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In 2024, lots of movies are being remade with a modern twist. One of these movies is Road House.

In 2024, lots of movies are being remade with a modern twist. One of these movies is Road House. The original came out in 1989 and there was a remake just this year. I watched both movies to see what changes there were in the remake and which one I liked better.

Road House (1989) Review

The 1989 original of Road House with Patrick Swayze is so popular I’m frankly scared to insult it in any way. This action/thriller is so bad that it’s good. But I have to say that by around halfway through the movie I lost track of what was what and what was going on.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the movie: Dalton (Patrick Swayze) is very well-known for being this cool bouncer and was hired to clean up a weirdly violent bar in Missouri called the Double Deuce from his current employment in New York. Of course, he immediately says yes. With his black-belt karate skills and philosophy degree, he cleans up the bar and makes the place a normal bar after firing multiple employees, much to the dismay of the villain in the movie Brad Weasley. All the while, Dalton continues to beat the bad guys and save an old man’s life. 

Some pretty insane scenes in this movie are just so mind-blowingly bad that it makes it crazy to not enjoy it. I recommend watching this movie for the fun of it. It is 2 hours of my life I will never get back and I don’t regret it.

I feel like when they made this movie they were trying to create the perfect dude fantasy. They just thought: What does every guy want? A black belt? A philosophy degree so they can get away with saying things like “No one ever wins a fight” and “Pain don’t hurt?” Both quotes just show how crazy cool this movie can be. This movie’s whole feeling can be summed up in the line: “I want you to be nice… until it’s time not to be nice.” This movie is so crazy, I can’t even describe it in words… you just have to see it. 

Road House (2024) Review

The new Road House, freshly out in 2024, tried to change things up a bit. I was able to get through most of it. I enjoyed it solely because it tried to have a comedic attitude to it, which made up for not having the suave Patrick Swayze.

To sum it up, Jake Gyllenhaal plays an ex-UFC fighter called Dalton who was hired to clean up a Road House in the Florida Keys. But the place is being controlled by a bad guy who isn’t even that memorable. Same idea as the old movie in that regard. But it lacks the scenes that made the 1989 movie a fever dream. So instead of being so bad that it’s good, it is just straight-up bad. 

The Takeaways

The only real similarity between the two is that Dalton in both movies is shown as a very cool person who is nice until they are put in a position where they can’t be. Which I suppose is a good motto. The newer Road House definitely has stronger female characters than the old one. This will hurt a lot of people inside, but because of this, I like the newer Road House much better. You got to see Dalton interact with a bunch of people and create not just enemies but friends and a girlfriend. Plus I like that (SPOILERS) at the end of the newer movie Dalton doesn’t get to stay because people died as a result of him trying to save this town. After Patrick Swayze’s character brutally murdered everyone except the REAL bad guy (to show development) the police just accept their “I have no clue what happened.” It really is a rollercoaster. 

In conclusion, both movies are pretty wild; I honestly didn’t enjoy either movie. But the 2024 Road House had more positives. This leads me to say that the 2024 Road House wins in comparison. However, I would recommend the 1989 Road House for a bit of fun because of how wildly insane it was. Both are bad movies, but at least 1989 is SO crazy bad it’s kind of good.