Road House

Eine sonnige und sehr unterhaltsame Testosteron-Dummheit mit der überraschenden Besetzung von Jake Gyllenhaal, die wieder einmal großartig funktioniert. Doug Liman hilft Joel Silver dabei, seinen 80er-Jahre-Klassiker in ein dynamisches Videoclip-Gewand mit physisch intensiven Kämpfen zu aktualisieren, aber immer mit der Leichtigkeit einer anspruchslosen Heim-VoD-Unterhaltung. Der neue Road House enthält eine einzige psychologisch funktionierende Szene (der Dialog in der Bar mit dem Trauma der Hauptfigur) und hat eher den Charakter einer energischen Punk-Komödie als eines Dramas. Seine komischste Figur ist Gyllenhaals Hauptgegner, die ultimative Kampfmaschine Conor McGregor, der auf eine humorvolle Weise eine übertriebene hirnlose Macho-Souverenität mit kopfloser Raserei verkörpert. Eine Einladung in Fast & Furious ist nach diesem markanten Filmdebüt sicher. (25.03.2024)

Doug Liman made an 80's B movie for fun and they wouldn't even let him put it in theaters! A smiling Jake Gyllenhaal hurting bad people and obviously having an incredible time doing it. Conor McGregor is perfect as the evil, disagreeable asshole. The romance line works, the cast is likeable. Definitely could have used a little trimming, though, the middle drags a bit. The action is decent, the fights are oddly shot in places, but fine for me. The music is great and there are beautiful shots of the Florida Keys. I'll have to go there sometime. (24.03.2024)

Eighties classics, Jake Gyllenhaal on top form a solid cast, Doug Liman behind the camera, and Prime Video as a streaming service that goes toe-to-toe with these guys... the result? Well, let's just say it fell short of expectations. The new Road House is a film whose makers seem to have misunderstood the magic of straight-up 80s action movies and trip over their own feet. Overlong, with a dysfunctional hero who smiles and looks like the nicest guy in Florida the whole time, at least, but we know the trauma is in there somewhere... it's just that since we know it, there's no need to wait a hundred minutes for it to be resolved. And in between, we spend time with boring side characters who are just as goofy as in the original, only here they're god knows why give more space to talk about their life's hurts. And there's a hell of a lot of music playing to go with it, and they're staring dreamily into the stupid. All that delays the fights – though maybe that's not such a big deal. Gyllenhaal's getting his kicks, Conor McGregor enjoys his madman, and the rest of the male cast is just there to get smacked around, and Daniela Melchior is there to give the bouncer a disingenuous bashing. That's okay. But the way Liman conceptualizes the action scenes, the bullshit he comes up with with the camera, and how vehemently he tries to be different and innovative, only to have it usually blow up in his face (it's really not very pretty to look at) is the final nail in the coffin of disappointment. The new Road House doesn't actually do downright well at practically anything. It does something average, something slightly above average, but most of the time it's just completely off. And boring at that. (22.03.2024)

Doug Liman off the chain. A decently executed summer testosterone romp that's funny and manages to mix humour, self-parody and action, with a backdrop of the sun-drenched Keys at its back. A worthy remake to the awful original, plus an ensemble cast that has resuscitated Jake Gyllenhaal's action career (all honours to his physical form), and discovered the acting, or rather comedic, potential of Conor McGregor. It's a shame about some of the appallingly handled digital shots and botched editing, but within the context of an action flush with no higher ambitions, relative satisfaction. (07.04.2024)

A nice action romp like in the old days. I haven't seen the original, so I'm not comparing, but I enjoyed it very much. Jake Gyllenhaal prepared really for the role, playing a big and likeable guy who comes to Florida to work as a bouncer in a famous bar with a problematic clientele. I used to work at a bar so I liked, and the setting of sunny Florida with all the Hawaiian shirts was top notch, I could totally see myself there, in fact the only thing missing was proper babes. I was surprised by the humour, some one-liners were very good (the guy with the broken arm was very cool). The film is spiced up nicely by the casting of Conor McGregor, who downright relishes his role as a psychopathic madman, and I wouldn't mind seeing him more often in similarly iconic villain roles. The fights are without editing, they're nicely gritty, and even if slightly digital, still very cool. I like this kind of movies, I had fun, I wasn't bored, this is a properly manly and light-hearted film in a nice setting. They could release genre films like this on stream more often. 7/10. (21.03.2024)