Released in March of 2024, intense and action filled film “Road House” follows Elwood Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he tries to balance out his life after he left the UFC because he killed someone in the ring. Dalton is roaming around town when Frankie (Jessica Williams) asks him to help clean up a roadhouse.
(Spoilers ahead)
The movie opens up with Elwood Dalton going into a fight ring and the opponent he was going to go against backs out of the fight before a punch had even been thrown. It then becomes known that Dalton is popular in some type of way and people are scared of him. Because his opponent backed out of the fight, he then gets the money for “winning” the fight. I thought they executed this scene perfectly because right off the bat they made it clear that Dalton was some intimidating person and that people were scared of him.
Afterwards, he is approached by a girl named Frankie and she asks him for his help. She tells him that she owns a roadhouse and that she keeps getting threatened by a motorcycle group. Frankie says she can barely stay open and that she needs him to be a bouncer for the roadhouse.
On the side, there’s a wealthy man named Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen) that inherited his fathers criminal lifestyle and he has been trying to get Frankie to shut down the Roadhouse. It turns out that the motorcycle gang that has been threatening Frankie, were hired by Brandt.
Dalton comes into the roadhouse as the motorcycle guys are there again, and he beats them all up in a visually pleasing fight scene. He then proceeds to drive them all to the hospital so that they can get treated for all of their wounds. I loved this scene because it showed the type of person Dalton really is and that he really didn’t want to hurt them, but he wanted them to stay away from the roadhouse.
At the hospital he drove them to, he met a doctor there named Ellie (Daniela Melchior) and she is mad at him for what he did. She was mad at him because by beating up the motorcycle guys, he clogged up the hospital and they wouldn’t be able to help patients with more serious problems. At this point in the film, it was obvious that there was some type of flirting between them going on as well.
Soon later, the movie introduces Knox (Connor McGregor) and he is a psycho man that was hired to take down Dalton. Knox is Dalton’s main antagonist and he will be the biggest threat to Dalton. It is now Dalton’s job to do the best he can at keeping the roadhouse safe and making sure that it doesn’t get taken over.
I would recommend this movie to all who like action packed films and movies with non stop action. There is always something going on and you will never get bored. Throughout the film, you see how Dalton progresses as a person and how he is still recovering from his last incident in the UFC. The pacing of the movie was good and it wasn’t too long or too short. I came into the movie with not the highest of expectations but after the movie I was impressed with it.
3.5/5
