt, the question always comes to why are they remaking/rebooting X? The reasons all differ but the at the top of the list is the obvious financial motivation. Of course some remakes have done better than others financially but the cash is still rolling in and the list of remakes/reboots grows ever longer.

What about the other reasons?

Nostalgia is definitely one, and the possibly the prospect of finding younger audiences who will have the same adoration for the remake as say a parent/relative does for the original and thus continue some sort of cycle? I have no idea.

Certain film franchises will always have an audiences and therefore will reap the financial benefits from that. And in the next five years the list of remakes/reboots doesn’t seem to be slowing down. We are now at the point where the first movie you can think of is probably either being remade, has been remade, or is in the works to be remade.

And one such film I’m going to talk about is the eighties classic, Roadhouse.

It was announced last week that the 1989 movie will be remade starring MMA fighter Ronda Rousey.
I have to be honest, I wasn’t familiar with her work but after a bit of Google magic and discovering she is both a very talented actor and sportswoman, I feel she would be a great fit for the role of Dalton, previously played by Patrick Swayze. Although I’m sure a quick Google search will show many articles of misogynistic bile about this casting choice as well as the petulant cries of, “You are ruining my childhood!”

Roadhouse was a cool film for its era and it was in all, a cool, fun movie. There are many reasons to love it. It’s not groundbreaking cinema, and doesn’t pretend to be.

If you are not familiar with the story, it’s about a cooler (doorman/bouncer) named Dalton (Swayze) who is very good at his job and highly sought after despite coming from a mysterious past. He is head hunted by the owner of a very rough and tough club in a small town named the Double Deuce and wants Dalton to help clean up its image.  It soon is apparent that this small town is under control by a business man named Brad Wesley who knows all and is ready to cause trouble for Dalton. Wesley begins to make things very difficult for Dalton working at the Double Deuce and things turn ugly very fast.

Sounds pretty basic doesn’t it? Obviously there is a lot more that happens, like people getting kicked and punched and the occasional table snapped in two, but that is the basic premise.

So, I hear you cry. Why is it a cool movie?

Here’s my three reasons.

• Patrick Swayze kicking ass, and then some, whilst looking cool.
• Jeff Healey as Cody who was the main reason for me watching it in the first place. 
• And of course Sam Elliot as Dalton’s Mentor, Wade Garrett, who is so badass and probably has the most coolest name ever.

Not to mention, Garrett has some pretty memorable quotes, “This place has a sign hangin over the urinal that says, Don’t eat the big white mint.”

In fact the whole movie has some pretty memorable quotes. Mostly from Swayze’s character

“Nobody ever wins a fight.” - Dalton

“Be nice ... Until it’s time to not be nice.” - Dalton

Roadhouse was a product of its time and it is not without its problems. The soundtrack is brilliant and the Jeff Healey Band cover of When The Night Comes Falling Down was one of the main reasons I bought it on VHS.

And as previously mentioned, I’m sure that Ronda Rousey will do it justice, but I can’t help but feel that this is another of many remakes that can be filed under unnecessary and even though it has somewhat of a following It will be interesting to see how much of a boom it makes at the box office.

Image - IMDb