road yachts reviews

Road Yachts

Services Offered

Verified by Business

Party bus rentals

Review Highlights

“ Over the next few months I worked with Kathy, Dawn and Asa , the owner. ” in 4 reviews

“ Travis made every effort to work with us on some last minute changes to busses we needed. ” in 4 reviews

“ The infamous " drunk bus " providing free (be sure to tip!) rides to various bars (like Spanky's in Leesburg) and your home. ” in 2 reviews

Location & Hours

Suggest an edit

604 South King St

Leesburg, VA 20175

Serving Leesburg Area

Other Limos Nearby

Point to Point Limousines

0.9 miles away from Road Yachts

Patrick Y. said "Great communication. Fast, reliable and answered all my questions for my group size and budget. They were very flexible and accommodating as I had to change our itinerary multiple times due to the weather forecast that weekend. The…" read more

in Limos, Party Bus Rentals

Chariots For Hire

Rasheedah C. said "I used this company the morning of Friday April 19th and they were amazing. I was planning a surprise trip for girlfriends so the details were secret and very important. Booking/quote process: Awesome. They provided me guidance as…" read more

in Buses, Party Bus Rentals, Limos

DC Private Cars

Samantha R. said "My company had an event in D.C. and I decided to book with DC Private Cars after reading the positive reviews. We had a great experience. I booked over the phone with Kyle who was very helpful. Our schedule for the day changed many…" read more

in Tours, Limos, Town Car Service

Amenities and More

About the business.

Business owner information

Business Owner

Road Yachts can provide transportation for 2 or buses for 50. We offer everything from Wedding and Wine Tours to a shuttle to your favorite restaurant. You Dream it, We Drive it! …

Ask the Community

Ask a question

Yelp users haven’t asked any questions yet about Road Yachts .

Recommended Reviews

• 1 star rating Not good
• 2 star rating Could’ve been better
• 3 star rating OK
• 4 star rating Good
• 5 star rating Great

Select your rating

Overall rating

What a fantastic transportation company. We used them for transport to our rehearsal dinner, our wedding, and then again for a wine tour the day after. The drivers were on time, courteous, and the busses were clean. Travis worked with my for several changes both in the booking, and at the last minute. I met Asa the evening before our wedding when he came up to me and a group of friends at the bar to remind us that there were free sober rides home all we had to do was call. A company that goes out of its way to provide such a safe and conscientious service deserves my business and yours.

Wow! My friends and I were waiting for another Wedding bus service to pick us form a hotel and they didn't show, the driver of Road Yachts offered to take our whole crew to the wedding so we wouldn't miss it! It was so kind! Seemed like a great guy with excellent customer service. Will definitely be booking through Road Yachts next time we need a bus/limo service in the area! Thank you!

I highly recommend this company to anyone that is looking for great transportation and affordable pricing for a wedding. I signed a contract in October 2016 for transportation for my daughter's wedding in October 2017. The person I dealt with was very hard to get a hold of and after numerous phone calls and emails we finally signed a contract. In May 2017 I called the company to verify everything, and I was told that Amy no longer work there! I was assured by Kathy that everything still be honored. Over the next few months I worked with Kathy, Dawn and Asa, the owner. The final contract came out a few days prior to the wedding, and let me tell you everything was perfect. I can't thank you for the professional matter in which you handled everything.

The infamous "drunk bus" providing free (be sure to tip!) rides to various bars (like Spanky's in Leesburg) and your home. Truly a wonderful service. In all seriousness, they do have a wide selection of vehicles and some of the best drivers around. We've hired them several times and everyone has been very knowledgeable about the areas, friendly, and have honestly helped improve our experience, rather than just sitting there and driving us from one place to another. Rates are EXTREMELY competitive. If you're looking for a service to get a group (or groups) around the area, I'd recommend them!

Travis is so great to work with. I had a contract with them for my wedding and couldn't have asked for better customer service and pricing! Travis was responsive and accommodating when I had to majorly downsize my bus needs after figuring out that a lot of my guests were using other modes of transport. I highly recommend using them for any event!

Best experience EVER! Travis was the most chivalrous navigation buddy. We had such an amazing time. None of which would have been made possible w/o the help of Road Yahts!!!! They made my bridal shower unforgettable! Such fluid transition from one place to another. Not to mention, the patience granted to us (some gals take longer to change clothes than others ) was extremely well received! If you need to get around safely and plan on the most fun day EVER, I'd suggest giving these guys a call.

I was thrilled last year when I needed transportation for about 8 people to and from a concert. Asa at Road Yachts helped us out. Great Service, good price. What more could you ask for? Oh by the way, he also provides the free shuttle from many of the Leesburg bars. I didn't know that, but learned it that night. It's always nice when your son boards and says, "Asa! Hey Buddy" and then turns to you and says, "You hired the drunk bus!". By the way - they do have limos, but we booked quite last minute and the only thing he had to accomodate our group was a passenger van. We were going to a concert not a fancy event, so it was perfect.

I booked with this company for my wedding through the hotel I had a block on for my wedding guests. The manager at the time, Amy, was a TERRIBLE communicator. I called everyday for 3 weeks before I got any sort of answer, when I finally did get an answer my wedding was 2 weeks away. We booked a bus for 65 people and verbally a limo for my husband and I. The limo never showed and the bus driver charged us for leaving 15 minutes late. They also charged a clean up fee for a few streamers my bridesmaids put on the bus. Not to mention the driver was SO rude. Btw the 65 passenger bus was a SCHOOL BUS. I repeat, a school bus. That is definitely something the company should have told us. I do not recommend this company. This was the only vendor I was unpleased with.

Business Manager

Feb 22, 2019

Hi Kelsey, Amy is long gone and we have made many changes to the way we do business. I apologize for the experience you had with Amy and the driver. We do have several school bus style buses. We offer them to people who can not afford standard pricey transportation options. Everyone regardless of financial status deserves to have transportation to and from there wedding if they want it, and this is a way we accommodate that. We have many other non-school bus style buses in our fleet. Thank you for the feedback. We appreciate it. Thanks, Travis

One star based on the entire interaction I had with Road Yachts, not by the experience of their driving/day-of service as we never reached that point in our business relationship. We were recommended Road Yacts by our wedding coordinator and reached out to them in March via email and the request for info form on their website and...never heard from them. In June, we reached out again through the same means and after two weeks of getting no responses, called. The woman we spoke to informed us to email a specific woman within the business and ask for prices from her. We did just that and once more did not hear from them. After a week, my bridesmaid and myself both called Road Yachts at different times. My bridesmaid ended up speaking to a brutish man who informed her that he "had five weddings today alone and shouldn't be answering the phones." She explained that we were having trouble getting information and he told us to email them, she pointed out that's the problem as no one is answering emails, and he said to keep trying. I, on the other hand, finally got through to a woman who said they were working through the list of requests for October and would get to me shortly (my request was for November 5). She said I'd hear from them in a week. Skip forward a month and a half later in the last weeks of August, we had given up entirely with Road Yachts and went with a different bus company. So imagine our surprise when we received an email from Road Yachts with a price range for the request we sent in June. We informed our wedding coordinator that her suggestion was off the mark and she admitted that she herself had awful communication with Road Yachts in recent months after a management turn over and she was no longer recommending them.

We used Road Yachts for transportation to and from our wedding. The pricing for them is great if you're having an event in the Leesburg area since they are local and you can pay for two one-way trips to and from your event. Our main point of contact was easy to communicate with and also helped us reduce costs since we had a lower rider count than we initially thought. For the day of the event, the drivers showed up on time and our guests that used their buses were happy with the experience. The only criticism we have is that we needed buses to pick up from two different locations and Road Yachts was not clear in how they would handle this situation until all of the details of the pickup count from each location was finalized. This resulted in a back and forth of contract review up to the day of the event and one of the pickup locations being incorrect. Fortunately, this was not a massive issue as we just had the bus move to the correct location across the same parking lot. Despite this, we would still be fine with hiring Road Yachts again in the future.

2 other reviews that are not currently recommended

You Might Also Consider

Change of Altitude

We specialize in planning group trips and personalized itineraries to global destinations. Let us save you the time it takes to plan a trip so you can relax and enjoy your travels with the peace of mind that everything was taken… read more

in Travel Services

Dulles Limousine

Auto M. said "Great experience using this company had an event for my daughter they arrived 20mins before their scheduled time which was a plus. The driver was professional and courteous. The limos were clean and the setup inside was nice. The…" read more

in Wine Tours, Bus Rental, Limos

Collections Including Road Yachts

Professional & Medical Services

By Vicky C.

Local culture

Personal Services

People Also Viewed

Majestic Limousine Service

Luxury Lemos

ING Chauffeured Transportation

Rendez-Vous Limousine

On The Town Limousines

DC Limo and Car Service

Hawa Transportation

Occasions Limousine

Dulles Coach Services

Frederick Airport Connection

Best of Leesburg

Things to do in Leesburg

Other Places Nearby

Find more Limos near Road Yachts

Find more Party Bus Rentals near Road Yachts

Find more Wine Tours near Road Yachts

People found Road Yachts by searching for…

Bridal Shower Leesburg

Limo Rental Leesburg

Limo Wine Tours Leesburg

Party Bus Leesburg

Best Driver Service in Leesburg

Best Limo Service in Leesburg

Best Wedding Transportation in Leesburg

Shuttle Services in Leesburg

Wine Tour in Leesburg

Brewery Tour in Leesburg

School Bus in Leesburg

Wineries With Food in Leesburg

Browse Nearby

Things to Do

Breakfast & Brunch

Limos Cost Guide

Car Services Near Me

Party Bus Rentals Near Me

Wine Tours Near Me

Related Cost Guides

Town Car Service

Party Bike Rentals

Party Bus Rentals

Personal Chefs

Photo Booth Rentals

Valet Services

• 7 More Cost Guides

Interested in this vendor?

Road Yachts is the perfect company to take care of all your wedding transportation needs. We can do everything from a Wine and Brewery Tour with your Friends, to Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding Day Transportation, You Dream it, We Drive it! You will not find any minimum service hours fees with Road Yachts. Why pay for a bus to sit at your wedding venue that you are not using?

Follow Road Yachts on

Vendors you may like

See other vendors that are popular with couples right now

Award winner

Frequently asked questions

What types of vehicles are in your fleet, schedule permitting, which of the following driving services do you provide, typically, what is the minimum rental time required to book your services during peak season, which of the following amenities are your vehicles equipped with.

Any other questions?

• Quality of service 4.7 out of 5 rating 4.7
• Average response time 4.5 out of 5 rating 4.5
• Professionalism 4.6 out of 5 rating 4.6
• Value 4.7 out of 5 rating 4.7
• Flexibility 4.7 out of 5 rating 4.7

Reliable wedding transportation

Road Yachts was excellent on our wedding day!

Great transportation for wedding! 10/7/23

Are you interested?

Explore other vendors in your area

Find your ideal vendor among popular ones and Couples' Choice Award winners.

Real Weddings

Do you want more pricing details, professional network & endorsements.

Road Yachts has shuttled wedding guests to and from the area hotels for a number of occasions here. They are very accommodating, even shuttling guests to many various hotels in one shuttle ride. Always on time and easy to work with. I recommend them to all of my couples for their event.

Other vendors in Washington DC for your wedding

Wedding vendors.

• Wedding Photographers
• Wedding DJs
• Wedding Hair & Makeup
• Wedding Planners
• Wedding Caterers
• Wedding Florists
• Wedding Videographers
• Wedding Officiants
• Wedding Rentals
• Photo Booths
• Wedding Bands
• Wedding Dresses
• Wedding Cakes
• Wedding Musicians
• Wedding Decor & Lighting
• Wedding Invitations
• Travel Agents
• Wedding Jewelers
• Wedding Favors

Road Yachts

Road Yachts

604 South King St, Suite 202, Leesburg, VA

About This Vendor

Pricing for Road Yachts

Road yachts reviews, review photos.

• Top reviews
• Newest first
• Oldest first
• Highest rated
• Lowest rated

Contact Info for Road Yachts

• 301 or more

Wedding Vendors in Leesburg

• Wedding Vendors /
• Transportation /
• Virginia Transportation /
• Leesburg Transportation /

Don’t leave so soon. You can test our service for

• Find companies
• Bars & Pubs

Reviews of Road Yachts in Leesburg

Overall Rating

Contact info.

604 South King Street, Suite 202 20175 Leesburg Virginia

(703) 737-3011

Opening hours

Social media, write a review, is this your business.

By claiming this business, you can update and control the information on your profile.

Contact form

Best similar companies nearby, top categories in leesburg.

• Bars & Pubs
• Restaurants
• American Restaurants
• Bar & Grill

Why choose Yably?

Customer feedback matters - use it to boost your business.

Customer reviews are one of the most important things for your business. Reviews not only have the power to influence consumer decisions but can strengthen a company’s credibility, gain customer trust, and encourage people to interact with your business.

Stand out - Get a Star Rating in Google Search Results

Google 5 Star Ratings in organic search boots traffic to your website and sets you apart from the crowd by inspiring more confidence among potential new customers.

Reputation & Review Monitoring Across Multiple Platforms

Track your ratings and reviews across different review platforms. Starting today, keep track of all your reviews and respond to them directly.

Try it now for free!

Register now and start managing your online reviews across multiple platforms.

• Best Shows on Netflix
• Best Movies on Netflix
• F1 Live Stream
• Stranger Things Season 5
• Best New Movies
• Most Popular Movies on Netflix
• Best Shows on Disney+
• UFC Live Stream
• Best Movies on Disney+
• Entertainment

Road House review: an unhinged, stupid, and fun remake of an ’80s action classic

“Jake Gyllenhaal shines in a Road House'remake that is a sloppy but fun time.”

• Jake Gyllenhaal's well-pitched lead performance
• A satisfying edge of dark humor throughout
• A few memorable fights
• Several superfluous supporting characters
• A level of technical sloppiness that is, at times, jarring
• Conor McGregor's distracting villain turn

On the list of things that nobody asked for, a remake of the 1989 Patrick Swayze action movie Road House must rank high. An absurd film about a deadly bouncer hired to oversee a dilapidated roadside bar in Missouri, it’s known by many not for its narrative brilliance or technical artistry but for the startlingly bloody moment when Swayze literally rips the throat out of one of his onscreen foe with his bare hands. A movie that has no right taking itself as seriously as it does, Road House feels like a direct product of the action-film-obsessed decade that was the ’80s and, therefore, is not something that could be convincingly revamped now.

That is, nonetheless, exactly what has happened, thanks to Amazon MGM Studios, Edge of Tomorrow  director Doug Liman, and Jake Gyllenhaal. The latter two have delivered a reimagining of Road House that relies on many of the same elements as its 1989 predecessor, even while updating its story and characters for the modern day. The resulting film is a frequently sturdy, bare-knuckled action romp that is longer and messier than it has any right to be. None of that makes it a bad time. On the contrary, the movie is just as unhinged and downright stupid as a Road House remake should be.

The new Road House follows Dalton (Gyllenhaal), a former UFC fighter with a notorious reputation in the world’s fighting circles, who makes his debut in the film by winning a money-backed bar brawl simply by showing up. The leisurely way in which Gyllenhaal’s lean, nomadic fighter walks into said bar’s makeshift fighting pit, takes off his hoodie, and starts unlacing his shoes before his would-be opponent, Carter (a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Post Malone), inevitably backs out of the fight effectively and humorously establishes the film’s wry, smirking approach to its source material. For all of its mistakes, Road House thankfully doesn’t take itself, its story, or its characters too seriously.

• 3 action movies on Prime Video you need to watch in March
• 3 action movies on Amazon Prime Video you need to watch in February
• 3 action movies on Prime Video you need to watch in October

Shortly after conning his way into another easy lump of cash, Dalton is approached by Frankie (an underused Jessica Williams), the owner of a roadside bar in the Florida Keys that has recently become the spot of endless, unsustainably damaging fights. Frankie offers Dalton a well-paying gig as the bar’s bouncer, which he reluctantly accepts only after realizing that he’s still more committed to his life than he’d like to believe. Once he arrives at Frankie’s bar, Dalton quickly finds himself at the center of an undisclosed rivalry between Frankie and Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen), the son of a local real estate developer and drug kingpin who wants to use her establishment’s prime beachside location for his own purposes.

Plenty of fights between Dalton and Brandt’s men follow, though not as many as some viewers may expect. The film, which boasts a 121-minute runtime, is about 30 minutes longer than it should have been. Despite that, Road House ‘s second act repeatedly drags on without enough action to justify its bloated length. That’s partly because the film spends a lot of time on Dalton’s unlikely relationship with Ellie ( The Suicide Squad breakout star Daniela Melchior), a prickly nurse who also happens to be the daughter of a local, corrupt cop (Joaquim de Almeida). The storyline feels like a leftover thread from a previous draft of Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry’s script — one that adds little to Road House and falls flat thanks to Melchior and Gyllenhaal’s non-existent chemistry.

Dalton and Ellie’s romance isn’t the only subplot in Road House that tries its audience’s patience. A clichéd friendship between Gyllenhaal’s violent drifter and Charlie (Hannah Lanier) and Stephen (Kevin Carroll), a father and daughter that run a bookstore not far from Frankie’s bar, is so thinly sketched that its purpose is bafflingly unclear right up until the moment when — to the credit of Bagarozzi, Mondry, and Liman — it’s not. Most of Dalton’s scenes with Charlie and Stephen still land with little impact, and that’s due in no small part to the atrocious levels of ADR that were audibly done to patch up several of their conversations.

There’s a general messiness to Road House that is frustrating to grapple with. Williams’ Frankie serves an important role in the film’s plot, yet she’s frequently absent from it because it’s too busy exploring Dalton’s local adventures, most of which only feel tangentially related to his job at her bar. Her absence hurts the film and leaves Williams with little to do. Magnussen, conversely, stands out as a worthy foil to Frankie and Dalton. The actor brings a rich-kid arrogance to his performance that works particular wonders during a bar counter conversation in which he pokes Gyllenhaal’s Dalton for no reason other than to satiate his curiosity.

It’s ultimately Gyllenhaal who anchors Road House , though. The actor is utterly commanding as Dalton, a nice-guy brawler prone to apologizing to his victims even as he’s breaking their bones. He gives a performance here that feels like an endearingly odd cross between his hauntingly vacant turn as Lou Bloom in 2014’s Nightcrawler and his raw, guilt-ridden work as Billy Hope in 2015’s Southpaw . He manages to be a fascinating counter to whoever he appears opposite in Road House , whether he’s sharing the screen with supporting performers like J. D. Pardo, Arturo Castro, or Beau Knapp, all of whom give memorably slimy performances as three of Brandt’s goons, or Conor McGregor, who makes his film acting debut with an atrociously one-note, oversized turn as a maniacal henchman hired by Magnussen’s character’s offscreen father to help his son.

Gyllenhaal’s confident, often darkly funny lead performance stops Road House from ever devolving into pure slop, as does Liman’s reliably muscular, suitably heightened direction. The director doesn’t get enough chances to stretch his action filmmaking muscles onscreen, but when he does, he produces fist fights, boat chases, and explosive confrontations that ride the line between cartoonish and hard-hitting. The same is mostly true of Road House itself, which doesn’t feel nearly as polished as it should but still emerges as an entertaining bit of IP reimagining. It’s far from a knockout punch, but it’s the kind of perfectly fine action movie you’d once spend part of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon watching on cable without any regrets or guilt. In that sense, it may have even more in common with the original Road House than its filmmakers realize.

Road House premieres Thursday, March 21 on Amazon Prime Video .

Editors' Recommendations

• Like the Road House remake? Then watch these 3 action movies right now
• Check out this underrated 1997 action movie before it leaves Amazon Prime Video next week
• 3 action movies on Prime Video you need to watch in December
• My Best Friend’s Exorcism review: Fighting mean girls (and meaner demons)
• Night Sky review: A sci-fi mystery that looks down, not up
• Amazon Prime Video
• Product Reviews
• Streaming Services

In 2018, Prime Video released A Very English Scandal in the U.S. The three-episode limited series was written by Russell T Davies and directed by Stephen Frears, and it covered one of the most notorious British news scandals of the past 100 years. However, despite the scandalous nature of the show's story, Frears and Davies worked together to uncover the intimate drama at the center of the series' famous conflict. In the end, A Very English Scandal managed to do just that.

Now, four years later, A Very British Scandal, a new limited series now streaming on Prime, similarly seeks to tell the true story behind a notorious British news scandal, and notably, stars two well-known British performers as its leads. The resulting show is one that isn’t quite as balanced or consistently enthralling as A Very English Scandal but is still powerful and compelling in its own right. Made to fall apart

"It's like Twilight Zone crossed with Yellowstone ... or David Lynch meets John Ford."

It's easy to rattle off familiar reference points like these when asked about Outer Range, Amazon Studios' trippy, sci-fi/Western series about a cattle rancher who discovers an otherworldly hole in a remote corner of his land. But like many projects that make secrecy a selling point, Outer Range doesn't fit cleanly into any comparisons its premise and tone initially bring to mind. It's a messy story well told, and is primed to polarize audiences with its time-twisting narrative as it tells a powerful story about trauma, faith, and family.

It's a near-universally held truth that Christopher Walken makes everything better. Whether it's a music video, a sketch comedy bit, or a feature-length film, everything is a little bit cooler when the Oscar-winning actor is involved. The Amazon series The Outlaws proves that's as true for British crime comedies as it is for every other genre.

Co-created and directed by Emmy winner Stephen Merchant (The Office, Extras), The Outlaws follows seven strangers forced to perform community service together in Bristol, England. When they discover a bag of money in the building they're cleaning, it sets off a series of events that tests whether they can overcome their differences long enough to survive.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Why Does the “Road House” Remake Pull Its Punches?

By Justin Chang

Imagine that you’re a bouncer in a scuzzy small-town bar where some of the world’s nastiest drunks go at one another with fists, knives, and broken beer bottles—and that’s on a good night. Forced to risk life and limb intervening in non-stop flareups of physical violence, what do you do? A better question: What would Patrick Swayze do? The movie is “Road House,” a critically mauled, cult-reclaimed smash-’em-up from 1989, and Swayze, as Dalton, the bar’s newly hired cooler, offers a handy crash course in the art of de-escalation. “One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected,” he says. “Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it’s absolutely necessary. And, three, be nice.”

Sound advice, and, until the time comes for him to rip out an assailant’s throat, Dalton heeds it scrupulously. He minds his manners, underestimates (almost) no one, and takes to the outdoors like a Zen monk, his oil-slicked torso catching the sunlight just so during Tai Chi practice. But not every Swayze character is oily in such a desirable way. In the eerie Reaganite suburbia of “Donnie Darko” (2001), an even darker vision of the nineteen-eighties, we find Swayze as Jim Cunningham, a smooth motivational speaker with a bad case of soul rot. In lieu of self-defense tips, he offers useless self-help platitudes: “Son, violence is a product of fear. Learn to truly love yourself.” No wonder it’s so satisfying when the troubled young Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) steps up to the mike and lets this charlatan have it: “I think you’re the fucking Antichrist.”

The confrontation is over almost before it begins, but watching it again recently I couldn’t help imagining what would have happened if the two had come to blows. In a bout between Donnie Darko and Dirty Dancer, who would win? Swayze had already moved on from the action-movie glories of “Road House” and “Point Break” (1991), but could he have prevailed based on his golden-god physicality alone? Or would the young Gyllenhaal have revealed, beneath the baby fat and the gawky smile, some of the vengeful fighting spirit he would later display in the frenzied boxing drama “Southpaw” (2015)?

The energetic but dim remake of “Road House,” directed by Doug Liman, is hardly the picture to settle the question, much less inspire any new ones. The movie passes from memory as quickly as it passes on the screen. But there’s a poignancy to the sight of Gyllenhaal, now forty-three and shredded to the max, paying tribute to his late former screen partner. Gyllenhaal’s Dalton isn’t a bouncer by trade. He had been an Ultimate Fighting Championship star until he snapped and pummelled an opponent to a pulp—a career-ending trauma that still haunts his dreams. Now he lives out of his car and is trying to earn money by signing up for freelance fights. But even the toughest opponents (including one played by Austin Post, a.k.a. the rapper Post Malone) tend to forfeit in fear.

It’s at one of these aborted fights that Dalton catches the attention of Frankie (Jessica Williams), who offers him a job cooling the riffraff at her roadhouse down in the Florida Keys. After briefly weighing his options, including suicide, Dalton accepts. But why? Does he want to visit Ernest Hemingway’s house or check out the bridge that got blown up in “True Lies” (1994)? Maybe he realizes that he still has some fight in him; then again, maybe he thinks his death wish might yet be granted. In any case, Gyllenhaal is a skilled enough actor to keep you guessing. His earnest Eagle Scout grin has always possessed an animating touch of madness; you’ll even find traces of it in his good-guy roles, in “Zodiac” (2007) and “Prisoners” (2013), where his characters’ dogged pursuit of justice tilts a bit too easily into obsession. A little of this ferocity goes a long way: witness his most flamboyantly creepy turn, in the unhinged media satire “Nightcrawler” (2014). Here, his undercurrent of menace works nicely; it’s just the thing to throw an otherwise formulaic affair pleasurably off balance. In that respect, “Road House” is very much in his wheelhouse.

The first “Road House” was directed by Rowdy Herrington, presumably because Stompy McFisticuffs was unavailable. Released theatrically in May, 1989, the movie got a bit lost during a summer that brought us “Batman,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Lethal Weapon 2,” “Ghostbusters II,” “The Abyss,” and “Licence to Kill.” Fire “Road House” up again thirty-five years later, though, and an exploding jukebox of trashy delights awaits, along with a jolting reminder of what Hollywood action movies used to look like. The flesh comes in two forms, seductively photographed and viciously pulverized. The idiot plot is delivered with an impressively straight face: night after night, brawl after brawl, the bar becomes ground zero in a battle for a small town’s soul. On one side are a scheming tycoon and his team of regulation plug-uglies. On the other side are Dalton, his bouncers, a sexy doctor, a few salt-of-the-earth grunts, and a drawling Sam Elliott, who proves Dalton’s equal—and maybe even his superior—in pinup-worthy pulchritude.

The remake’s writers, Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, stick to the first film’s narrative blueprint, as if to signal a return to B-movie basics. The hope is that you’ll chuckle more in recognition than in derision when a doctor (Daniela Melchior) provides Dalton with more than strictly medical attention, or when the movie’s highly swattable rich-boy villain (Billy Magnussen) swans around on a yacht. A far more formidable figure is the hit man Knox, an aptly named fortress of a fellow who, as played by the professional fighter Conor McGregor, crashes through the proceedings like an Irish-accented wrecking ball. McGregor’s flamboyant line readings may be as painful to endure as his punches, but he has wild-eyed energy to burn, and he gets a hell of an entrance, striding through an open marketplace with nary a stitch of clothing or a hint of shame. It’s a good sight gag, even as it reveals a certain timidity in the movie: it’s telling that the one instance of nudity is played not for titillation but for laughs.

Everyone else stays mostly covered, frequent shots of Gyllenhaal’s slashed and battered torso notwithstanding. “Road House” itself often feels hemmed in, awkwardly suspended between modern-day genre outing and unironic eighties-movie homage. The writers have understandably discarded some of the original’s less palatable lines (“I used to fuck guys like you in prison!”), and they’ve added a little snap to the material, mainly courtesy of a hungry crocodile. Less successfully, they’ve coated dialogue in a hip sheen of self-awareness: hence the friendly bookstore worker (Hannah Lanier) who likens Dalton, rather wishfully, to a character in a Western. Which Western, exactly? “The Man Who Plowed His 4x4 Into Liberty Valance”?

In an unsurprising concession to our era of instant gratification, Gyllenhaal’s Dalton begins hurting people a lot sooner than his predecessor did. He does still endeavor to be nice, though, and it’s amusing when he brings a group of troublemakers outside, teaches them all a well-earned lesson, and then drives them to the hospital. They’re lucky, at least for now. Yet to come are wounds that no doctor can treat, some of them inflicted by boats and others by bombs. (Both “Road House” movies bear the stamp of the veteran producer Joel Silver, for whom fiery explosions are a gratifying must.) You can see why the violence, toggling between intimate, close-quarters stabbery and Looney Tunes-level absurdism, must have appealed to Liman, who’s proved a smart, versatile action director, in films as different as “The Bourne Identity” (2002) and “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014). He wisely shoots the bar brawls in mostly long, uninterrupted takes, moving the camera in synch with the actors and cutting more for clarity than sensation. But such continuity of movement has a way of spoiling its own illusion, exposing digital seams and artificial thwacks that have clearly been applied in post-production.

It may be that the uncanny-valley flaws are more glaringly apparent on the big screen. If so, most viewers will never see them, owing to some behind-the-scenes butting of heads that’s nearly as outlandish as the melees onscreen. It’s a measure of the new Hollywood economy that, despite having premièred earlier this month to a raucous and appreciative audience at the SXSW film festival, “Road House” is bypassing theatres entirely and beaming directly into your Amazon Prime Video queue. Liman has protested the decision, and it’s hard not to empathize. “Road House” is far from a great movie, but what pleasures it generates, novel or nostalgic, muscular or meagre, are surely best experienced—and possibly even magnified—in the company of a crowd. ♦

New Yorker Favorites

The repressive, authoritarian soul of “ Thomas the Tank Engine .” 

Why the last snow on Earth may be red .

Harper Lee’s abandoned true-crime novel .

How the super-rich are preparing for doomsday .

What if a pill could give you all the benefits of a workout ?

A photographer’s college classmates, back then and now .

Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker .

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Richard Brody

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.

Road House review: Is the remake worth a watch?

Jake Gyllenhaal is taking over from Patrick Swayze.

It's the kind of film where the hero performs brutal martial arts without breaking a sweat and a thug is eaten by a crocodile. It's often delightfully unhinged, but ultimately flawed.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Elwood Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter living off his dangerous-guy reputation and earning some easy cash in clandestine fights. He is also dealing with some unaddressed trauma after his last professional fight ended in tragedy.

Out of the blue, businesswoman Frankie (Jessica Williams) offers him a job as a bouncer in her beachside road house in the Florida Keys, which is being trashed every night by problematic customers and local gangs.

As Charlie (played by Hannah Love Lanier) cleverly puts it at the start of the movie, that premise "kind of sounds like a plot to a Western", one in which a local town asks a rogue hero to defend them against troublemakers.

That's hardly an original idea by now — it can be tracked through Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai to A Bug's Life to The Equalizer to Reacher as it channels the satisfying joy of seeing a kind-but-brutal antihero kicking the shit out of the bad guys.

Much like the original movie, the new Road House also plays into the David vs Goliath narrative, a battle between a good-hearted community and greedy businesspeople. And on top of that there is a saviour to protect them all from gentrification.

It seems pretty straightforward, and yet the writers manage to turn it into a convoluted and confusing story that often misses its mark.

There are so many topics being thrown around (Trauma! Drug trafficking! Class division! Corrupt police! Black resilience in South Florida! Anger issues!), which explains why, in an unnecessarily long two-hour runtime, the movie fails to build any meaningful layers for its main characters.

It does have time to feature an impressive line-up of bands and musicians, including CC Adcock, Tommy McLain and Anjelika 'Jelly' Joseph.

Given the many differences between the original and remake, this could have been its own movie, but Hollywood loves to vampirise an IP.

There is no point in idealising the '80s version, which from today's perspective is mostly laughable, but there are some striking differences that made it more interesting.

Gyllenhaal is no Swayze. The actor deliberately distances himself from his predecessor by exchanging Swayze's seriousness for a chill-out, jokey approach to confrontation. This works at the start, but when the character refuses to evolve, the trick loses its effectiveness pretty quickly.

Swayze's Dalton had an emotional hook to ground him (mainly in the character of Garrett, an old friend played by Sam Elliott, who has disappeared from the remake) and a heartbreaking point of no return in Garrett's death. This core seems to have been replaced by the owners of the local bookshop, but it's a weak swap.

This Dalton is a town saviour more than a human being. His trauma doesn't feel properly explored for the emotional arc of the character to feel satisfying, which makes the climax of the movie tonally flat. It's more exciting to root for the crocodile.

Not even the central romance can redeem these poor narrative choices, since Gyllenhaal's chemistry with Daniela Melchior, who plays nurse Ellie, is non-existent.

It doesn't help that the villains, mainly Connor McGregor's debut movie role as Knox, are uninteresting, unfunny and obnoxious. It was a good choice to make them cartoonishly stupid rather than deadpan serious, but not even that works.

Arturo Castro's low-key hilarious gentle thug is the only highlight among the baddies.

There is a revealing joke in the film — the roadhouse is called the Road House, Frankie's boat is called The Boat. Just like its main locations, Road House is as simple as it gets.

Road House is now available to watch on Prime Video.

March 2024 gift ideas and deals

Amazon Spring Sale best deals

PS5 Slim Disc Console

Sign up for Disney+

Apple TV+ 7-day free trial

Buy Cat Deeley's This Morning outfits

PlayStation Portal

Xbox Series X

Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile

Batman: The Animated Series Gotham City

New Star Wars Millennium Falcon set

Helldivers 2 - PS5 and PC

PS Plus Discount With Gift Cards

Deputy Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over seven years, mostly for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas . 

Her work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema in the UK. 

She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service .    During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world, and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London.     Now based in the UK, Mireia joined Digital Spy in June 2023 as Deputy Movies Editor. 

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} Movie Reviews

Is Sydney Sweeney's new horror movie worth seeing?

Late Night with the Devil is a must-see horror

Irish Wish review

The Beekeeper is exactly the movie you want

Netflix's Damsel review

Sydney Sweeney's best movie is this underseen gem

Is Adam Sandler's new Netflix movie worth seeing?

Wicked Little Letters review

Dune 2 review

Kingsley Ben-Adir's best movie is on Prime Video

The Zone of Interest review

Home » Streaming Service » Amazon Prime Video

Road House Review – Convoluted, yet charmingly violent and a lot of fun

The Doug Liman-directed Road House  (2024)  is a reimagining of the 1989 Patrick Swayze-led cult classic of the same name. Prime Video released this remake of a fan-favorite action flick direct to streaming, much to the director’s dismay. It’s hard to take sides in this debate as I’ve watched far worse titles in theatres ( Argylle is one recent example that comes to mind). At the very least, this movie is coherent enough and fun to watch. Unlike the original, the action takes place in the Sunshine State, where a desperate bar owner asks an ex-UFC champion with a dark past to fend off a gang of goons. 

Road House (2024) Review: Fun Escapism

When we first meet Elwood Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal), a former UFC middleweight fighter, he lives in his car and just about gets by fighting in illegal rings. Due to his reputation, he rarely needs to engage in fights, as his opponents tend to concede as soon as they lay eyes on him.

One night, Frankie ( Jessica Williams ), the owner of a Florida Keys roadhouse (aptly named The Road House), approaches Dalton with an offer of employment. Despite its idyllic seafront location, great cocktails, and nightly live music, The Road House is tormented by a gang of thugs led by Dell (J. D. Pardo). Frankie needs a bouncer to keep the violent thugs out and help her keep her family’s business running. 

Upon arrival to the Keys, Dalton is immediately taken with the scenic town, its people, the Road House, and his new colleagues, Billy ( Lukas Gage ) and Laura ( B.K. Cannon ). He moves into an old boat (also aptly named The Boat) owned by Frankie and gets to work cleaning up the place. On his first night, Dalton beats the light out of Dell and his thugs only to then drive them to the ER. At the hospital, he meets Ellie ( Daniela Melchio r), the love interest. All seems to be going well for Dalton as he’s settling into his new life. 

However, there’s more to this small Florida Keys town than meets the eye, and he’ll soon face a bigger threat to the Road House than Dell and his merry band of bullies. Specifically, Dalton is up against the likes of a junior crime boss, Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen), the town’s corrupt sheriff (Joaquim de Almeida), and the criminally insane super-thug, Knoxx (Conor McGregor). 

On the surface, this movie boasts a simple yet effective premise. We have a quirky broody hero with a dark past taking it upon himself to protect a dying bar from the bad guys. Yet, the narrative gets unnecessarily convoluted throughout the runtime. Characters, twists, and plot points are introduced, rarely developed, and then dropped with little regard. It probably would have been a more enjoyable watch if it stuck to fully developing the main premise.

What makes Road House worth a shot

Gyllenhaal plays Dalton with the polite yet unhinged charm the character requires. But Conor McGregor steals the spotlight as the psychopathic villain of the story. The movie is at its most fun when the two come head-to-head. And that’s not just for the fight scenes but also the hilariously witty insult exchange. 

Road House is the ideal streaming option for when you’re in the mood for a good old-fashioned campy action flick. It’s got well-choreographed violent fight scenes, some interesting boat-based action sequences, and enough one-liners to keep you smiling throughout the runtime. 

What did you think of Road House (2024)? Comment below.

• Road House (2024) Ending Explained

Article by Lori Meek

Lori Meek has been a Ready Steady Cut contributing writer since September 2022 and has had over 400 published articles since. She studied Film and Television at Southampton Solent University, where she gained most of her knowledge and passion for the entertainment industry. Lori’s work is also featured on platforms such as TBreak Media and ShowFaves.

Reacher season 1 – who is KJ Kliner?

Bulgasal: Immortal Souls season 1, episode 7 recap - intriguing twists and revelations

This website cannot be displayed as your browser is extremely out of date.

Please update your browser to one of the following: Chrome , Firefox , Edge

Rebooted ‘Road House,’ with Jake Gyllenhaal, doesn’t pass inspection

Part fight showcase, part generic crime thriller, prime video’s remake tosses its plot this way and that..

A buff Jake Gyllenhaal has the Patrick Swayze role in the remake of “Road House.”

Prime Video

Hollywood keeps reaching back to the 1980s and 1990s for remakes that inevitably prove to be unnecessary and disposable. I suppose the good news is these updates or reboots or re-imaginings, or whatever you want to call them, leave such a light footprint that we quickly forget ‘em.

Let’s put it this way: If someone suggested watching “Red Dawn” or “Robocop” or “About Last Night …” or “Point Break,” would you immediately think of the remakes from the 2010s — or the originals? Does anyone remember ANYTHING about the 2012 version of “Total Recall” or the 2017 edition of “Flatliners”?

One imagines the same fate awaits the intermittently entertaining but clunky and quite dopey 2024 edition of “Road House.” Not that the 1989 original directed by Rowdy Herrington and starring Patrick Swayze, Sam Elliott, Kelly Lynch and Ben Gazzara was some kind of classic, but it played like an elevated B-movie modern Western and had a clean and streamlined script that stayed on point throughout.

The remake bounces all over the place with a convoluted storyline, a number of superfluous characters and two main villains who are sorely lacking — one because he’s a bland nothing, the other because he's so far over the top it’s like he’s in a Saturday morning cartoon.

A shredded Jake Gyllenaal takes on the Swayze role as Dalton, but this time around Dalton’s first name is Elwood, which leads to a discussion in the film about embarrassing first names and the Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue,” and that’s a page of the script that should have been deleted before production commenced. Dalton is a former UFC standout with a troubled past (you can probably guess what happened) who is recruited by a woman named Frankie (Jessica Williams) to take over head bouncer duties at her roadhouse in the Florida Keys, which is named Road House, ha ha.

• ‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant’ review: Jake Gyllenhaal in skillfully made and gripping war film

Over the last many weeks, a gang of movie-generic thugs have been igniting brawls and tearing the place up night after night, and Frankie can’t go to the cops because they’re on the take, and I guess nobody thinks to contact the media or capture the mayhem on smartphones and share it on YouTube. This is a self-contained community, sort of like a frontier town in the Old West, and for another cringe moment, there’s a precocious tween character who tells Dalton it’s like he’s the anti-hero in a Western.

Gyllenhaal’s Dalton doesn’t carry the Zen philosophies of his predecessor, but he does have a dark sense of humor, i.e., when he asks how far it is to the nearest hospital before taking on those aforementioned biker brutes, and then is nice enough to drive them to the emergency room after he’s busted ‘em up.

Unfortunately, those moments are few and far between, as “Road House” alternates between the expertly choreographed fight sequences that take place in the bar while various bands keep playing behind chicken wire, and a generic crime thriller plot that often takes us out on the water.

Billy Magnussen is a fine actor, but his Brandt is a clichéd character: the petulant and corrupt son of the local crime boss (who is in prison), who wants to take possession of the Road House so he can build, yep, a giant resort development that will rob the town of all its charms. Brandt is a lightweight and also an idiot; in an early scene, he demands that a barber shave him with a straight razor on his boat as it navigates some seriously choppy waters. This. Scene. Makes. No. Sense.

A mercenary (Conor McGregor) is hired by a crime boss to kill Dalton.

Even more regrettable is the casting of the colorful and controversial Irish mixed martial artist Conor McGregor as Knox, a psychopathic mercenary hired by Brandt’s dad to kill Dalton. All the over-the-top antics that make McGregor such an entertaining personality in real life are lost in translation to the big screen, as McGregor stomps around like he’s playing to the last row of an arena, and barks his lines as if he’s in a terribly written “SNL” sketch. It’s a performance that irritates like a grain of sand that has wafted into your eye.

Jessica Williams’ Frankie all but disappears from the story for large chunks of times. The wonderful Daniela Melchior has almost nothing to do in the Kelly Lynch role as the local doctor who takes a shine to Dalton. Post Malone is in this movie, but I’ve already almost forgotten that Post Malone is in this movie.

Director Doug Liman knows how to stage action films; his previous works include “The Bourne Identity,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” Many of the fights here are shown in long shots, and one imagines Gyllenhaal and McGregor and the supporting players and the stunt men all had a grand time tossing each other about and breaking lots of furniture.

Good on them. We’re ready to move on from the new “Road House” and cue up the original. It’s available on platforms such as Amazon Prime and YouTube and Fandango at Home — and I can hear 1989 Rick Dalton saying, “What’s a U-Tube? What’s Fandango and Home where? What are those words you’re saying?”

‘Road House’ Review: Jake Gyllenhaal’s Bully-Beating Bouncer

“Kinda sounds like the plot to a western,” someone remarks as Elwood Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrives in town, ready to clean up the baddest bar on Florida’s Glass Key, disposes of certain evildoers by crocodile and runs up against the inevitable rich guy trying to buy the place up and shut it down. Truer words have seldom been spoken: Except for all the mixed-martial arts—and the crocodile—Dalton might be played by John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart. Or Patrick Swayze.

A remake, or reimagining, of the 1989 Swayze vehicle, this “Road House” appeals to the same sensibility as its predecessor, namely the appetite among many of us in the audience (including this reviewer) to see bullies thumped and psychopaths head-butted into submission. There is a lot of both going on in this action-thriller by director Doug Liman (“Edge of Tomorrow,” “Fair Game,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”), who has expressed no end of unhappiness that his movie is going directly to Prime Video rather than playing on the big screen. But unlike some recent films—“Poor Things,” for instance, or “Barbie”—little will be lost by watching “Road House” at home. And there’s the added advantage of not being embarrassed in public by liking it so much, or throwing little punches along with Elwood.

“People seem a little aggressive around here,” says Dalton (which he prefers to be called), having gotten a taste of the saloon and Glass Key, where the former professional cage-fighter has been lured by Frankie (Jessica Williams) with the promise of $5,000 a week, a berth on a boat and a lot of exercise. He turns her down at first, not needing the money, until he parks his car at a train crossing intending to kill himself. He changes his mind at the last minute; the car does not survive. Next stop, Florida.

There’s some depth to Dalton, clearly, a psychological dysfunction over past violence (see “The Gunfighter,” or “The Quiet Man”) that Dalton masks through a zen-like calm in the face of idiots. These include Knox, who is played by real-life UFC champ Conor McGregor, who vibrates through the movie like the Tasmanian Devil in an old Daffy Duck cartoon. “There’s something wrong with you,” Knox says to Dalton, after punching him in the face many times and grinning. “Me too.” That the kind of chaos staged in “Road House” might be enjoyable to its participants, a vent for their rage, is not ignored by Mr. Liman or his writers Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. In one scene, a fight between principals breaks out and men throughout the bar start smacking each other, unprovoked—except by their proximity to violence. The contagious nature of mayhem is made quite clear, without the movie lurching into psychodrama.

Daniela Melchior plays Dr. Ellie, the love interest; Billy Magnussen is Ben Brandt, the most loathsome of the villainous, and Joaquim de Almeida is the requisite corrupt sheriff; Post Malone has a sort-of-cameo as a fighter who flees the ring rather than face Elwood Dalton. The main attraction, so to speak, of “Road House” is ne’er-do-wells getting their comeuppance, to put it as gently as possible. The amount and degree of fighting defy most rules of physics, respiration and orthopedics. But it is a fantasy, mostly, which is a blessing.

—Mr. Anderson is the Journal’s TV critic.

Advertisement

Supported by

‘Road House’ Review: This Remake Amps Up the Action

Jake Gyllenhaal stars a pro fighter turned bouncer at a juke joint in the Florida Keys, taking on Patrick Swayze’s role in the original.

• Share full article

By Glenn Kenny

The 1989 blockbuster “Road House,” was something of a pastiche. It delivered disreputable B-picture thrills with big-picture production value. The lead actor Patrick Swayze, playing a philosophizing roughneck, smirked with unshakable confidence while breaking arms and jaws, as cars and buildings blew up real good around him. The action was served up with glossy studio polish.

Hence, a remake of the film, some might argue, is destined to be a pastiche of a pastiche. But as we move further into the 21st century, we find the notion of authenticity ever more devalued. And who needs it when you’ve got Doug Liman directing the whole thing? He is, after all, the J. Robert Oppenheimer of lunatic action set pieces (“The Bourne Identity,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Edge of Tomorrow” to name a few).

Taking on Swayze’s role, Jake Gyllenhaal plays the pro fighter turned bouncer Elwood Dalton, here protecting a juke joint that sits on a valuable piece of real estate in the Florida Keys. At his most winning despite his character’s lethal nature, Gyllenhaal keeps up the one-liners and drollery. In lieu of Swayze’s Zenlike musings, he gives us dry inquiries about whether his challengers have medical insurance before pummeling and delivering them to a hospital.

This movie delivers a lot of the same kicks as the first, but with contemporary tuneups like a villain played by Conor McGregor, the Ultimate Fighting Championship star who’s first seen stark naked, except for shoes and socks (so he can carry his phone). Though two hours long, the movie moves as swiftly as a greased ferret through a Habitrail and delivers hallucinatory action highs for its extended climax.

All this and a pretty funny “The Third Man” reference too.

Road House Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. Watch on Prime Video.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Despite finding success on the stage in London and New York, Anthony Boyle had landed only minor roles onscreen before this year.  Now, he stars in two historical series , “Masters of the Air” and “Manhunt.”

The HBO show “The Regime” is set in a fictional European country. But our chief diplomatic correspondent recognizes references  to many real despots and failed states.

In the comedy series “Girls5eva,” Paula Pell, at 60, has become the comedy star  she always dreamed of being.

Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy are among a crop of Irish hunks who have infused popular culture with big Irish energy .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

Review: New coat of paint with 'Road House' remake, still nothing under the hood

Gyllenhaal does find depths in a character you won’t find in the script though.

Back in 1989, "Road House" was an action flick of such gross stupidity that it won five deserved Razzie nominations (the Oscars for junk), including for worst movie, and another for worst actor, an unjust slam at the late Patrick Swayze -- fresh off "Dirty Dancing" and a year away from "Ghost" -- who brought a Zen-like cool to the role of a club bouncer with fists of fury.

In the 35 years since its debut, "Road House" developed a cult reputation as a movie so bad that you couldn’t help but enjoy it for the shameless joy it took in its own awfulness. There had to be a reboot of this guilty pleasure.

And here it is, courtesy of director Doug Liman, ready to stream on Prime Video with no stops in theaters.

MORE: Jake Gyllenhaal honors Patrick Swayze ahead of 'Road House' debut

In Swayze’s role as Dalton is "Brokeback Mountain" Oscar-nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, who is such a dynamite actor that you’ll never catch him showing how superior he is to the material he’s clearly slumming in.

Gyllenhaal’s total commitment to the role of a former Ultimate Fighting Champion and philosophy major reduced to breaking up bar brawls makes all the difference.

The remake has switched locales from Missouri to the Florida Keys and eased up on the original’s misogyny (except for the doc played by Kelly Lynch, the actresses were encouraged to hit the floozy pedal hard). And director Liman ("Swingers," "The Bourne Identity") is a big improvement on the aptly named Rowdy Herrington.

Editor’s Picks

Trailer for 'Road House' remake, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Dalton, out now

Jake Gyllenhaal honors Patrick Swayze ahead of 'Road House' debut

Lukas Gage talks new film, 'Road House'

Don’t get me wrong -- "Road House" is still the cheeseball wallow in blood-spurting punching and stabbing it always was. Only it looks more real than cartoonish this time.

We’re meant to feel Dalton’s pain. Does reality render the movie more emotionally tender? You be the judge.

Dalton, nursing nightmares over a fatal battle in the ring, takes a $5000-per-week offer from Frankie (Jessica Williams) to cool down tempers at her road house in Florida (the Dominican Republic filled in as a location). There’s also a gator and underwater fighting in the mix. Sweet.

To show that fists aren’t his first reaction to conflict, Dalton befriends a teen (Hannah Lanier) whose dad runs a bookstore.

Don’t get me wrong -- 'Road House' is still the cheeseball wallow in blood-spurting punching and stabbing it always was. Only it looks more real than cartoonish this time.

He also trains amateur fighters (Lukas Gage, Dominique Columbus) in the art of restraint. "No one ever wins a fight" is a Dalton line in the original and the remake.

The true villain is Ben Brandt (a snarling Billy Magnussen), a profiteer who wants to shut down the road house to build a resort.

It’s Brandt’s henchman Knox (tattooed UFC superstar Conor McGregor in his acting debut) who escalates the bloodlust, even though ER doctor Ellie (Daniela Melchior) warns Dalton, to whom she’s fiercely attracted, to follow his own motto to "be nice."

Fat chance.

Like its predecessor, the 2024 edition of "Road House" doesn’t miss an opportunity to throw a punch.

Unlike the previous film, this one doesn’t provide a mentor for Dalton, the way the great Sam Elliott did as a father figure for Swayze. It’s a major miscalculation. The Swayze/Elliott bond gave the film a heartbeat this remake so badly needed.

MORE: Watch Conor McGregor in new trailer for 'Road House' remake

In the end, "Road House" benefits most from the visual pizzazz of Liman’s direction and a star performance from Gyllenhaal that finds depths in a character you won’t find in the script.

But despite a new coat of paint on this old jalopy, there’s still nothing under the hood.

Top Stories

Kate Middleton diagnosed with cancer, undergoing chemotherapy

• 7 minutes ago

'Little House on the Prairie' cast talk 50th anniversary, remember Michael Landon

• Mar 21, 1:15 PM

Body of missing college student found in river, no evidence of foul play: Police

• 4 hours ago

New video, photos of Ruby Franke's son reveal details that led to her arrest

• Mar 22, 7:00 AM

The latest on Kate Middleton amid health battle, photo controversy

• Mar 18, 1:02 PM

ABC News Live

24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

‘Road House’: All brawn, no brain and very little fun

Jake gyllenhaal and his physique can’t save this update of the 1989 patrick swayze cult classic.

“Road House” was not a success when it first came out in 1989, but it became a huge hit on home video and beyond, not least because it was such a perfect artifact of its era: The mullets! The casual sexism! The Sam Elliott realness!

Not to mention the Patrick Swayze of it all. Capitalizing on “Dirty Dancing,” which made him an instant heartthrob, Swayze made “Road House” as a way to show off his preternatural physical gifts — this time fighting instead of lifting and catching Jennifer Grey in a steamy pas de deux. The result was a pageant of fight choreography, wooden romance and hypermasculine hokum that soon entered the annals of so-bad-it’s-good camp classics.

Remaking “Road House” is a supremely dumb idea, so it’s fitting that it has morphed into a self-consciously dumb movie. What’s less fitting is that it’s so surpassingly dull. Jake Gyllenhaal has assumed Swayze’s role of the legendary bar bouncer named Dalton, here a former UFC fighter who has fetched up in the Florida Keys to save the fate of a gutbucket dive called — cue knowing laughter — the Road House. The bar’s owner, Frankie (a spirited Jessica Williams), has hired Dalton to purge the riffraff, the better to realize her dream of making the Road House a respectable joint worthy of destination weddings and romantic getaways.

Directed by Doug Liman with slick production values and an ever-present wink, “Road House” has done away with the 1980s artifacts (no more cigarettes and nude dancing), accessorizing the requisite bar fights, bullies and beefcake with boats, skintight bar bands and breezy, brotastic humor. Billy Magnussen has the dubious honor of playing the psychotic villain of the piece, a spoiled brat who runs the fictional community of Glass Key with sadistic droit du seigneur; real-life mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor makes his feature film debut as a jolly, tattooed killer for hire who moves through the idiotic story delivering body blows and silly asides in a cheerful Irish brogue.

Gyllenhaal, sure to draw gasps when he first takes his shirt off, takes his punches with a goofy, good-natured grin worthy of Dalton’s peaceable nature. (His love interest is still a pretty doctor, this time played by Daniela Melchior.) In both iterations of “Road House,” the point is the fetishization of the male body; whereas the rules of cinema dictate that women be reduced to their component sexualized parts, men are ritualistically reduced to a bloody but somehow still desirable pulp.

As an exercise in B-movie exploitation, “Road House” is of a piece with other offerings this season, namely Ethan Coen’s “Drive-Away Dolls” and the Kristen Stewart vehicle “Love Lies Bleeding.” All of them hark back to a rowdy, rough-and-tumble time when movies were content to be vessels of visceral wish fulfillment and mindless, instantly disposable escapism. If “Road House” were more fun, if it didn’t trot out its fight sequences with such workmanlike regularity, it might have attained the kitschy greatness of its predecessor. But it doesn’t aspire to much more than mining the intellectual property catalogue for a quick-and-dirty cash grab. It scratches an itch, with just enough style to be barely respectable, leaving little more in its wake than a few black eyes and a bleary, well-that-happened shrug.

R. Available on Prime Video. Contains pervasive violence, profanity and some nudity. 121 minutes.

• ‘Road House’: All brawn, no brain and very little fun Just now ‘Road House’: All brawn, no brain and very little fun Just now
• In ‘Shirley,’ an underestimated Black congresswoman in an undercooked film March 21, 2024 In ‘Shirley,’ an underestimated Black congresswoman in an undercooked film March 21, 2024
• Inside a weekend at Freaknik, Atlanta’s wild ’90s street party March 21, 2024 Inside a weekend at Freaknik, Atlanta’s wild ’90s street party March 21, 2024

THE BEST Elektrostal Sights & Historical Landmarks

Elektrostal landmarks.

• Monuments & Statues
• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• Good for Kids
• Good for Big Groups
• Adventurous
• Budget-friendly
• Good for a Rainy Day
• Hidden Gems
• Good for Couples
• Honeymoon spot
• Good for Adrenaline Seekers
• Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, photos, and popularity.

1. Statue of Lenin

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?
• Newsletters

Jake Gyllenhaal Happily Punches in Road House

By Richard Lawson

If Nicholas Sparks , that great peddler of sun-soaked honeysap coastal romance, decided to direct an action movie, it might look something like the first hour of Road House (Amazon, March 21). The film, a remake of the rollicking 1989 Patrick Swayze picture, introduces itself sweetly, giving the audience a tour of a friendly Florida Keys town and its one-line-character-description locals. The small-towners are tribal but kind, welcoming newcomer strongman Dalton ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) with wryly raised eyebrows but open arms. 

It’s all very nice, complementing Dalton’s relaxed, polite way of moving through the world. Sure, he’s a former MMA brawler with a troubled past (though a slightly less graphic past than Swayze’s version). But he’s so cute and affable. And those island breezes are blowing, and the band’s wailing away at the Road House bar (and grille, I’m assuming), so who cares if Dalton has to break up a little fussin’ and a-fightin’ pretty much every night? Dalton is presented, in all his solid but tender masculinity, much in the same way that Ryan Gosling is in The Notebook , or Channing Tatum in Dear John , or Zac Efron in The Lucky One . They’re all lightly wounded men who are both heroes and objects of loving concern in their cozy Southern communities. 

But that whole thing isn’t really director Doug Liman ’s deal. He’s a flashy, snarky kineticist who infuses his best work with hard-edged humor. (Even the tight, unadorned hand-to-hand combat of The Bourne Identity was kind of funny.) Thus Road House , written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry , gradually toughens up, though without losing its playful brio.

What a surprisingly agreeable affair, this wholly unnecessary rehash of a 35-year-old curio. Road House suffers from some decidedly modern ailments: it often looks washed-out, and the special effects are cheaply rendered by computers. (Back in the day, there were actual speed boat stunts. There could be again!) But even that flimsiness comes with its own kind of wink. Liman is not trying to make terribly credible art here. We are only meant to make merry orbit around its violence, just as the Road House patrons do. 

Much of the movie’s charm rests on its lead. Gyllenhaal doesn’t have the same warm twinkle in his eye that Swayze always used to such lovely effect, but he makes do with the rest of his elastic face. He can go from weary to wary in an instant, his wide mouth curling up or drooping at the edges as Dalton assesses a situation’s severity. Gyllenhaal has done a lot of macho or otherwise gruff stuff in recent years, in search of some balance, I suppose, to his more sensitive work in things like Nightcrawler , or Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway. (A stage performance for the ages, truly.) I would love to see Gyllenhaal work softer most of the time, but I suppose that Road House is a kind of compromise. There is, at least, an accessible strain of vulnerability here, even if Dalton is a near-Terminator in his impervious ability to do harm. 

In the film, Dalton goes toe to toe with some local mooks working for the bratty son of a petty crime lord, a boat-loving ponce played with effective slime by Billy Magnussen . The main comedy of the film is the repetitive action of Dalton calmly dispatching, and embarrassing, the many goons who come his way. It is, as ever, good fun to see a procession of swaggering oafs shocked by an underestimated stranger’s prowess, and I happily would have watched the same thing happen again and again until the end credits rolled. 

But the movie gods demand some actual adversarial conditions, and so enters Conor McGregor , a famed real-life MMA fighter making his film debut. He plays a ruffian hired by the gang to get rid of Dalton once and for all—the movie’s physical stakes shift quite rapidly from nasty but cartoonish beatings to actual murder. If there are people out there who have long yearned to see Jake Gyllenhaal fight Conor McGregor (much as people want to see Jake Paul fight people, I guess), then they ought to be satisfied. But the movie loses its cocky little strut when Dalton is actually up against a fellow immovable object. I wanted to see Dalton bounce and thrash along unscathed—here’s a rare film that maybe doesn’t need any real conflict.

Or maybe it’s just the McGregor of it all that’s a turn-off. He goes for gonzo and comes up illegible, doing little to brighten up his dark public image . His character is supposed to disrupt the easy idyl of the film—otherwise populated by harmless dopes and good-hearted folks played by Jessica Williams , Daniela Melchior , and Lukas Gage —so he is, in essence, doing his job. But he drowns out the music, harshes the mellow. His silliness is synthetic, while the rest of Road House comes pretty close to the bare-knuckle real thing.

Read More from Vanity Fair

The Evolving Power of the Princess of Wales

Inside Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles’s Complicated Relationship

The Best TV Shows of 2024, So Far

The Steadfast Role of the Princess Royal

From the Archive: The Bettencourt Affair (2010)

Stay in the know and subscribe to Vanity Fair for just $2.50 $1 per month.

By Chris Murphy

By Savannah Walsh

By Maxime Jacob

Richard Lawson

Chief critic.

By Keziah Weir

By Kase Wickman

By Joe Reid

By Hillary Busis

By Eric Lutz

By Katey Rich

By Brian Stelter

Road House reboot starts strong, but limps to the finish line

Directed by Doug Liman

Written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, based on the motion picture Road House , screenplay by David Lee Henry and Hilary Henkin

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Conor McGregor, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams

Classification N/A; 121 minutes

Streams on Now available to stream on Prime Video Canada

Let’s say we pit the late Patrick Swayze’s and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Road House performances against each other – ignoring the whole “No one ever wins a fight” mantra that survived from the original to the remake.

In the one corner, you have Swayze in the 1989 guilty pleasure, giving a comically Zen but also typically smouldering turn as Dalton. He’s a bouncer in a Missouri bar mopping the floor with organized crime in a movie that totally earns its so-bad-it’s-good reputation.

Then there’s Gyllenhaal, who appears in Doug Liman’s light-footed remake, which moves the action to a bar in the Florida Keys. Gyllenhaal’s a committed performer typically shining in dramatically heavy or eccentric roles ( Prisoners , Nightcrawler ), but he lets that side of his talent just purr in the background while playing a retired MMA fighter hired to clean up the mess that is, well, Florida. Gyllenhaal instead leans on his easygoing charm, playing a Dalton who sweet talks his way through both casual dates and bone-crunching brawls, in a movie that is genuinely good … until it isn’t (more on that later).

Who wins? Though it’s not usually the case: the remake.

Both films are giddily entertaining for very different reasons. They share a name, and familiar plot beats, but are otherwise hitting in different weight classes – the newer version has a lot of great jokes in it, while the older tends to be the joke. And while Swayze showed off some bad tai chi to find appeal in the martial arts craze of the 1980s, Gyllenhaal, as ripped as ever, is out to win over modern mixed-martial arts crowds with fight scenes so kinetic and convincingly brutal I was often squirming. Gyllenhaal even surprised fans when jumping into the octagon last year at UFC 285, filming a flashback scene for Road House in front of the live audience between scheduled fights.

Speaking of audiences, you won’t be seeing Road House with one, which is tragic. The movie is being released directly on Prime Video, which has been a point of consternation for the director. Liman called out Amazon for skipping a theatrical release, accusing the streamer of breaking trust with the filmmaking community after it acquired MGM, the iconic movie studio he was making the movie with.

“They turned around and are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures,” Liman wrote in a scathing Deadline op-ed explaining why he boycotted the movie’s SXSW premiere.

Lukas Gage, background left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from Road House. Laura Radford/The Associated Press

There’s something romantic about Liman’s fight, especially in the way it mirrors his movie. Road House is about a place, where people get together, being sabotaged by wealthy villains who are bent on owning everything. Hopefully Liman doesn’t get as bloodied.

His movie kicks things off with Gyllenhaal’s Dalton slumming it in warehouse fights. His UFC glory days are behind him after a traumatic incident that left him a broken soul. The back story, and his emotional state, are never really convincingly developed. But they’re functional in getting him to his bouncer gig, since he doesn’t have a whole lot going on in MMA.

Contenders (like one played by Post Malone) would rather forfeit than get in the ring with him. They fear Dalton’s reputation for causing extensive bodily injury, which is exactly what he counts on. The movie gets a lot of comic mileage out of this caution. Dalton, too, is afraid of the harm he can cause.

When he’s about to scrap – with drunken fools or hired goons – he asks his opponents all the questions they might find in a liability waiver: Do you have health insurance? Where’s the nearest hospital? Early on, Dalton calmly asks an attacker if he’s sure about wanting to fight, after the guy already stabbed him with a knife. He proposes peace, with the blade still sticking out of his torso.

Just at that moment, roadhouse owner Frankie (Jessica Williams) propositions Dalton to bring his specific set of skills to dismantle the hooligans who terrorize her establishment, which is actually named Road House. She finds the obviousness of the name – because the Road House is actually a roadhouse – humourous.

There’s a whole running gag in this self-deprecating movie about how everything and everyone is incredibly obvious. A boat is called “The Boat.” A password is “0000.” The villains are all obsessed with real estate – it’s Florida! And, as one precocious character puts it, Dalton’s arrival, moseying on into a small town to take out the trash, is “the plot to a western.”

Liman makes the most of what most would assume are flaws. He leans into the simplicity and familiarity of Road House ’s premise, keeping the space open for big personalities to make it cartoonishly good fun. A scene as basic and formulaic as when the bad guys stand around to reiterate their scheme is turned into mayhem because Game Night ’s Billy Magnussen (game as always) fills it with smarminess. His Ben Brandt holds the conversation while a personal barber gives him a shave, with a straight razor, on a yacht, as it navigates rough waves. The results are hysterical.

Liman starts to lose his grip around the time that UFC champ Conor McGregor shows up as the headlining bar fight challenger for Dalton. The chaotic last act is a pileup of nonsensical double crosses, cheap-looking explosions and vehicular mayhem (the kind producer Joel Silver usually prefers).

It’s a mess that still manages to keep afloat because the personalities are so damn likeable. Liman’s movies tend to give a lot upfront. But then they limp to the finish line. That goes for favourites such as The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow , which aren’t terrible company for Road House to keep.

Report an editorial error

Report a technical issue

Editorial code of conduct

Follow related authors and topics

• Pop culture Follow You must be logged in to follow. Log In Create free account
• Streaming Follow You must be logged in to follow. Log In Create free account

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following .

Interact with The Globe

'Road House' review: Remake honors low stakes of its predecessor

Jake gyllenhaal connects in new take on the 1989 original, which became a cable tv classic..

When it comes to the world of remakes, 1989's "Road House" is not some sacred text that dare not be touched. The Patrick Swayze-starrer is a slice of pure '80s action cheese, elevated by the presence of its star, who brought his Zen sense of calm to the role of James Dalton, the toughest, coolest bouncer rural Mississippi has ever seen.

Director Doug Liman's updated "Road House" honors its source material by not taking itself too seriously and also not becoming some winking, self-referential meme fest. It's a fun, straightforward action movie with big fights, low stakes and a firm sense of its own place in the world. Come for the abs, stay for a beer, no shirt, no shoes, no problem.

An impressively shredded Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Elwood Dalton — don't worry, he's not some sort of descendant of Swayze's Dalton, we're not building out a universe here — an MMA fighter who washes out of UFC and is looking for a fresh start. He gets his shot when he's hired to be a bouncer at a particularly rowdy beachside bar in the Florida Keys, where owner Frankie (Jessica Williams) is constantly being threatened by bad dudes of the biker bully variety. (The Dominican Republic stands in for the fictional Glass Key.)

Dalton — who doesn't wear a shirt for about two-thirds of the movie, and even when he does, he allows his abs to get a tan — goes about trying to clean up the place, mostly with his fists, and through his training of the bar's younger bouncers, including Billy (Lukas Gage) and Reef (Dominique Columbus). Turns out some of those bad apples terrorizing the bar are goons working for Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen, great as a spoiled slimeball), who wants to tear down the bar to build a mega resort. Brandt has ties all the way to the top of the town, including the crooked sheriff (Joaquim de Almeida), who is known around town as as Big Dick, because that's what kind of movie this is.

And "Road House" knows exactly what kind of movie it is, which makes it a good time romp, which is only accelerated by the arrival of Irish madman and ex-UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who comes on like a lightning bolt that causes an earthquake which opens up a hole in the Earth. He plays Knox, who wears a chain around his neck that says Knox, and also has Knox Knox Knox tatted across his chest, lest anyone forget his name. He's the movie's frothing-at-the-mouth 500 pound gorilla, and makes a more than formidable foe for Gyllenhaal's Dalton.

Information about Dalton's past is slowly parsed out over the course of Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry's economical screenplay, but we get the gist of it pretty early on: he's running from some demons, which spilled over during a live bout in UFC. Gyllenhaal's laid back, happy-go-lucky exterior doesn't always jibe with that darkness, but his is an effective performance in a movie that's not digging too deep into any explorations of pain or trauma. You're here for the fights, and "Road House" delivers.

There are a couple of odd-looking digitally rendered effects pieces deployed throughout that detract from the mostly tactile, blood-and-sweat nature of the proceedings, but "Road House" is nonetheless a rousing action movie that delivers the goods. It's a sun-kissed, balled fist homage to the House that Swayze built. The original Dalton would be proud.

[email protected]

'Road House'

Rated R: for violence throughout, pervasive language and some nudity

Running time: 114 minutes

On Prime Video

Laurel Road Review March 2024: checking, high-yield savings, and student loans

Laurel Road is best known for its student loan products, but it’s expanded its repertoire to online banking products, such as checking, high-yield savings, and lending thanks to joining the KeyBank family in 2019. Headquartered in New York, Laurel Road doesn’t have any physical branches as it operates entirely online. 

Our review details its personal banking products. All rates and fees are current as of March 22, 2024, and are subject to change. 

Laurel Road at a glance

Laurel road.

• Attractive 5.00% annual percentage yield (APY) on savings accounts
• No monthly fees
• Send money with Zelle
• There are no bank branches, it’s all online
• Numerous reports of new accounts having their money tied up for months while awaiting verification it isn’t fraud

Laurel Road rates and products

As an online bank, Laurel Road doesn’t offer many products you might find in a bank that operates both online and through local branches. However, it offers high-yield savings accounts, a variety of checking accounts, and student loans.

Checking accounts

Laurel Road offers three different types of free checking accounts : Laurel Road Checking Account, Laurel Road Loyalty Checking Account, and Laurel Road Linked Checking Account. There are no monthly fees, and no minimum deposit is required to open the account. 

Laurel Road is one of the few banks with a free checking account that also offers a checking account bonus and continues to reward you for qualifying direct deposits to your account. It pays $20 monthly for the first year and $10 monthly after that.

Savings accounts

The best high-yield savings accounts charge no monthly fees and have no minimum deposit. Laurel Road is no different and offers a competitive 5.00% APY.

Laurel Road savings rates compared to current top rates*

Laurel Road provides some of the most competitive interest rates on savings accounts, but its checking rates aren’t great. See our list of the high-yield savings accounts to compare rates.

Other services Laurel Road offers  

• Personal loans: Whether you're renovating your home, relocating, consolidating credit card debt, or making a major purchase, Laurel Road has several loan options available. 
• Credit cards : With the Laurel Road Student Loan Cashback Card, get 2% cash back toward your student loans and 1% cash back toward all other eligible purchases.
• Student loans: One could argue that Laurel Road is a student loan refinance company with a side hobby of providing banking services. Many of its services are related to its student loan offerings. For example, opening a checking account can lead to much cheaper refinance rates. 
• Mortgages: While Laurel Road doesn't have mortgages, it can refer you to KeyBank for your home loan.

Online banking

Laurel Road is an online bank with no physical branches. All banking, including transfers, deposits, and bill payments, is handled through its online portal and mobile app. 

For a comprehensive list of other top online banking options, explore this resource of the best online banks and credit unions . 

The Laurel Road platform and customer support  

You may reach Laurel Road by telephone Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, via email at [email protected], through live chat five times per week, and via its contact form on its website. You can view your accounts online or via its mobile app, which has 4.6 stars out of 5 on the App Store with 1,100 reviews. Its Android app has 4.4 out of 5 stars on the Google Play store with 279 reviews. 

Is Laurel Road secure?

If you were to Google Laurel Road data breaches, you’re not going to find anything. However, in 2022, KeyBank, the banking infrastructure Laurel Road operates under, had a data breach with a third-party service provider that impacted its mortgage customers. 

Laurel Road user reviews

Most of the customer reviews, especially in recent months, complain about negative experiences they've had with account access issues. Many users on Trustpilot and in Reddit forums report their accounts were locked, and some have had their money tied up for months with little communication from Laurel Road. Positive reviews talk about how easy the app is to use, although these are far fewer than the negative experiences customers have shared. Out of 557 Trustpilot reviews, it has 3.0 out of 5 stars, with 20% of those being 1 star.

Compare Laurel Road alternatives

Is laurel road right for you.

Laurel Road is ideal for customers who appreciate the efficiency of banking online as well as those who either have student loans they're looking to refinance or who are in the process of getting student loans. Its high-yield savings accounts are also an attractive option. However, it might not be a great fit for someone who values being able to stop into a physical branch or who wants a CD or MMA. 

Frequently asked questions

Is laurel road a legitimate bank.

Despite what some Reddit users might suggest, Laurel Road is a legitimate bank that is a brand of KeyBank. Laurel Road is tailored toward those in the healthcare and business fields and is an online-only bank with no branches.

Is Laurel Road FDIC-insured?

KeyBank, N.A., being FDIC-insured, means that deposits in Laurel Road are also FDIC-insured up to $250,000.

Is Laurel Road owned by KeyBank?

Yes, KeyBank owns Laurel Road. It became part of its brands in April 2019.

EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE : The advice, opinions, or rankings contained in this article are solely those of the Fortune Recommends ™ editorial team. This content has not been reviewed or endorsed by any of our affiliate partners or other third parties.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• March Madness
• AP Top 25 Poll
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Movie Review: A remake of ‘Road House’ with Jake Gyllenhaal turns into a muscular, Florida romp

This image released by Prime Video shows Conor McGregor, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Conor McGregor in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Jake Gyllenhaal, left, and Lukas Gage in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Daniela Melchior in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

Jake Gyllenhaal, from left, Daniela Melchoir, Conor McGregor, Lukas Gage and Billy Magnussen pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jake Gyllenhaal poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Daniela Melchoir poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Conor McGregor poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Lukas Gage, background left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

• Copy Link copied

Elwood P. Dalton is a classy sort of bouncer. While five tough guys circle him outside a bar looking to bash his skull in, he has a question for them: “Before we start, do you have insurance?” And after savagely beating each up, he kindly drives them to the hospital.

Dalton — played by a muscular and languid Jake Gyllenhaal — is a former UFC fighter with a dark past in “Road House,” a reworking of the pulpy 1989 action film starring Patrick Swayze.

“You sure you thought this all the way through?” Dalton at one point asks an assailant who has the nerve to plunge a knife into his abdomen. The same question can be asked of the filmmakers: Is it really wise to retread this old flick? The answer is as shocking as a sucker punch: Yes, indeed.

Gyllenhaal is a sort of Spider-Man-meets-Jack Reacher-meets Jason Bourne, an oddball loner with ferocious fighting abilities who makes a living in illegal fights and lives in his car, haunted by what he did to a friend in the octagon. He douses booze on his open wounds and uses electrical tape instead of a bandage, yet he also oddly uses wheelie luggage. (You expected a big old black duffel, right?) What’s in the baggage? A death wish, of course.

He is lured to the Florida Keys by a roadhouse bar owner (the always brilliantly tart Jessica Williams), who needs an excellent bouncer to protect her from nightly violence. He’s offered $5,000 a week to stop thugs in sleeveless jean jackets from throwing bottles, flipping tables and breaking pool cues. (The Florida tourist board will love this movie).

“I’m hoping you’re different,” a bar employee says and he is. Dalton settles in the fictional Glass Key, dates a cutie, makes friends with the good folk and lives in what all damaged loners gravitate to, a houseboat. He soon teaches the other bouncers the tricks of the trade, Zen-like, and finds excellent reasons to take off his shirt.

“I’m just some guy,” he says. “You don’t want to know me.”

Then he uncovers a conspiracy right out of “Scooby-Doo:” The land under the bar is crucial to the creation of a luxury resort dreamed up by the local rich guy and crooked cops. Basically, organized crime is trying to drive the bar owner out of business. “Zoinks!”

At this point, “Road House” gets an instant jolt of electricity from former UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who makes his acting debut as a psychotic gun-for-hire Knox. He may have one of the best intros in film history, casually walking down a European town buck naked except for a pair of boots.

Dalton and Knox are destined to go mano-a-mano and there’s a grudging respect between them. They’re both deeply cut and they’re both messed up. “There’s something wrong with you. Me too,” the Irish mountain of muscles says. He’s the sort of chaos agent who picks up a golf club and says he wants to go “clubbing.”

Like a night of heavy drinking, things gets a little bizarre toward the end of the movie as it starts straying far from the roadhouse. Speed boats go flying, explosions go bang and someone uses arson to send a message. A deadly crocodile that plays an outsized role is sadly abandoned.

Screenwriters Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry have leaned into cliches — dead mothers, double-crosses and quirky kids that pull out the paternal part of our heroes. But a menacing, unstable McGregor is a gift. So is Billy Magnussen, who plays the rich boy bully deliciously preppy. He’s so evil, he throws his cellphone into the ocean out of frustration, then asks an underling to retrieve it.

“The Bourne Identity” director Doug Liman seems to be having fun, his camera lingering on the chiseled beefsteak and mixing in honky tonk songs by the deliciously named Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & The Zydeco Twisters. The action scenes are dynamite, layering POV camera work with great, thundering, bottle smashing stunts. It knows it’s silly, but it’s still a good time.

That’s reason enough that Liman is upset the movie is avoiding cineplexes and going straight to streaming. But he could rectify that. He could hire, like, an unstable, but gracious, former fighter who lives in his car. For a few thousand, that guy can make things right.

“Road House,” an Amazon MGM Studios release streaming on Prime Video from March 21, is rated R for “nudity, violence, alcohol use and foul language.” Running time: 114 minutes. Three stars out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Online: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0CH61M727/ref=atv_hm_hom_c_foFU9R_10_2?jic=8%7CEgNhbGw%3D

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits