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Anthony De Longis, Ben Gazzara, Jeff Healey, Kathleen Wilhoite, Keith David ...( see more  see more... ) , Kelly Lynch , Kevin Tighe , Marshall R. Teague , Patrick Swayze , Red West , Sam Elliott , Tom Finnegan

Dalton is the Cooler in bars; He backs up and directs the bouncers. He takes a job in a Road House that has gotten far too rough. His attempts to clean things up put him in conflict with Brad Wesley, ...( read more  read more... )the town bully and rich person.

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70% liked it

54,148 ratings

Critics

42% liked it

26 critics

R, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Rowdy Herrington

Release Date: May 19, 1989

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DVD Release Date: February 4, 2003

Stats: 3,026 reviews

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Road House Road House [1989] Patrick Swayze Patrick Swayze Road House (1989) Road House Road House Patrick Swayze's. Patrick Swayze Road House Patrick Swayze.& Kelly Lynch dalton in "road house" (1989) thanking Road House Patrick Swayze
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Flixster Reviews (3,026)

  • sononothing
    January 6, 2010
    sononothing
    Road House is one of those rare movies that are really, REALLY bad. But damn it, you can't help to watch it. It is so hokey, cliched, and bad that the mind can't fathom why you're watching this film. You know the plot- Patrick Swayze plays Dalton, the typical moral good guy with ...( read more)one name. He's a bouncer. He gets hired to bounce at some shithole town that is ran by the worst villain I've ever seen named Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara). I don't get it. Who in the hell is going to be afraid of a guy named Brad Wesley? So Dalton takes it upon himself to clean up the shithole town, meeting a doctor in the process. They get it on in his rented horse stable loft.

    Now an amazing thing about Road House is in its clientele. Before Dalton gets there it's filled with numerous women, dressed in the height of late 1980's fashion and hair taller than Kareem Abdul Jabar. There women look like they just walked out of a Whitesnake video. It's these women that are hanging out at this shithole bar in this shithole town, hanging out with a bunch of guys that look like rejects from a Deliverance sequel. BUT... when Dalton shows up, the male clientele gets better looking, dressing nicer, looking not as imbredish. That must be the power of Swayze.

    That's what is great about Road House. You can't take it seriously. It's like streaking or drinking a marshmallow shake- you're not really getting anything out of it. It's mere junk food, but it mesmerizes you. Maybe it's the mullets? Maybe it's that rare appearance by the legendary Terry Funk. Or maybe it's the hippie Sam Elliott. Whatever it is, it's good, clean, American fun.
  • PvtCaboose91
    August 4, 2009
    PvtCaboose91
    "Pain don't hurt."


    Road House is the very definition of a guilty pleasure - it's packed with rousing action, a ludicrous story, a great soundtrack, gratuitous nudity, huge bare breasts, monster trucks, sex in strange places, roundhouse kicks and a great lead p

    ...( read more)erformance from Patrick Swayze in his prime. There isn't much weight to Road House, nor does it have any lofty ambitions, but it's a very enjoyable, breezy romp, and a perfect late night "guy flick".


    Inimitable '80s leading man Patrick Swayze stars as a legendary über-bouncer (or "cooler") named Dalton who has a philosophy degree and a black belt to boot. Dalton is recruited by club owner Frank Tilghman (Tighe) to clean up a rowdy bar. He accepts the job offer, thinking he'll be able to just swoop in for some easy money. But when the town kingpin Brad Wesley (Gazzara) takes an interest in seeing Dalton fail, he faces an adversary far tougher than any bar souse. Dalton initially tries to avoid conflicts, always maintaining his business philosophy of "be nice", but when Wesley threatens those closest to him, the reluctant pugilist realises he'll have to take action (and perhaps even be mean) in order to preserve the peace.


    It isn't long before Road House degenerates into a nonstop string of fistfights. There's also a wispy subplot involving a flat romantic interest for Dalton (played by Kelly Lynch) who turns up with thick glasses and her hair in a bun. The plotline is incidental and silly, and it's virtually impossible to make good sense out of it, but this film knows how to entertain. Thus one should just sit back and enjoy the primal savagery of good vs. evil carnage. With emphasis on action, cheesy one-liners and histrionic characterisations, Road House is a celebration of '80s Hollywood excess and the art of visceral entertainment for entertainment's sake.


    Road House is such a manly movie that the film stock practically has whiskers growing out of it. The whole thing is so rowdy that the director is a man named...Rowdy! Happily, director Rowdy Herrington knows how to shoot a brutal fight scene. He eschews anything resembling subtlety in favour of larger-than-life action set-pieces and characters that are either ridiculously ethical or flat-out evil. A massive kudos is also due to the screenwriters (David Lee Henry and Hilary Henkin) as well as director Herrington for inserting not one but two huge explosions into a movie about bar fights.


    Patrick Swayze was just coming off the high of Dirty Dancing when he starred in this actioner. Swayze carries the film perfectly, emanating loads of charisma, machismo and intelligence. He truly had the chops to be a big '80s action star, and should've further exploited this potential. His character of Dalton is a masterfully-rendered protagonist, cut from the same cloth of anti-heroes like Clint Eastwood's laconic Man With No Name, but polished with the sheen of an erstwhile '80s superstar.
    Swayze is also surrounded by a terrific supporting cast. Ben Gazzara as Brad Wesley hits all the right notes - he's an incredibly nasty, over-the-top villain. It's easy to hate Gazzara's scumbag of a character. The always capable Sam Elliot is perfect as Dalton's best friend and mentor Wade Garrett. Elliot (one of the industry's best character actors) is given the opportunity to be a complete badass, and capitalises on this opportunity at every turn. Meanwhile there's Kelly Lynch who's given a thankless "guy flick" role - in no way is she supposed to be complex or nuanced...she just needs to look good naked, which she does. The rest of the cast all seem very comfortable with their respective roles.


    A tremendously enjoyable slice of romanticised fisticuffs, Road House is just a Western without the Stetsons and six guns. The film attempts little else than to provide its mostly male target audience with a thrill a minute. There is no pretence in Road House - it's just a bad film that you love to watch repeatedly in spite of your better judgement. What separates this balls-to-the-wall '80s actioner from more modern action duds (xXx, The Marine, The Fast and the Furious, and so on) is simply respect for the genre. A true action movie should be excessively violent if the subject warrants it...not neutered in order to attract a pre-teen audience for greater box office earnings. This is a prime example of how much fun an action film can be when filmmakers aren't trying to cater to the widest demographic possible. It's the type of action film best enjoyed with beer, pizza and friends.


    "I used to fuck guys like you in prison."
  • markymarkslunggnome
    February 9, 2009
    markymarkslunggnome
    Monster trucks, Sam Elliot, and voyeuristic, nude Swayze-yoga Oh my!
  • RiderOfTheStorms
    June 16, 2008
    RiderOfTheStorms
    I fuckin luv this movie!
  • TheMachinist
    June 11, 2008
    TheMachinist
    This one I watched only because of Jeff Healey (one of the greatest blues performers). Entertaining.
  • Yelverton
    January 24, 2010
    Yelverton
    Not even remotely good.
  • donaldwhite1
    December 31, 2009
    donaldwhite1
    This is your standard western story but set in modern times. A new sheriff comes to town to clean up the outlaws. Only this time it's a new bouncer come to clean up a rowdy bar. They set the story in a small town in Missouri but there is no small town that could support a bar ...( read more)that large. They've got more customers in the bar than people living in the town. A bar like that would be in a large city or be near a college or military base. The bar has a regular band playing. In the movie it's a real band and they play some good music. The sound track for this movie is probably pretty good. Most clubs in real life don't have a regular band. The owner hires whatever band he can find and he usually doesn't pay them very much. If the same band played every night the customers would get bored and go to a different bar. That's usually the fate of most bars. They get hot for a while till the new wears off then the customers go someplace else. The bars that survive go through cycles of being the place to be followed by stretches where the owner just barely keeps the electric bill payed. If the owner can make enough money in the good times to ride out the bad times the bar might last a few years before folding. The movie also had to have a bad guy. Like most westerns the bad guy runs the town with a gang of outlaws. In this movie they had a Chicago gangster type dude. No Chicago gangster type would be living in a small town. First there's not enough money to steal and second the locals wouldn't put up with it for very long. At the end of this movie the locals got tired of the guy and blow him away. In real life he would have been run off a lot sooner. The fight scenes are OK but some of them seen kind of fake. Lot's of clichés in the dialog. Lots of good looking naked women too. The women in real small towns aren't that good looking. I've only seen this movie on VHS and DVD. The DVD has two sides, one wide screen and one full screen. The wide screen is best. The movie was made when Patrick Swayze was a big star and this was made with him as the only star. Unfortunately he jumped the shark on this one. The two reasons to watch this movie is the music and the good looking women.
  • Eryri
    December 18, 2009
    Eryri
    Very much enjoyed this violent movie with Swayze as a bouncer named Dalton. Great fight scenes.
  • FanboyMatt
    December 18, 2009
    FanboyMatt
    My favourite of Patrick Swayzee's collection of roles.

    This movie mixes some great scenes of martial arts with the predicted story of a town against its owner. Sam Elliot makes a brilliantly welcomed appearance in this movie.
  • F0XyF0x
    December 16, 2009
    F0XyF0x
    This was just a pathetic excuse for a movie... I couldn't even finish it to the end, and I give most movies a fair chance to develop.

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Comments

  • Aritosgold
    November 10, 2007
    Aritosgold
    Great ass kickin movie^^
  • studdmufin04
    November 7, 2007
    studdmufin04
    Great ass kickin scenes and a great revenge type of movie since Swayze just takes on everyone.
  • jbpelican
    October 3, 2006
    jbpelican
    I personally couldnt give a crap about the acting quality from ol Patty or that other dork the girls seem to swoon for, its just a right laught to see him belt the expressions of his opponents faces. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, but oh what a pleasure, hot ladies, awsome fights and violence, a paper thin plot. I believe that the main character Dalton has died and been reincarnated into the much cooler Punisher. Swayze should be punched in the gonads for being such a tool, then given a medal for being such a legend.

    Justins Best Bit: Too many to count, watch this movie and get back to me with how many you find.
  • horneyb28
    September 20, 2006
    horneyb28
    Great movie and two gorgeous men in it and that is Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliot.. Yum, yum yum
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Road House Trivia

  • What movie did Sam Elliot and Patrick Swayze do about bouncers at a small town bar?  Answer »
  • Which 3 Movies was Patrick Swayze in?  Answer »
  • what movie did patrick swazye play dalton the guy who was a bartender for a place called the dubble duice  Answer »
  • he was hired to clean up a night club and it was done his way or the highway.  Answer »
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