In January 2024, director Doug Liman was offended and outraged that his version of The Road House, a production starring Jake Gyllenhaal, didn’t even go to theaters and went straight to the Amazon Prime Video platform, damaging its commercial performance. No one can question that the cinema box office is still irreplaceable. Still, his revolt made it seem like a great film was being boycotted, generating anticipation that he didn’t deliver. My surprise now is that the film didn’t go straight to the platform, making me feel bad for whoever paid for the ticket.

It already surprised me that, given so much to be done or remade, a trash film like The Road House, which became a cult film for all the wrong reasons – there is violence, abused women, explosions, sexism – was selected to be re-recorded. Nothing in the story or production speaks to current culture, but he considered that Jake Gyllenhaal “delivers the best performance of his career”, and that he was deprived of “being recognized in awards season”, as Liman said. No, nothing like that.

The director’s outburst about the shortened cinema windows has value, it just doesn’t hold water with this film. 35 years ago, Patrick Swayze was a huge success with his fans as Dalton, the security guard who never lost a fight, who was calm and calm even when provoked beyond the limit and could then become a powerful killer. The fun of the original film was that using the Western formula – abused residents hire a stranger to protect them – it fit like a glove in the tacky culture of the 1980s, it sounds like a bit of a joke in 2024. That said, yes Jake Gyllenhaal has a physique of attracts attention and convinces as a UFC fighter. If you don’t think it’s a film that will change your life, you can have fun with The Road House 2024.

The story is the same, with some small adjustments, so it’s more of a retelling than a remake. The names of some characters do not change – Dalton for example – but he is more lonely and friendless like the 1989 version. In the original, Dalton is known as a big cooler and that is why he is hired by Frank Tilghman (Kevin Tighe), who calls him to work at the Double Deuce.

Dalton accepts, but his reputation precedes him, including the fact that he killed a man in self-defense in Memphis. In the 2024 version, Dalton killed an opponent in an official UFC fight just because the guy provoked him beyond the limit. In need of money, he accepts a security position at a bar in Florida where he literally has to “tame” the patrons who, for a strange reason, only enter the establishment to break chairs, and bottles and cause fights.

Let’s list the differences between the films:

• The bar that was The Double Deuce, a rude name that is a reference to feces, became just Bar da Estrada, the Road House. Honestly, the 2024 one would sound more like a Double Deuce while the 1989 one would be a road one.
• Instead of going to Jasper, Missouri, Dalton moves to the Florida Keys
• Instead of being a “cooler”, that is, the main security guard who can respond to physical situations, but who uses his ability to calm situations without violence, Dalton is a former UFC fighter who also works as a security guard and for the first time will be a “cooler”.
• Patrick Swayze’s Dalton does tai chi chuan and has a doctorate in Philosophy, so he is superior in defense strategy and chooses to use his fighting skills more carefully. Gyllenhaal doesn’t go into details, but it doesn’t seem like he has a higher education degree.
• In 2024, the attempt to be calm is due to the trauma of the death he caused and the knowledge that once angered, he can kill again. As early as 1989, he repeated that “no one wins a fight” and as a rule, his team has to be “nice” to all customers, even the aggressive ones.
  

• Patrick Swayze, who was a dancer and wrestler, wasn’t tall and was very thin, which is why in 1989 they always joke that “they thought he would be bigger”. That was part of the fun: it was lethal despite appearing weak. As for Gyllenhaal’s body and his height of 6 feet, there is no joke about size.
• In the 1989 film, there are more enemies in Dalton’s life, who have autonomy as bar administrators and fire more than half of the Double Deuce team. In 2024 everyone loves the security guard at the Road House.
• Dalton’s romance with the local doctor is maintained but with changes. In 1989, Dr. Elizabeth Clay (Kelly Lynch) is the former flame of the antagonist, Brad Wesley (Ben Gazarra), while now, Ellie (Daniela Melchior) is the daughter of the corrupt local police officer (Joaquim de Almeida).
• There is no replacement for Wade Garrett (Sam Elliott), Dalton’s best friend.
• In 2024, drug traffickers wanted to destroy the Road House to use the land and build a resort, but for 35 years the problem was the arrogance of Wesley who feels like he owns Jasper and its inhabitants.
• One of the most absurd and classic scenes in Swayze’s film was that he actually ripped out the throats of his opponents, such as Wesley’s right-hand man, Jimmy Reno (Marshall Teague). In the remake, Jimmy becomes Knox (Conor McGregor), hired to kill Dalton, and there is a quote about killing by wounding the throat, but nothing as graphic as in the 1989 version.
• The conclusion of the story is very different. In 1989 it is the residents who take revenge on Wesley. Dalton stays in Missouri. In 2024, Dalton wins and takes out the drug dealers, without permanently staying in the city, leaving alone.

There is already a sequel planned for the current version of The Road House, which makes Dalton some kind of Reacher and Shane: a lonely wanderer fighting with the ghosts of the past. It will be ok, it just doesn’t suggest that it could be a role that will change Gyllenhaal’s career. Or anyone’s.

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