Welcome to Thunderdome

Jake Gyllenhaal to star and Conor McGregor will be in it.

Conor will probably be the tough that the main villain brings in to kill the hero. "I used to fuck guys like you in prison."

Dare I say this looks like it could be good?

I thought it looked dumb...

I don't think they were going for "intellectually stimulating".

Leisher wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 9:40 am I don't think they were going for "intellectually stimulating".

Fair

TheCatt wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 8:15 am I thought it looked dumb...

Feature, not bug. I sorta wanna see it.

I'll wait for video and it can be a workout movie.

Let's get this out of the way: The original is better in every conceivable way. The fighting, story, villain, setting, women, secondary characters, acting, etc. are so much better in the original.

In this version they change things up a bit. Dalton is a retired and disgraced UFC fighter who killed his opponent and "friend" in the ring after losing his shit. This backstory is lame and was terribly told. Snippets come in dreams, but mostly it's other people telling Dalton's story. The problem is that we never see anything in the flashbacks to warrant his actions nor do we see the friendship. In fact, what is shown is pretty toxic behavior making Dalton a bad person, which to be fair, he does express that feeling about himself. Anyway, rich guy acts evil because that's what rich guys do in movies and he needs Roadhouse (The name of the bar and it's a gag that is also played in the name of Dalton's temporary housing.) to go away so his luxury resort can be built.

Big problem right here. They show the map of the planned resort and all he had to do was make a deal with the lady who owns Roadhouse. Her place wasn't blocking any construction, it was simply on the land. All he had to do was offer to invest in her bar to make improvements, then work out a deal that benefits both parties. This isn't rocket science.

Anyway, the lady hires Dalton to clean up her place after watching him NOT fight. He still does the nice guy kicks your ass routine, which Gyllenhaal does a great job portraying.

For "woke" stuff, I'll give them credit, the cast is diverse without it being "a thing" and they didn't push a message. Although, I did not buy the black woman who owned Roadhouse as she was just bad in the role. Plus, they scaled that role way back from the original's owner.

The best parts of the movie and why you'll enjoy it:
-Gyllenhaal's performance as the nice guy badass.
-One villain is hilariously just a real guy (I think his name is Moe). You'll know who I'm talking about when you watch it. His role might genuinely be low key brilliant.
-Fucking Conor McGregor takes "chewing the scenery" to a whole new level. He cannot act and it's PERFECT. His character is so over the top stupid and he clearly had an absolute blast playing him. His joy in playing a bad guy is infectious. Also, I think he really wanted to show off his body. Cake's gonna love it.

This movie wastes those three performances with a poorly told story and a complete lack of character building. It's the thing that stands out to me these days with films. In the past, filmmakers could introduce us to characters easily and quickly. That seems to be a lost skill. I remember all the characters from the original because they all get moments to shine and show us who they are, but in this remake they come off as NPCs.

An absolutely shit remake, but still has some entertainment value.