Road House 2

(2006) Road House 2: Last Call ACTION

Straight-to-rental flick starring Johnathon Schaech as D. E. A.(Drug Enforcement Agent) agent, Shane Tanner going to some small town located around Tyree, Louisiana from New York to nab some serious drug dealers lead by the notorious "Wild Bill" played by Jake Busey and main boss, Victor played by real life martial artist and real life bodyguard to Linda Ronstadt, Richard Norton. And while their is action mostly martial art fighting both from the bad guys as well is good, it's nothing we haven't seen before, and the gun fights are a dismissal. It is only related to the first "Road House" movie by name only.

"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

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.

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.

What? No wait, no pun intended, also no last call for anything. Since there is a remake of the very first Road House on the way. This sequel in name only is really far inferior to the other movie. It does mirror some of the scenes of the first one, but does have an overall story, which I reckon it felt was missing from the other movie.

But what the other movie may have been "lacking" story wise, this lacks in almost everything else. Although it was made over a decade after the first one, the fight scenes seem worse. Ok so that may be a budget thing - but for a movie that relies on those ... well not just on those. We also get the nudity, the sex appeal and so forth. The machismo may not be as big as it was in the first one ... but while I really like Jonathan, he is no Patrick Swayze. Sorry to say - but I am certain most will agree.

This is not the worse movie ever, but with the title I reckon many expect more. Or will be satisfied because they expected way worse ... depends on you. I do expect way better things from Jake Gyllenhaal who may just have the charisma to pull of the remake all by himself.