Prime Time: Road House (2024)

I was looking forward to Road House since I saw the first trailer for it, a trailer that showcased just how much time star Jake Gyllenhaal had been putting in at the gym. Yes, the original film is a beloved bit of cheese, but it’s no untouchable classic. Let’s not forget that it already has a sequel that very few people care for.

Gyllenhaal plays Dalton, a legendary figure who is hired by Frankie (Jessica Williams) to help sort out the trouble she has been having in her Florida bar. Dalton rolls in to Glass Key (the name of the area, and one of many fun little nods to other films) and starts cleaning house, but it isn’t long until he realised that there’s something more going on. Frankie’s bar is being targeted by thugs who work for a rich douchebag (Ben Brandt, played by Billy Magnussen). And if his thugs keep failing to achieve the desired result then it will soon be time for the much more dangerous Knox (Conor McGregor) to swagger in and start smashing everything up. A storm is brewing, but that doesn’t stop Dalton from making time to enjoy the company of a local doctor, Ellie (Daniela Melchior).

There are things to pick at here, and plenty of things that viewers may dislike, particularly when it comes to the way of staging and shooting some of the fight scenes, but I cannot think of any way this could have been a better remake/reworking of the original film. The tone is similarly fun, punctuated with brutal violence (of course), the lead character is always looking to defuse any situation before things get physical, and the plotting manages to replicate what we’ve seen before without feeling like a carbon copy.

Well done to relatively new writers Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry for crafting a script that changes enough to modernize the idea while also remaining respectful and admiring of the original film. The central concept may be nonsense, and our lead spends a lot of time smirking at people who don’t realise what is about to happen to them, but at no point are viewers made to think they are watching something outright laughable. Everyone is kept safe alongside a confident main character, but the danger keeps piling up around them, and his own darkness is something he doesn’t want to tap into.

Director Doug Liman handles the whole thing quite well. Aside from some computer trickery that doesn’t always work in the fight scenes, and a frustrating handful of night-time moments that don’t seem to be lit as well as they should, it’s generally slick entertainment, helped massively by Gyllenhaal being so committed to his role.

That commitment can be shown in every defined muscle, with the actor displaying a physique normally shown in anatomy textbooks that display the musculature of the human body. It is a hell of a look, and Gyllenhaal backs it up with a physicality and personality that I am sure Swayze would have liked to see. It’s a winning performance, and the best thing in the film. Magnussen is a lot of fun as the villain who doesn’t like to get his own hands dirty, the kind of person you know is failing as his hair becomes more messed up in the middle of some unfolding carnage, and McGregor . . . hmmmmm, I think he is good at doing what he is asked to do. It’s definitely a difficult performance to recommend though, as he is asked to be the kind of cocky and careless menace who is unleashed in the second half of the movie like an angry Rottweiler that has been flicked in the testicles and then let off the chain. Melchior is fine in the least interesting role, and the role that feels most like the writers tried a bit too hard to keep a template from the original film, Williams is good, if a bit underused, and there are decent supporting turns from Lukas Gage, Joaquim de Almeida, Hannah Love Lanier, Darren Barnet, JD Pardo, Arturo Castro (scene-stealing and hilarious), and even a cameoing Post Malone at the very start of the film.

I never thought this was going to surpass, or even equal, the first film, but it’s not as if everyone here got together to remake Citizen Kane. A little perspective is a good thing. I love Road House, but that is just as much to do with nostalgia and the unbeatable power of Sam Elliott’s beard as it is to do with the film itself. This remake lacks both of those ingredients, and also lacks a decent selection of soundtrack choices, but I still had a lot of fun with it. I think people should give it a chance, and I think it will be judged less harshly by viewers who can separate the concept from their sentimental attachment to the original film.

7/10

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Missing (2023)

Another film in the “screen life” format (you watch events unfold, for the most part, on a computer screen), Missing is from the people who brought you Searching. If you liked that film then you should like this. It isn’t quite as good as that film, and I think the gimmick will be harder to maintain for any future thrillers, but it’s enjoyable enough.

Storm Reid plays June, a young woman rolling her eyes as her mother (Nia Long) gets read to go on holiday with her new boyfriend (Ken Leung). June just wants to enjoy her time at home alone, and maybe a big party or two, but she starts to immediately worry when the pair don’t return for the pre-determined time when June is scheduled to pick them up from the airport. Making calls and starting her own investigation, June is able to connect with Javi (Joaquim de Almeida), an oddjob worker who lives in the country where her mother was last seen alive, and her own investigation seems to progress faster than the official police investigation.

With Sev Ohanian and Aneesh Chaganty credited with the story for this one (after both writing the script for Searching together), which was directed by Chaganty, it’s up to Nick Johnson and Will Merrick to co-direct their co-written script in a way that doesn’t completely drop the ball. While constrained by the format, they fudge things slightly to keep everything moving along in the narrative without transforming into another type of film entirely. I don’t think they’re entirely successful though. It’s been a few years now since I saw Searching (when it was released in cinemas), but I remember that, for better or worse, feeling as if it was able to adhere a bit more rigidly to the format. 

The plus point is the plotting though, with a number of enjoyable twists and turns that will have viewers reconsidering their opinion a number of times on how events may have unfolded. A number of details are nicely sprinkled throughout every scene, and there are only a few moments that will have you exasperated by something obvious overlooked by the main character.

Reid is very good in the role of June, doing well in a tough role that requires her to be onscreen for the vast majority of the runtime, even if she is just clicking through and observing various video clips. Long and Leung are both fine, and obviously not onscreen for too long, but it’s Almeida who you will remember once the film is over. His character is a ray of sunshine, and he actually gets a decent little narrative arc of his own, even as he helps to progress the main plot and help our desperate lead. Although not as sunshiney, the same applies to a character played by Amy Landecker, who may or may not be involved in the disappearance of June’s mother. There’s also a small role for Tim Griffin, playing June’s father, and his scene at the very start of the film helps to show the impact he had on the lives of his wife and daughter.

Perhaps a film that will inevitably work better when watched on your own computer, compared to a cinema screen, Missing is a decent little thriller that will work for those who can accept the genre trappings being dressed up with modern tech and tech-savviness.

6/10

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