DIRECTED BY: Rowdy Herrington
STARRING: Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, Ben Gazzara, Marshall R. Teague, Red West, Julie Michaels, Marshall R. Teague, Kevin Tighe and Sam Elliott
BUDGET: $17m
EARNED (Worldwide): $30m
AWARDS: None
A tough bouncer is hired to tame a dirty bar.
James Dalton is a professional bouncer with a mysterious past who is working at a club in New York when a man named Frank Tilghman meets him and convinces him to take over security at his club/bar, the Double Deuce, in Jasper, Missouri. When Dalton arrives he’s introduced to local businessman Brad Wesley, who appears to have a stranglehold on the town and in the course of cleaning up the club/bar, Dalton dismisses several employees, some of which are connected to Wesley.
What could quite possibly be the guiltiest of guilty pleasures to appear on this list, Road House is a film that balances a fine line between so bad it’s good and so bad it’s bad. It might just have some of the cheesiest quotable dialogue around, but for me it just adds to the charm of the film, I mean who in their right mind in today’s studios would greenlight a film about a professional bouncer that can rip people’s throats out with his bare hands? Swayze holds the film together playing it on the straight and narrow and, if anyone else had been the lead in the film it probably would’ve fell into the so bad it’s bad area. For the quotes, the ridiculousness of how Wesley is so rich in such a small town and for the love of god the quotes, it is a film worth viewing.
FAVOURITE SCENE: Dalton vs Jimmy….bad move Jimmy.
FAVOURITE QUOTE: “Pain don’t hurt.” – Dalton
DID YOU KNOW?: At one point, Patrick Swayze was approached to star in Predator 2, but was unable to due to an injury on set during filming on Road House.
Irish Cinephile 