Road House 2: Last Call

I saw the behind the scenes featurette on the special edition of Roadhouse. My first thought was no way a sequel could be made with out Swayze, no way, then Jonathon Schaech came into my bar( yea, I was bouncing when Roadhouse came out then and now, how sad) this past weekend and we got a chance to talk. He is a real cool guy. A regular joe. Just on that meeting I rented the movie. I tell ya' it's not bad. The fight scenes are outstanding, although not too realist (not smart to kick high), but close , they are very well done. Schaech is very fast, I doubt they used camera tricks, he is a natural. The acting is good; I wish Jake would have gone a little bit more over the top. The women are all hot, the fight scene between the two females at the end, nice, very nice. All and all it's not bad, a worthy sequel and come on, Will Patton is in it, that is just icing on the cake.

This film essentially begins with a nightclub owner in rural Louisiana by the name of "Nate Tanner" (Will Patton) having some difficulties with a drug lord named "Wild Bill" (Jake Busey) who is determined to buy him out. Eventually, things turn violent and Nate is hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the local hospital. Since there is nobody else in the family to run the nightclub, Nate's nephew "Shane Tanner" (Johnathon Schaech) takes time off from his duties as a DEA agent in New York to fill in for him. Needless to say, he is not intimidated when Wild Bill comes around demanding that he sell the nightclub to him and that's when things soon get out-of-control. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a film that was not only highly predictable but also contained several ridiculous fight scenes involving certain characters who had sustained serious injuries days-if not minutes-beforehand. I also didn't quite care for the over-acting on the part of Jake Busey. Admittedly, I liked the Louisiana Bayou scenery and having two attractive actresses like Ellen Hollman (as Shane's girlfriend "Beau") and Marisa Quintanilla ("Nadja") certainly didn't hurt in that regard either. In any case, although this isn't a terrible movie by any means, the picture had too much of a cut-and-paste feel to it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

It's been 20 years since Patrick Swayze cleaned up that other Road House that Kevin Tighe owned in the original Road House. He's got a son now who's a chip off the old karate block and DEA agent to boot played by Jonathan Schaech.

Business gets combined with pleasure and vengeance when Schaech is busy trying to take down a drug kingpin. That selfsame drug kingpin is also looking to move in on the bar owned by Will Patton who is Schaech's uncle. This road house is in the Louisiana bayous on a well traveled road that the cartels use for smuggling. Oh, and did we say that this same crowd murdered Swayze before the action of this film takes place.

It's all just a little too neatly conveniently wrapped up in a nice package, all of Schaech's issues getting resolved at once. And this Road House certainly does not have the great performance of Ben Gazzara who was the head villain there. Richard Norton and Jake Busey just don't enter into that class.

One to watch for in this film is Marisa Quintanilla a pretty, but deadly assassin. Her chick fight with Ellen Hollman is one for the books.

Road House 2: Last Call just does not have the style of the original Road House. No wonder Patrick Swayze declined participation.

I didn't actually know that there was a sequel released to the 1989 movie "Road House", but having sat down to watch the 1989 and the 2024 reboot yesterday, I found my way to sit down and watch the 2006 movie "Road House 2: Last Call" as well.

As I had never heard about the movie, and thus never seen it, I didn't know what to expect from director Scott Ziehl. So he had every opportunity to impress and entertain me with this 2006 sequel.

Writers Miles Chapman, Johnathon Schaech and Richard Chizmar put together a fair enough script and storyline, though it felt a bit campy and not overly original. But it certainly made a suitable viewing experience the first time around. "Road House 2: Last Call" is hardly going to become a classic like the 1989 movie was.

The movie does, however, have a good cast ensemble, with the likes of Johnathon Schaech, Jake Busey and Will Patton, among others. And the acting performances were actually good enough.

There was a good amount of action in the movie, and some nicely choreographed and executed fight scenes, which definitely helped to keep the movie afloat.

I will say, though, that "Road House 2: Last Call" proved better than what I had initially expected from a sequel such as it turned out to be. But hardly a movie that had me all thrilled and worked up.

My rating of "Road House 2: Last Call" lands on a five out of ten stars.

"Direct-to-video" is a phrase that never sounds promising to the consumer unless its a direct-to-video sequel to something that went direct-to-video in the first place. Despite this, studios have insisted on releasing numerous direct-to-video sequels over the years to cult hits. I don't think it even needs to be mentioned that these sequels rank among some of the worst titles of all time, including THE HITCHER II, STARSHIP TROOPERS 2, and CRUEL INTENTIONS 3. It's fitting that ROAD HOUSE 2 was helmed by Scott Ziehl as he was also the man in charge of ruining the Cruel Intentions series. Like his entry in the Cruel Intentions trilogy, Ziehl takes elements that made the first ROAD HOUSE a great guy flick, and rehashes them with no success whatsoever. This is no sequel, this is a remake all the way. Various lines from the original are repeated, plot points cut and pasted, and scenes are replicated almost shot-for-shot from the first one. The one thing that could not be duplicated were the amazing fight scenes, which made ROAD HOUSE what it was. Here, we get clumsily directed fight sequences that are either too short or too long and seemingly planned out and shot within an hour. Compare that with its predecessor's fight scenes that look like they took months and months to prepare. Ziehl is capable of directing action as he did well with the 2001 remake of EARTH VS. THE SPIDER, but none of the talent shown there comes through in this mess. It's not completely his fault, as the screenplay is very, very poorly written and clunky. I don't care if something goes direct-to-video, a good script is still required. Someone should keep that mind while continuously churning these low-budget, direct-to-DVD movies out. Skip it entirely. 1/10