After Patrick Swayze, Jake Gyllenhaal plays the protagonist of the action film Road House, available on Prime Video since March 21, 2024.
If the name of the new action movie available on Prime Video tells you something, that’s normal: Road House is a remake of a punchy feature film released in 1989, carried by Patrick Swayze then at the height of his glory after Dirty Dancing and before Ghost. This time it’s director Doug Liman (Memory in the skin, Edge of tomorrow) which tackles the cult film to offer a revisited 2024 version.
It is Jake Gyllenhaal (The Secret of Brokeback Mountain, Prisoners, Donnie Darko…) who reprises the role of the late Patrick Swayze in the new Amazon adaptation. He plays Dalton, a fighting expert turned bar bouncer who only agrees to fight as a last resort. He ends up having to face a certain Knox, who fans of MMA (martial arts combat sport for the uninitiated) will certainly recognize since it is the Irish ring champion Conor McGregor. On the program: big action scenes and fights, but also humor for fans of the genre.
It’s not easy to propose a remake of Road House, since the film released in 1989 has acquired cult status over the years. If the critical reception is divided and the film does not meet its audience in theaters ($61 million at the worldwide box office), it has become cult thanks to its release on DVD and Blu-Ray and its TV broadcasts. So much so that he was entitled to a sequel, released in 2005, just four years before the death of Patrick Swayze.
Before its release on Amazon’s streaming platform this Thursday, March 21, Doug Liman sparked controversy by publicly dissociating himself from his own film: he criticizes in particular that the studio had assured him that Road House would be released in theaters, and is offended since his film is only entitled to a streaming release.