Monthly Archives: March 2024

Amazon Prime Movie Review: Road House

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In the entire history of Cable TV, the 1989 movie “Road House” has probably been telecast more than any other movie, despite the fact that the entire movie is not only bad, but ridiciulous. The ending included several scenes of murder by main character James Dalton, played by the late Patrick Swayze, one witnessed by his girlfriend Dr. Elizabeth Clay, played by Kelly Lynch. Then the abrupt ending included Dalton and his doctor girlfriend hugging in a lake. All is forgiven? No police or an arrest? This entire movie, while still bad, has become a major cult film and because of this ongoing popularity, now 35 years later, the remake with the new “Road House” on Amazon Prime has been released.

The good news is that unlike many other remakes of popular movies over the years, this one is probably more different than the original than any other remake I have ever seen. There are only a few scenes that are copied from the original with the main idea, a rich local man trying to take over the Road House bar mostly intact and Dalton has a girlfriend who is also a doctor.

Anyone has to admire the hard work and physical dedication of Jake Gyllenhaal who plays Dalton for getting into such extreme shape for this role along with the many fight scenes, that include several with MMA fighter Conor McGregor, who plays Max. From recent interviews, Gyllenhaal admitted that he and McGregor made full contact during several of the scenes, risking serious injury.

Due to the different and far more involved story of this new version, the Rotten Tomatoes ratings are correctly much higher than the original, 65% to 41%. Like the original version, the entire reason for watching a movie like this is for the fighting action with several fight scenes in this version more impressive than the first movie. As far as the acting, it was good for a movie of this quality with an ending that I thought was too convoluted for an overall movie idea this simple. The best scene in this movie was when Dalton beat up four men easily in the parking lot in front of the Road House bar and then, drove them to the hospital. This was a new and funny idea inside of an action movie like this one.

For fans of the original Road House, this new one is good enough to watch, once again, mostly for the action scenes. I agree with the Rotten Tomatoes rating of 65% and recommend this film, for the die hard fans of the original.

Movie Review: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

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One would have thought, that the producers and owners of the Ghostbusters franchise that started in 1984 – 40 years ago, would have learned from the low ratings of the last movie “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”, released in late 2021 that it was time to try and save this franchise before it was too late. Unfortunately the latest, and hopefully last installment, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is even worse than the last film.

What is most tragic is that everybody knows that the first Ghostbusters movie and the second one, released in 1989 were both good movies. Given that the screenwriters and producers had two solid templates to work from, it makes no sense that the last two movies have been so bad. The first problem is that both these films are almost completely devoid of any humor, which is the number one reason why the first two movies worked so well. Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd were very funny in the first two installments, but in these last two sequels, Murray is rarely in either movie and both Akroyd and Murray are never funny. In the case of Akryod and Murray, the obvious solution would be to allow them to create their own lines using improvisation; this alone would have made this latest bad Ghostbusters movie much better.

The other problem is the scene-to-scene jumping without any connections between the last scene or enough explanation to satisfactorily describe why anything is happening. Another problem is that a great deal of these almost 2 hours are very boring and I remember looking at my watch too many times, hoping that this mostly bad experience would soon be over.

The cast includes the same actors from the last sequel, who are the relatives of Dr. Egon Spengler, played by the late Harold Ramis, including Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace, with new cast members Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt. For the second time in a row, the screenwriters and director once again made the normally excellent comedic actor Paul Rudd boring.

Due to the poor reviews in 2021 for the last Ghostbusters movie, I am surprised that they made a second attempt so soon. Most likely the producers thought that because of the guaranteed built in audience, this latest film will still make money, no matter how bad it is. Unfortunately they may be right about this, which is why so many bad sequels are made.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a too high 46% with my rating only 20% and a big – miss this one and see the first two movies instead recommendation.

Movie Review: Love Lies Bleeding

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Squalor, a miserable terrible job, homelessness, a bleak and poor future, and extreme depression are all realities that are the beginning of the new movie “Love Lies Bleeding”. This movie starts with the main character Lou, played by Kristen Stewart, with her arm (while wearing rubber gloves) inside a disgusting clogged toilet bowl trying to fix the clog. Perhaps the dilapidated gym she was working in did not have a plunger? This first scene sets the tone of this movie, which is shocking, at times disgusting, vile, and all about the lowest levels of humanity, including even homelessness.

The story is about the lesbian relationship between Lou, and Jackie a female bodybuilder played Katy O’Brian, who starts to use steroids. It is Jackie’s steroid abuse and the domestic abuse suffered by Lou’s sister Beth, played by Jena Malone from her husband JJ, played by Dave Franco that are the main parts of a story that deteriorates into a Shakespearian tragedy involving multiple murders.

There are several scenes of the intense physical relationship between Lou and Jackie, obviously making this film not for children. While the story is good overall, there are the standard “let’s try and be different” insane and delusional visual scenes that are derived from the gross abuse of Jackie’s constant shooting vials of steroids. Some of these scenes are so crazy that anyone could argue they almost ruin the entire movie. Why try so hard to create visual effects that nobody has ever seen before, rather than just concentrate on the quality of the overall story?

Ed Harris, plays Lou Sr, Lou’s father, who is not only the wealthy owner of a gun shooting range but also has most of the police force under his control. Lou’s horrendous poverty, despite her father’s wealth, is due to their severe estrangement and is a source of numerous scenes of rage and conflict throughout this film.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Love Lies Bleeding are way too high 92%, with my rating at 80%, and a recommendation mostly for the acting and the parts of the story that do not include off-the-wall visual scenes that have no business being in any movie.