'Road House'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Kyle Brandt be nice until it's time to not be nice after rewatching the 1989 classic 'Road House,' starring Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, and Sam Elliott.
Cast
Patrick Swayze as Dalton
Kelly Lynch as Doc
Ben Gazzara as Brad Wesley
Sam Elliott as Wade Garrett
Marshall Teague as Jimmy Reno
Jeff Healey as Cody
Kevin Tighe as Tilghman
Terry Funk as Morgan
Keith David as Ernie Bass
Directed by: Rowdy Herrington
Music by: Michael Kamen
Notes
- $15 million budget, $61.6 million box office, with an estimated additional $200 million in home video revenue. A slow-burn cultural phenomenon.
- All actors did their own stunts, trained by Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez. Swayze cracked two ribs from a real hit by Marshall Teague.
- Keith David originally had a significant role as bartender Ernie, but the 3.5-hour cut had to be trimmed to 2:15 and his scenes were cut.
- Swayze hurt his knee during filming, turned down 'Predator' 2, and did Ghost instead – a pivotal sliding-doors moment.
- The hosts agree the film works because everyone plays it completely straight – Swayze acts like it's a Kurosawa film.
- Swayze smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day and attributed his cancer to the heavy smoking and drinking.
Categories
Quote from Rog's review:
“Roadhouse exists right on the edge between the good bad movie and the merely bad.”
Ebert said 'so much depends on the ironic vision of the viewer'
- Dalton versus Jimmy – the big outdoor fight ending with the throat rip
- Dalton's first night at the Double Deuce through his speech and 'Horny Steve' in the freezer
- Brad Wesley's breakfast invitation – 'I got a cousin in Memphis'
- The 'I need the best' / 'who's the best?' action movie trope that Road House popularized
- Bands playing in cages
- Jimmy Reno – everything about him
- 'I used to fuck guys like you in prison' – Kyle calls it the greatest villain line ever
- Why doesn't Dalton just kill Brad Wesley?
- Sam Elliott's full-screen nudity scene
- No TVs showing sports in any of the bars despite being near Kansas City in 1989
- Keith David's scenes being cut
Jeff Healey playing 'White Room' (Cream cover)
No police in the entire town of Jasper – Brad Wesley apparently owns the cops but there is zero municipal oversight
- CR: 'I prefer the old Double Deuce' – Dalton is a gentrifier
- Kyle: 'I used to fuck guys like you in prison' is the greatest villain line in any movie
- Bill: Did Brad Wesley kind of have a point? He brought a 7-Eleven and JC Penney to Jasper.
- Swayze was originally cast in Kurt Russell's role in Tango and Cash
- Annette Bening was originally cast as Doc but fired for lack of chemistry
- James Garner was pursued for Brad Wesley
- Scott Glenn turned down Jimmy Reno
- Kelly Lynch – 'Who's going to save them from you?'
- Ben Gazzara's Brad Wesley chewing scenery with reckless abandon
- Kevin Tighe as Tilghman
- Kathleen Wilhoite as the waitress Carrie Ann – later played Chloe on ER
Marshall Teague as Jimmy Reno – only four scenes but steals the movie
Jake Gyllenhaal remake. They wish Gyllenhaal had played young Jimmy Reno instead.
- Marshall Teague's mom shouted 'That's my boy!' at the premiere during the prison line
- The monster truck was Bigfoot #7, built for the film; the scene cost $500,000
- Swayze was a very good high school quarterback with a knee injury
- Movie bouncers/coolers – yes, absolutely
- Jeff Healey – yes
- Throat rip kills – yes, no question
- 1989 action movies – yes, apex year for the genre
- Dalton goes from soaking wet after the throat rip to perfectly laundered at the Double Deuce the next day
- No law enforcement shows up to any fight anywhere
- Can you really rip a guy's throat out?
- Is Dalton his first name or last name?
- Can you really rip a guy's throat out?
- Why didn't Roadhouse 2 with Swayze happen?
- Jimmy Reno's pool cue
- A game-worn Double Deuce T-shirt
- 'Pain don't hurt'
- 'Be nice. Until it's time to not be nice.'
- 'Nobody ever wins a fight'
Point Break – double Swayze
Swayze wins the movie
Craig called it 'the most male movie ever made' and said if he had to make a PowerPoint for why movies are worse now, he'd just show this movie