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.

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.

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.

"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.