Movies

Peter Suderman | 3.22.2024 10:53 AM

In the pantheon of so-bad-it's-actually-good movies, few can compete with the original Road House. Made in the prime of Patrick Swayze's star career, just after Dirty Dancing and just before Ghost and Point Break, it's one of the most charmingly ridiculous action films ever made. The plot is simple, almost mystical, more like a Sergio Leone Western than a typical 80s beat-'em-up: a famous bouncer Dalton (Swayze) is hired from out of town to clean up a rowdy saloon, and, in the process, the corruption of the small Missouri town where the bar is located. There are a lot of rowdy bar fights, some gratuitous nudity, and a late-film sequence where Sam Elliot shows up and he and Swayze drink, dance, fight, and talk shit for what appears to be about 72 hours straight without sleeping.

Also, there's a scene where Swayze kills a local thug by literally ripping his throat out. Somehow, it's all even more awesome than it sounds.

When Road House hit theaters in 1989, critics gave it a resounding thumbs down, calling it cheesy, exploitative, and a........

© Reason.com