Surprise! 'Road House 2: Last Call' Lacks The Original's Spirit

Road House: Dalton Tanner is a cooler– a kick-ass lead bouncer – at a fancy club in New York City, but he leaves it behind when he's offered the chance to help turn around a violent club in Missouri called the Double Deuce. He arrives and quickly drops the hammer on the troublemakers, but his effort to clean it up finds him enemies in small-time thugs and a ruthless businessman. He's not all that concerned, though, as he's something of a renaissance man with a degree in Philosophy who reads Jim Harrison novels shirtless and carries his medical file with him at all times for the sake of expediency. Dalton also has a secret past, and as trouble grows from extortion and threats to monster truck carnage and cold-blooded murder his hands and feet are forced into lethal action as he helps the small town's locals fight back against their most vicious resident. (Did I just describe the plot of more than a few Jack Reacher books?)

1989's original was obviously a star vehicle for Patrick Swayze, and it succeeds as he gives a memorably cool performance as a man who's not nearly as big as everyone expects but far more dangerous. He's joined on the side of right by the gloriously maned Sam Elliott, finds love in the arms of a doctor played by Kelly Lynch, has a musically inclined friend in Jeff Healey, and clashes with the legendary Ben Gazzara. We even get a young-ish Keith David sighting! Director Rowdy Herrington isn't exactly a marquee name, but he's brought the goods with a handful of genre efforts including Jack's Back (1988) and Striking Distance (1993). The film's co-writers are even less well-known, but R. Lance Hill (8 Million Ways to Die, 1986) and Hilary Henkin (Romeo Is Bleeding, 1993) have both penned some strong thrillers.

The sequel landed on home video seventeen years later, and as expected it has a far lighter talent roster. Johnathon Schaech (8MM 2, 2005) takes the lead and does the typically good work we're used to seeing from him, and you can never go wrong adding Will Patton to your film. It's a bit downhill from there, though, as the only other familiar faces belong to Jake Busey as the dealer Wild Bill, William Ragsdale as a bouncer, and Richard Norton as the big bad. Not knocking any of them, but they're not exactly selling points. Director Scott Ziehl had a steady couple of decades as a filmmaker, but if you've seen any of them you've got me beat. The film's co-writers are slightly better off with Miles Chapman having written all three Escape Plan movies – yes, three, so expect that franchise to make the cut in this column down the road – and Richard Chizmar also being the publisher behind a fantastic small-press imprint called Cemetery Dance.

Road House is hugely entertaining despite not being a great movie in the traditional sense – come on, you know it's true – and a lot of that has to do with the sweaty charisma of Swayze, Elliott, and friends. It sells the Southern grime even as the story beats tease the outlandish and exaggerated in the best 80s fashion. Dalton rips a dude's throat out, a monster truck drives through a car dealership, we're treated to a trio of killer explosions, and Swayze's fight moves feature an impressive combination of martial arts and dance.

The sequel lacks the star power, though, and the charisma is equally missing in action. Shane never feels bigger than life, and the attempt at giving him an engaging past – similar to Dalton's having killed someone in self-defense only to regret it – stumbles through some shadowy flashbacks that ultimately offer nothing of importance (while distracting with a terrible voice impression I think is meant to be Swayze). Beau's far more of an interesting character, especially after she mentions having served in the Army as a way of explaining why she's a martial arts scrapper, and it's enough to make you wish she had been the lead protagonist. (Not for nothing, but it also makes me wish the proposed Road House reboot with Ronda Rousey would have moved forward.) Most of the action is equally uneventful as generic staging and choreography feel like forgettable filler, and while the pair of fight scenes mentioned above are good fun they're marred slightly by the obviousness of the stunt doubles.

Also, and this is important, there's not a damn thing threatening about Jake Busey. Cast him as a religious nut (Contact) or a gung ho grunt (Starship Troopers) and I buy it, but as a menacing bad guy? Pit him against Schaech in a fight and expect me to believe he might actually win? Just stop. He was equally miscast in 2003's The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting, but at least there he was just one part of an abysmal whole.