Movie review: ‘Road House’ (1989)

FloridaGator80

I always like seeing good parts in a bad movie … you know what I mean, where an actor manages to give a great performance in the midst of mediocrity. When you can put a gem of a performance into a stinker, then you’ve done something as an actor. Ben Gazzara does this very well in “Road House.” Although not a complete stinker, “Road House” has a nice premise to launch a film: Patrick Swayze is the best bar “cooler” in the country and is hired to clean up a cesspit. Despite the OK idea and the solid cast to match, “Road House” never works out, since it never maintains any credibility or continuity of good acting. So, in the end, “Road House” is seriously flawed but watchable and Gazzara does a great turn. It is a bit bloated at six minutes short of two hours in length and a half-hour could have been easily peeled off to help make it a better film.

‘Road House’
(1989; 114 minutes; rated R; directed by Rowdy Herrington and starring Patrick Swayze, Ben Gazzara, Sam Elliott and Kelly Lynch)

THIS ‘COOLER’ IS HOT

(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia and updated links on Sept. 2, 2019. I again expanded the review on March 28, 2024.)

Patrick Swayze is mostly OK in “Road House,” but it is a somewhat aging Ben Gazzara who gives the best performance in this late ’80s mix of eye candy and violence. Gazzara, who was 59 at the time of its release, shows the only true acting chops in the “Road House” cast with his character’s always-menacing demeanor. In the end, though, Gazzara’s work doesn’t allow the film to be salvaged and be called good – but it is watchable.

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At the same time Gazzara manages to elevate his character (bad guy “Brad Wesley”), both Swayze and Sam Elliott can’t achieve the same and it’s especially depressing from these two since Elliott could have been so much better with the screenwriter creating more time for him in front of the camera. Ah, well, you can’t re-edit a film that’s 27 years old. As for the rest of the cast … it’s pretty undistinguished (one of the main supporting characters was the co-star on TV’s “Emergency!”) and they do mostly undistinguished work but grade out as not having ruined the film.

What does stink worse is that since my original posting of this review, there has been a “reboot” of “Road House” released in March 2024 with the talentless Jake Gyllenhaal in the role made famous by Swayze. It’s totally a pathetic effort that sunk to the level of co-starring a “mixed martial arts” participant in trying to find an audience in 2024 that might buy tickets since they will not remember Swayze. I’m not even going to post a link to the new film because it is just an insult to the original.

Now, back to the watchable original film …

The plot to “Road House” is straightforward: A small-town saloon owner wants to clean up his establishment; he hires the best “cooler” ever (a “cooler” is in charge of bar operations and especially the bouncers); and all of this conflicts with the crooked local businessman who “runs” the town through violence and intimidation.

Clashes occur; fights break out (in and out of the club) and the testosterone flows freely. The new “cooler” is too-cool and attracts beautiful women – including the crooked businessman’s special girlfriend. It all comes to a head with Gazzara paying the price for his wicked ways.

Whew. “Road House” keeps you busy with all the ants coming out of many respective hills.

OK, so here’s a rundown of some of the primary cast:

  • A three-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Swayze plays it super-cool here (pun intended) as “James Dalton” and does a good and somewhat at the same time, unremarkable job. His grade drops a bit to just being OK because he has the talent to elevate it but doesn’t manage to pull it off. His coolness is a little too forced; it’s a little too often shown; and his good scenes are few and far between. Of course, Swayze was a hit with his most sensational performance in “Ghost” and is best remembered for “Dirty Dancing” (two of his three Globe nominiations and the third was for the drag queen cult favorite “To Wong Fu, Thanks for everything! Julie Newmar”). He died tragically young at 57 of pancreatic cancer in 2009. I thought he was near his best in the original “Point Break” (click here for my review) with Keanu Reeves, but he had some forced moments in that one, too, but they’re not as glaring as in “Road House.”
  • A three-time Golden Globe nominee (note for this one) and a Primetime Emmy winner and three-time nominee, Gazzara, as I already noted, does the best work here. He manages his emotions well and always lets you know the menace and cruelty that is the foundation of his character’s soul. I don’t mean it’s an award-winning performance (far from it), but Gazzara’s talent shines through much like José Ferrer did in “Battle Creek Brawl” with Jackie Chan (click here to read my review). He had 132 acting credits over a career of seven decades and did TV such as “Run for Your Life” (all three Globe nominations and two of his Emmy nominations) and movies such as “Saint Jack,” “The Big Lebowski” and had a small part in the reboot of “The Thomas Crown Affair” with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo (click here to read my review). Just as it took Swayze’s life, pancreatic cancer claimed Gazzara in 2012 at the age of 81.
  • Kelly Lynch plays “Dr. Elizabeth ‘Doc’ Clay” and has the throw-away part that is Swayze’s love interest in the film. Lynch doesn’t have many acting chops; isn’t given anything to work with here; and even with such a poor part cannot elevate it in any way. She has done TV work such as “Miami Vice” as well as films such as “Charlie’s Angels” and “Curly Sue.” I liked her in “Cocktail” with Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue (she’s just OK, but better than here – click here to read my review).
  • An Oscar nominee and two-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Elliott is completely wasted here … and I don’t mean he’s on drugs. Elliott was superlative casting as “Wade Garrett,” who is Swayze’s mentor in the “cooler” business. However, like Lynch, he isn’t given anything to work with here – and he wasn’t hindered by a lack of talent like her. He was much better in a small role in “Thank You for Smoking” (click here for my review) and he is also known for being “The Stranger” in “The Big Lebowski.” I also liked him in the TV movie “The Quick and the Dead.” He was nominated for an Oscar for his work in the reboot of “A Star is Born” with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, while his Globe nominations came for “Conagher” and “Buffalo Girls.”
  • Kevin Tighe is at the top of the supporting cast as “Frank Tilghman,” who is the bar owner who hires Swayze. It’s tough when the top of the supporting cast is a former TV series star and Tighe’s effort shows it – he’s not that good or convincing. He’s been in films such as “K-9” and “Another 48 Hrs” and is best remembered as the co-star with Randolph Mantooth on TV’s “Emergency!.”

The rest of the supporting cast is either just marginally decent or embarrassingly bad. You choose … there really isn’t much difference in either description or much of the supporting cast for this film. Kathleen Wilhoite is an exception as “Carrie Ann,” but like others, she doesn’t get a chance to do her best work here and Red West is solid as “Red Webster.”

R. Lance Hill wrote “Road House” under the pen name “David Lee Henry.” He also wrote a novel I enjoyed called “The Evil that Men Do.” However, that novel was turned into what is most likely Charles Bronson’s worst film of the same name (click here for my look at it) and it is simply about as bad a film as you could ever view in two lifetimes.

One final note. I understand how a film’s title can alter a word. Take the Tom Hanks gem “Cast Away.” The title is two words. Of course, Tom was a “castaway” on the island, but he had also been “cast away” from humanity, too. That’s nice use of language, spelling and meaning with a movie title. However, I don’t understand “Road House.” The word (a synonym for nightclub or saloon) is “roadhouse.” One word. Where the filmmakers got the idea of a two-word roadhouse? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they were film makers.

“Road House” was the 40th ranked film at U.S. theaters in 1989 with $30 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. It came in right behind “Weekend at Bernie’s” ($30.2 million – click here for my review) and was made on a budget of $15 million. The No. 1 film of the year was “Batman” with $251.1 million and the No. 2 film was the best of them all that year in my opinion: “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” with $197.1 million. Here are other films from that year I have reviewed:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Annette Benning was supposed to play the role ultimately given to Lynch. Good move, filmmakers. The character wasn’t important to the film; Benning wouldn’t have come anywhere close to fitting into the role. Lynch wasn’t good here, but is miles ahead of Benning as Swayze’s love interest.
  • Another good casting decision was when Lynch turned down the part played by Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct.” Wow. Having Lynch instead of Stone as that character would have hurt.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “According to Kelly Lynch, whenever Bill Murray sees her sex scene with Patrick Swayze on television, he calls her husband, Mitch Glazer, to tease him about it.”
  • Tighe’s birth name is Jon Kevin Fishburn.
  • Another bad move was to turn “Road House” into an off-Broadway production in 2003. I don’t know any more about it than the brief blurb on the IMDb.com trivia page. Read it for yourself. However, all you need to know for how despicably bad it was is the title of the production: “Road House: The Stage Version Of The Cinema Classic That Starred Patrick Swayze, Except This One Stars Taimak From The 80’s Cult Classic The Last Dragon (1985) Wearing A Blonde Mullet Wig”
  • Swayze wrote one song and sang two for the film’s soundtrack.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “This film is listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson’s book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.”

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