Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8997 in VHS
• Released on: 1992-04-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Original language: English, Portuguese
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.com
One of those movies that helped usher out the era of action films that had plots that made any sense (and also helped reverse the direction of Patrick Swayze's career arc), Road House concerns a handsome, existential bouncer in a rinky-dink honky-tonk who owns both a degree in philosophy and a Mercedes. And that's perhaps the most believable aspect of the whole movie. Swayze stars as Dalton, "the best bouncer in the business," who runs afoul of Wesley (Ben Gazzara), the meanest SOB round these parts, by taking up with his former girlfriend, Doc (Kelly Lynch)--the only woman in town with an IQ approaching double digits, even if she had unfathomably hooked up with such a lowlife. Swayze had complained about being typecast as beefcake when this was made, but that didn't stop him from revealing as much skin as possible--even guys like him, as revealed in a luridly seedy scene in which one of Wesley's goons tells Dalton that he reminds him of the kind of boyfriend he had in prison (albeit in much saltier terms). It's so insulting to its audience that it's nice to be able to turn the tables and laugh at the filmmakers. --David Kronke

Customer Reviews

Bad action has rarely been so good
Forget "Dirty Dancing": Patrick Swayze's career peaked in this and the similarly underrated "Point Break." It doesn't quite reach the stratospheric heights (or is it depths?) of Arnold Schwarzenegger's deservedly legendary "Commando," but "Road House" is still the stuff of which B-movie legend is made. Starring Swayze as the head bouncer at a rowdy Southern bar called the Double Deuce, "Road House" derives its appeal largely from the ingenious idea of having a bunch of rednecks for villains. You get to see Swayze's Dalton, perhaps the only Mercedes-driving, philosophy-majoring bouncer in history, take on a seemingly endless succession of slack-jawed inbred troglodytes as he tames the Double Deuce and ensures victory for truth, justice, and the American way.

The Double Deuce is one of the those bars where it seems half the patrons are on parole, but that doesn't stop them from throwing fists at the proverbial drop of a hat. I've always believed that bar fights held vast, untapped potential for the action genre, and this movie more than delivers the goods in that department. There are about five solid bar brawls in "Road House," with glass flying around, Dalton employing his martial-arts expertise against dimwitted thugs in tight jeans, and blind guitar whiz Jeff Healey providing some rock-solid background music. Suffice to say, if you're looking for a fair and dignified look at life in the South, you won't find it here. A trip to the Double Deuce promises to be as nasty and brutish as Hobbes's state of nature, and a lot more fun to watch.

And even for those who can think of nothing that beats Patrick Swayze as an action hero, it gets better: they got Sam Elliott, one of America's most underrated actors ever, to play Dalton's long-haired, hard-living friend Wade! With an unkempt white mane and that unmistakable Southern drawl, Wade dispenses plenty of rapier wit along with some ...-whippings before outliving his usefulness. You also get to see Ben Gazzara, slumming it as the snake-like villain Brad Wesley, somehow manage to maintain a semblance of dignity in a movie that seems committed to insulting your intelligence every chance it gets. And as Dalton's love interest, Kelly Lynch adds little in the way of plot advancement or dialogue, but she does provide some nice scenery... buying it.

Nothing like a quick stop @ the Roadhouse
To avoid any confusion, by rating this movie 5 stars I am NOT suggesting that it is in the same league as GLADIATOR, THE LORD OF THE RINGS (trilogy), GONE WITH THE WIND or any other top-calibre flick. However, this film doesn't try to compete with the likes of top-rated movies, and that's the beauty of it.

The story is based on a top-notch bar bouncer (Patrick Swayze) who is compelled to call in his old mentor (Sam Elliot) for an especially tough project. Instead of just busting heads and throwing hoodlums out of the bar, these guys end up having to save the whole town!

This is a B-movie all the way. In my opinion, it COULD be the greatest B-movie of all time. In short, despite being stupid it is also immensely entertaining. The plot is contrived. There are aspects of it that are way, way beyond being remotely believable. It seems the whole movie was inspired by pushing the envelope on the concept of the bar brawl.

Despite its limited plot, the DVD is surprisingly watchable. I've seen it at least 4 times and it's always fun to re-watch. Patrick Swazye's considerable acting talents are wasted in this farce, but that's OK. The film contains a nice sampling of gratuitous nudity, and Kelly Lynch is not exactly hard on the eyes.

So, if you want to watch a movie with minimum seriousness and maximum action, hang a left into the Roadhouse tonight. You won't be disappointed.

Road House + RiffTrax = Comedy Gold
Road House mania has finally hit in 2006! Not only has this movie, which has been to late night TBS what Whoopi Goldberg is to Hollywood Squares, finally been reissued in a special edition, but now Mike Nelson from MST3K has released a RiffTrax for it! Road House was long acknowledged as a target that Nelson and the 'bots wished they could skewer on MST3K and he finally got his wish.

Listen, Road House is great. Tinker, Sam Elliot (voice of the beef council) and the oh so creepy owner of the Double Deuce are some of the best characters to ever populate small town Missouri. But watching it with Nelson's RiffTrax playing in the background took the unintentional (i think?) comedy of Road House to an entirely new level. Nelson is both knowledgable and funny, the kind of guy you wish your friends were as clever as. If we are ever blessed with a 20th anniversary edition of Road House, I would hope that Nelson's riffing can be included, because I can't imagine watching this movie again without it.

Check it out: http://www.rifftrax.com