Jake Gyllenhaal Smashes All the Faces in “Road House” Trailer

Roger Ebert summed up the original Road House perfectly in his review: "[It] 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." Whether this remake will reach the same ridiculous heights remains to be seen. But this one does have Jake Gyllenhaal (taking over the Patrick Swayze role), Billy Magnussen, and a guy getting eaten by an alligator. Your mileage may vary on Conor McGregor as a scenery-chewing villain.

Gyllenhaal - continuing to show off the ripped bod he got for 2015's lousy boxing drama Southpaw - plays Dalton, the bone-crunching bouncer of a Florida Keys bar owned by Frankie (Jessica Williams). His derailment of violence and drug-dealing draws the attention of a scheming developer (Billy Magnussen) and other nefarious types. Will Dalton be able to punch his way out of this one, or will he have to rip a guy's throat out to prove his point, like Swayze did? Viewers can find out very soon.

Road House premieres at SXSW in early March, with an exclusive streaming debut on Prime Video on March 21.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.