The Stream: Connor McGregor’s acting is horrendous at best.

The Big Screen: Dalton is the G.O.A.T. and Connor is a maniac.

The Final Bill: Hard-hitting movie, literally, with a slightly pointless plot.

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Doug Liman
Writers: Anthony Bagarozzi, Chuck Mondry, R. Lance Hill
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Conor McGregor, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Lukas Gage, Arturo Castro
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rating: R for violence throughout, pervasive language and some nudity.
Runtime: 1 hour 59 minutes
Production Companies: BCD Travel, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Silver Pictures
Platform: Prime Video released March 21, 2024
Coming Soon to Prime Video: Ricky Stanicky, Tig Notaro: Hello Again, Musica, How To Date Billy Walsh

Welcome back, Streamers! This past weekend Prime Video released a remake of a Swayze classic, Road House. In Road House (2024), Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dalton, a former UFC fighter with an infamous and haunting past. He gets approached by Frankie (Jessica Williams) who offers him a job to protect her roadhouse in the Florida Keys. Of course, the job doesn’t match the job posting in the end. Some fighting hijinks ensue between Dalton and some locals. Let’s see how this remake turns out.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Dalton is hilarious. Yes, he’s the exact same character as most of his movies, but he’s also vicious and hilarious at the same time. My only thing is that I still have questions about this character. In the original version, that Dalton had a black belt in karate and a PHD! This character just has anger issues, a desire to die and an iron chin. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we really don’t get why Dalton is the way he is except for the one explanation that actually just begs for more questions. Here’s my main question about this movie though: why does Dalton’s love interest, allegedly born and raised in the Keys, sound nothing like a person from Florida and she has a completely different accent from her dad? It’s petty, but just a random thing to notice.

Nevertheless, the fights and the violence of the movie is where the movie succeeds. You can tell Jake trained hard for this role. The direction, fight choreography and Jake’s preparation make most of the fight scenes look amazing. One fight in particular takes a first-person fighter p.o.v. that is hard to watch but still a nice touch. Now, the biggest issue with the movie is the crazy pyscho character that Connor McGregor plays. McGregor honestly is a top 10 worst actor of all time. From his walk to his delivery, he’s just awful; but, I’d still give him a chance to progress at this new craft of his. Nevertheless, his character is crazy and fun but the acting hurts him. Honestly, there aren’t that many other people who could’ve played the role, but I’m certain any of them would have acted it better.

Going to the scorecard for this movie, Road House is a witty, violent, and somewhat pointless movie. It’s one of those movies that makes you cringe at the violence but also makes you not want to leave your seat. You can’t help but cheer for Jake G. and his pursuit for redemption. Grab a big box of fresh popcorn for this streaming flick but don’t pay attention to the storyline that much.