Road House 2024 Finally Ends A Disappointing '80s Action Trend

Summary 2024's Road House breaks the curse of bad '80s action movie remakes by adding humor and its own style.

Earlier remakes like Red Dawn and Robocop failed due to lack of humor and the use of a unique directorial style.

Road House's success can serve as a blueprint for future '80s action movie remakes, emphasizing impactful action and light-hearted treatment.

Although 2024's Road House isn’t perfect, it is the first ‘80s action movie remake to end one terrible trend. Hollywood loves remaking classic movies, but that doesn't mean that audiences and critics want to see the many re-imaginings that the studio system offers. That’s why 2024’s Road House remake was such a pleasant surprise that the modern redo of Patrick Swayze’s iconic 1989 action movie turned out to be a fun, self-aware thrill ride with its own style and storyline. By Road House 2024's ending, the Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle had managed to emerge from the original movie's shadow.

This is great news for ‘80s action movie remakes, which, until now, were not known for their critical success. The ‘80s were a pivotal decade for action cinema as stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s movies dominated the box office. Later in the decade, Lethal Weapon and Die Hard gave action movies a tone that was simultaneously more realistic and more self-aware, helping shape the winking, meta comic relief of modern blockbusters in the process. However, while 2024’s Road House proved mercifully fun, earlier attempts to replicate the decade's action hits failed miserably over the years.

Related How Much Would Road House 2024 Have Made At The Box Office If It Released In Theaters? The Road House remake has found huge success on streaming, which begs the question of how much money could it have made with a theatrical release.

Road House Ends The Trend Of Bad '80s Action Remakes

Red Dawn and Robocop’s Pointless Remakes Are A Distant Memory

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Until 2024's Road House, earlier remakes of ‘80s action movies had mostly been terrible. 2012’s Total Recall and 2014’s Robocop both stripped the original movies of their gory action and their biting satirical wit, leaving them feeling toothless and uninspired. 2012’s Red Dawn sapped the laughably jingoistic original movie of its life, resulting in a humorless re-imagining that flopped at the box office upon release. Even 2006’s Miami Vice, which was better than its admirable reviews implied, was nowhere near as fun as the original series and fared comparatively well only because it wasn't a movie remake.

'80s Action Remakes RT Critics Score Miami Vice (2006) 47% Red Dawn (2012) 15% Total Recall (2012) 31% Robocop (2014) 49% Road House (2024) 60%

It might be tempting to say that all upcoming ‘80s action remakes need Jake Gyllenhaal, but there is more to the failure of these earlier efforts. Red Dawn failed largely because the original movie was a product of the paranoid cultural environment of the Cold War, meaning the remake’s politics made no sense when it was released. Robocop and Total Recall both needed the unique style of Paul Verhoeven to succeed since the visionary director managed to balance satirical insight with gruesome R-rated action set pieces. Losing these two vital elements ruined both remakes as they felt sanitized and pointless.

Why '80s Action Movie Remakes Have Been So Unsuccessful

Earlier Re-imaginings Of ‘80s Action Movies Lacked Humor

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Road House understood that ‘80s action movies are too silly to take seriously, and this proved central to the remake’s surprising success.

The biggest change that Road House’s remake made to the ‘80s action re-imagining formula was adding a sense of humor to proceedings. ‘80s action remakes need to be funny since the decade is famous for its excesses and absurd trends. Road House 2024’s playful references to the original movie prove that the remake isn’t taking itself too seriously, while Gyllenhaal’s sardonic take on Dalton couldn’t be less like Swayze’s sincere, original hero. Even Verhoeven’s over-the-top satirical action movies never became tongue-in-cheek, with Robocop and Total Recall rarely winking at the audience or acknowledging their ludicrousness.

It is understandable that the remakes of these action movies stuck to their original tone, but this proved to be a fatal mistake. The ‘80s were a singular decade and what seemed serious then is unavoidably laughable now. If Red Dawn’s remake had been able to mock the absurd McCarthyism of the original movie, the 2012 movie might have been a raucous, funny action comedy in the vein of 21 Jump Street or 2017’s Baywatch. Road House understood that ‘80s action movies are too silly to take seriously, and this proved central to the remake’s surprising success.

Related 12 Biggest Things Road House's Remake Leaves Out From The 1989 Movie From minor plot points to whole entire characters, the 2024 Road House remake leaves out quite a few details from the original 1989 movie.

Road House Provides A Blueprint For Other '80s Action Remakes

Road House 2012’s Success Can Teach Future Action Movie Remakes A Lot

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While Road House’s remake success proves that the next Patrick Swayze re-imaginings could be equally good, the 2024 hit is mostly useful as a road map for any future remakes of ‘80s action movies. Even expensive misfires like director Marcus Nispel’s 2011 Conan the Barbarian remake, which combined fantasy with R-rated action, could learn from the movie. 2024's Road House proves that a remake that takes its action seriously but treats its source material lightly can succeed with critics and viewers alike.

The bruising fight scenes in 2024's Road House are no joke, even though the surrounding movie has a silly storyline and over-the-top characters. Any future ‘80s action movie remakes would be wise to learn from this approach. Road House’s remake doesn’t feel too smug or silly, since its action is impactful, but it also never makes the mistake of treating the original cult classic with undue reverence. Instead, Road House takes the original movie as seriously as it should be taken, something that could have saved many earlier remakes.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes