There are a lot of bad movies out there with massive plot holes, silly characters, dumb scenarios, really poor dialogue, and attributes given to people that simply aren't possible. Most of these films get tossed to the wayside, but one of them stands out in my mind and I actually did and do enjoy it to this day. I am referring to one of Swayze's highest grossing films after production and advertising costs. This film is Road House and I am not ashamed to say that I love it.
Back in the late 80's and early 90's, Patrick Swayze was one of the biggest stars in the world and no matter what he made, people went to the cinemas in droves in order to see it. It didn't really matter what the plot was and I don't think we really paid much attention to that - we also didn't have the internet back then so getting a true review wasn't really possible. If you ended up knowing anything about a film before you went to go see it, it was because you sought it out in a particular part of the newspaper.
Swayze plays the role of James Dalton, who is a professional security specialist for bars and nightclubs and the profession, which I think is a term they completely made up, is a "cooler." He is hired to go to a town in the middle of nowhere in Missouri in order to tame the rather raucous crowd and sort out the staff at a very popular club called The Double Deuce. This is where the film starts out absurd. I don't know if you have ever been to the middle of nowhere in the Midwest or anywhere else, but there is no such thing as a really popular club in the middle of nowhere. Sure they might have an event there every now and then, but be routinely busy every day of the week? Give me a break.
I looked it up to confirm that there it is truly in the middle of nowhere and Jasper, Missouri has a population of less than 1000 people. There are no cities of consequence even near it. The idea that this place would be overrun with customers every night, violent or otherwise, is completely absurd.
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I can understand a place like this needing one bouncer, but a team of specialists, nah... sorry, I don't buy it
Then there is the case of one person who effectively runs the town and is a terrible person. We need a villain right? Well, we made one up. The bad guy in this case is above the law and is very rich for some reason. He also just happens to live right across the river from the barn that Swayze has been given to live in (and of course do his exercises while sweaty and shirtless.)
One of my favorite silly lines of dialogue to ever appear in cinema happens in this film and it is when Swayze, after suffering a knife wound while breaking up a bar fight of absurd proportions that he meets the female doctor that is immediately identifiable and his future love interest.
While receiving staples through his side he forgoes (or is denied, I don't remember) any sort of anesthetic and is told by the attractive (and conveniently single) doctor that it is going to be painful... and this is when he utters this epic and timeless line.
I giggled a bit just thinking about the silliness of such a line and wonder what the guys were thinking that wrote the script. Did they know that this would become an iconic line for all of cinema history? I'd like to think the answer to that is yes but given the amount of other terrible dialogue that exists in this film, I would imagine it was just a beautiful accident.
Should I watch it?
It probably seems that based on what I am saying above that I don't like this film but you couldn't be more wrong. This is one of those "so bad it's good" films and honestly, if it isn't near the top of the list of said films, it should be. There is a cookie-cutter plot-line that you can see coming from a mile away, and tons of over-the-top action including ripping someone's throat out in a fight, which I can't even imagine is possible.
I think you would be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn't go and see this wonderfully bad film. Hell, I might watch it again today even though I have seen it at least a dozen times.
