Road House (1989) Directed by Rowdy Herrington. With Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, Sam Elliot, Ben Gazzara and Kevin Tighe.
It’s hard to believe that Roadhouse was made with a straight face. None of anything that occurs seems to stand the test of common sense, yet somehow, there is an inherent entertainment quality that lifts it above other similarly stupid offerings.
Patrick Swayze is a bouncer with a difference. He says things like “Nobody ever wins a fight”. He studies Tai chi. He lives in a peaceful barn conversion and he isn’t a complete dick, unlike the majority of the townsfolk of ‘Jasper’, the fictional community in which the film is set. A local business man (Kevin Tighe) hires him to help “clean up” his bar; which seems closer to a fight club than a drinking establishment. All seems hunky-dory, until Ben Gazzara’s ‘Brad Wesley’, the local bully, takes umbrage and decides to declare war on Swayze and the bar.
The fight scenes are as ridiculous as you might expect, as are the consequences of them. Swayze is involved in numerous scraps along with some serious beatings, in which it seems easier to guess which bones haven’t been broken. The next day, he’s a fresh as a spring lamb. Of course, it wouldn’t be much fun if he spent the whole film in hospital (he stitches his own wounds), but you see my point. Speaking of hospital, that’s where he meets Dr Kelly Lynch for the obligatory 80’s romance of the plot. Another box ticked.
Despite an avalanche of stupid, the script for Road House is good fun; never better than when Sam Elliot appears halfway through the film to steel it from under Swayze’s nose. Lines like – “This place has a sign hangin’ over the urinal that says, “Don’t eat the big white mint” are delivered with a dry, but warm cynicism that almost make you pine for a Sam Elliot spin-off movie.
In a sense, Roadhouse feels like all the naffness of 80’s action films rolled-up into one, as kind of an end-of-decade celebration of the cheese-fest’s that were prevalent throughout the era. Both Patrick Swayze and Kelly Lynch look like they’re trying to finish off the ozone layer with the amount of hairspray it must have taken to keep their huge ‘do’s in place, while the pop/rock soundtrack, mostly provided by The Jeff Healey Band, recalls the upbeat tempo of the likes of Top Gun and Cocktail. It isn’t anywhere near what you might describe as a classic, but if your’e in the mood to sit back and go with the silliness, you might enjoy yourself here and there. 3/5
exactly I call it guilty Pleasures . The whole thing din’t make sense like you said bu it is fun to watch. I saw that on on cable not at the theater thank god. I love Kelly Lynch in this. Great review.
Yes, it is one of THE definitive guilty treats. It’s never anything less than entertaining. Thank you.
Serious guilty pleasure for me too. PAIN DON’T HURT! Genius. 🙂
You’re right. It’s a guilty treat for so many, and it isn’t hard to see why. The scene in which the stuffed polar bear falls on the bad is so ridiculous, how could it not be entertaining!? Thank you for commenting.
And how doesn’t love a man in a suit & tie climbing out of a monster-rally truck?