When I first heard about a remake of Road House, I shook my head wondering why they were doing it and I didn’t care who they got to play Dalton. But the trailer is out now and it seems Jake Gyllenhaal is going up against Conor McGregor in the Florida Keys and it looks like it just might have potential.
It doesn’t look exactly the same as Patrick Swayze’s version from 1989. First of all, it’s not even the same Dalton. Swayze plays John Dalton and Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, but the two don’t even seem to be related. They’re not trying to build a Road House multiverse with all kinds of Daltons running around.
This Dalton is a washed-up UFC fighter who has seen better days. He’s asked by Frankie, the owner of a Road House in Florida, if he’ll bounce at her bar because the evil villain is trying to bulldoze it and put in his own resort. Frankie is played by the beautiful Jessica Williams, the actress you might know from the comedy series Shrinkage with Jason Segel and Harrison Ford.
So, we have Dalton bouncing in a bar and we’ve established that he’s a good fighter. We have a rich bully guy who wants to run the town and threatens anyone who tries to stand in his way. There’s no sharing with guys like these. You can’t split the town with them. They want it all and they’ll either buy it from you or take it if you don’t sell. Other than that, these two stories seem completely the same.
But the point I’m going to make is not all about the movie and whether or not this new one will get anywhere close to being as iconic as Swayze’s. I want to talk about something else. Speaking of Shrinkage, did you notice anything in the trailer that seemed a little off? I’ll give you a hint of what I’m thinking. It’s about Conor McGregor. Have a watch and see if you notice anything odd.
When Conor McGregor walks into the bar, he looks buff. I actually didn’t even recognize him at first because he looked huge like he was about to pop out of his tight shirt. It looked like his arms were tree trunks. I remember thinking, this guy is a beast.
Then, in a few scenes later, as far as the trailer is concerned, he’s at the pool and he doesn’t quite look the same to me. He’s not as buff. His arms don’t seem quite as huge. It could just be an optical illusion. Check it out for yourself. I’ve cut it together for you so you don’t have to sit through the whole trailer twice.
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Am I seeing things? Are my eyes playing tricks on me?
Or did you see it too? Of course, in the second scene, it looks like he just came out of the pool. That happens to men all the time. Anyway, moving forward.
Road House has a tough hill to climb if it’s ever going to be considered in the same vicinity with Swayze’s version. First of all, it was released in 1989 when people actually wore their hair that way. And two, Patrick Swayze has stolen America’s heart, which is something hard to replace. That’s why I’ve been calling it his version.
It was initially released on March 8 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas as is a growing trend. But Amazon has finally released it today. So if you watch it, remember to tell everyone what you think about it. Fan reviews are often appreciated more because no one’s paying you to have an opinion or be controversial. Road House!
