Road House movie review: Flashily directed by Doug Liman and starring Jake Gyllenhaal in fine movie star form, Prime Video's remake of the '80s cult hit isn't as trashy as the original, but it certainly isn't a knockout either.
In many ways, director Doug Liman's re-imagining of the 1980s cult hit Road House can be seen as a companion piece (and low-key rebuttal) to the many machismo-drenched Indian action movies that we've recently seethed at. At one point in the first act, the hyper-violent protagonist's love interest, a doctor, declares that she's fed up with rage-filled maniacs clogging up her ER room after nightly brawls. And towards the end, a chirpy child assures him that while he isn't the hero of this story, he most certainly isn't the villain either.
Played by Jake Gyllenhall, Elwood Dalton is what our Bollywood stars would describe as a ‘grey character'. He uses violence as an answer to pretty much every problem, and God knows he seems to walk into them. When we first meet him, Dalton is killing time by participating in some kind of underground fight league; this opening scene exists more or less to establish how formidable he is. A brawler played by Post Malone of all people practically pees himself at the thought of taking him on in a ring.
