Review of Road House (1989) by Robert C — 08 Jan 2011

Somewhere on some television network on someone's television, Patrick Swayze is kicking ass in Road House, the 1989 kick-fest that remains a trash classic to this day. It's boorish, stupid, borderline sexist, but also amazingly aware of just how much it matches those adjectives.

Director Rowdy Herrington (yes Rowdy) allows the camera to gawk at Swayze shirtless anytime it wants, which doesn't hurt. That's not to say Swayze is totally phoning it in. He knows his role is ridiculous, and allows for lots of much-needed humor to seep in.

Swayze plays Dalton, the top bouncer in what is apparently the business of bar bouncing. The owner of a rock club in Missouri, the Double Deuce, hires Dalton to clean up his bar. It's there that Dalton meets Doc (Kelly Lynch) possibly the only women in town who doesn't care to just strip her clothes off at a moment's notice.

Road House deals in a lot bad stereotypes and behavior, and, try as it might, its influence can still be questionable. The male chauvinists who really enjoy may not get the joke. But those of us who do know we're in the presence of classic movie trash.