Road House

Name: Road House
Genre: Action, Thriller
Released: May 19, 1989
Duration: 114 min
Rating: 36
Cast: Kelly Lynch, Patrick Swayze

1989

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Ratings

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7.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Ratings

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Road House

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Movie Details & Credits

United Artists | Release Date: May 19, 1989 | R

Starring: Kelly Lynch, Patrick Swayze

Summary: A veteran cooler (Patrick Swayze) is hired to bring a level of decorum to an up-and-coming bar that serves as the haunt for a county's corrupt element of bad guys.

Director: Rowdy Herrington

Genre(s): Action, Thriller

Rating: R

Runtime: 114 min

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Critic Reviews

Empire Tom Tunney

An immensely enjoyable slice of romanticised fisticuffs, this is a Western in every respect except the stetsons and six guns. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Road House exists right on the edge between the "good-bad movie" and the merely bad. I hesitate to recommend it, because so much depends on the ironic vision of the viewer. This is not a good movie. But viewed in the right frame of mind, it is not a boring one, either. Read full review

Gene Siskel

Road House is startling because of the intensity of its violence and because of Swayze`s mindless posturing. A young star has sold himself to become a pinup boy. Read full review

Jay Carr

Road House is the kind of action movie whose rigging is so blatant that there can be no air of heroism about it. Although Swayze and Sam Elliott, in the role of his mentor, have the decency to look sheepish most of the time, there's no end to the cynicism and merchandising on screen, especially in the sex scenes. [19 May 1989, p.45]

Staff (Not Credited)

With Road House, United Artists hotwires Patrick Swayze a star vehicle shackled by a couple of flat tires in the script department. Ill-conceived and unevenly executed, pic essentially is a Western - a loner comes in to clean up a bar, of all things, and ends up washing and drying the whole town - but its vigilante justice, lawlessness and wanton violence feel ludicrous in a modern setting. Read full review

Bill Cosford

Road House makes Cocktail look like a documentary. [19 May 1989, p.6]

Sheila Benson

The crushing assault that Road House delivers to fun at the movies is enough to send you crawling out of the theater on hands and knees, bloody and bowed. [19 May 1989, p.C1]

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User Reviews

FelicityFenwick

May 18, 2017

Easily one of the most underrated movies of the late 80s. I can't believe the critics didn't take to this movie more than they did. I had a huge crush on Kelly Lynch after seeing this movie. And when they come up with a verb like Swayze'd from the movie you know it had a cultural impact.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

pmurie

Apr 8, 2018

This movie is a total classic!!! Patrick Swayze plays a role as a bouncer that you wouldn't want to mess with. He gets a job at a bar that is totally out of control and has a hard time cleaning it up.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

ChrisNorton

Aug 6, 2023

A very fun, re-watchable, barroom brawling action/thriller that takes a pretty sharp turn becoming pretty dark towards it's climax. The characters and actors are all great (especially Swayze, Sam Elliot, Kelly Lynch, and Ben Gazzara). There's something about this movie that's hard toA very fun, re-watchable, barroom brawling action/thriller that takes a pretty sharp turn becoming pretty dark towards it's climax. The characters and actors are all great (especially Swayze, Sam Elliot, Kelly Lynch, and Ben Gazzara). There's something about this movie that's hard to pinpoint but it draws you in and makes you smile, which I'm sure has created quite the cult following. It's campy in parts, overly simple in its approach, but it's part of the overall charm. Roadhouse is Roadhouse and it's all awesome fun.

Top Genres - Action, Thriller Fiction/Nonfiction - Fiction Runtime - 1:54

Genre(s) rating -Action - 9 -Thriller - 7

Genre Average Score: 8 Directing: 8 Cinematography/lighting: 7 Story/Narrative: 6 Structure: 7 Dialogue: 9 Score(music): 10 Editing: 8 Acting: 8 Characterization: 7 Mise en Scène/Visual Design: 6 Visual Effects: 5 Costumes/Makeup: 6 Lasting Impact: 9 Originality: 10

Overall: 7.6

Setting, Conflict, Character, Dialogue, Theme, Plot, and Climax: B

Audience Engagement (do you feel runtime): No… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Steven1981

Mar 21, 2020

Road House is a 1989 thriller action movie that blends sex, romance and suspense into the mix plus a bunch of random songs throughout the movie such as Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine." which I hate with a passion. We have many tough guy characters, many dopey and dumb characters and manyRoad House is a 1989 thriller action movie that blends sex, romance and suspense into the mix plus a bunch of random songs throughout the movie such as Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine." which I hate with a passion. We have many tough guy characters, many dopey and dumb characters and many intimidating characters and factors in the movie and barfights plus Swayze's smile. The main character in the movie is Dalton (Patrick Swayze) who's hired by Tilghman (Kevin Tighe) the owner of some rundown bar called the Double Deuce. He's hired to clean it up because drugs happen there, fights and general trouble and unpleasantness and Dalton (Swayze) is the best and accepts the job but only on his own terms. However before he can clean the Double Deuce up he must deal with Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara) and his thugs who own the town and make everyone's life a misery and he gets involved romantically with Kelly Lynch who's some doctor or something and some chick called Denise strips more or less naked in the movie. There is some nudity, music, explosions, violence, bad language and sex and some blood but Road House isn't the best action movie and many may hate it but there's worse. Some of the characters are odd and Patrick Swayze's acting is okay some times and laughable the next but it's fairly decent even if stupid.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

OriginalDanger

Jul 12, 2020

Road House is a 1989 kind of action, romance film but it's quite violent... Fights going on, nudity scenes, possibly scenes of sex, loud and sometimes irritating music, violence and stuff.... Patrick Swayze's hired to clean up a bar called the Double Deuce because he's the best bouncerRoad House is a 1989 kind of action, romance film but it's quite violent... Fights going on, nudity scenes, possibly scenes of sex, loud and sometimes irritating music, violence and stuff.... Patrick Swayze's hired to clean up a bar called the Double Deuce because he's the best bouncer around. There's the villains also there to try to make his job harder for him and cause devastation in the town so Swayze must eliminate them. Also starring Ben Gazzara, Kelly Lynch and Sam Elliott.... Road House isn't the best film but watchable and if you like violence look no further because Road House has plenty whether it be gunfire, fights, explosions. Some of the characters are dopey or stupid but like I said it's not the best film so if your expecting whipped cream on top watch another movie and yes Road House has it's flaws and faults and bad moments but for the most it's entertaining and fairly enjoyable but the music is somewhat to be desired. The main villain is ridiculous because he seems a bit rusty in my book but Patrick Swayze's role as Dalton in Road House is okay but he gives off too much of a macho image which doesn't suit him but his acting was reasonable as far as I'm concerned. Check it out because it's fairly decent but not the best but be warned it contains nudity aswell as violence so kids should avoid it.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

ninjawaiter

Jun 29, 2022

Not all classics are classic because they’re good. Sometimes they’re just infamous.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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