Road House

The star bouncer Dalton, who can bring any dive to heel, is offered a new job in the little town of Jasper. There are plenty of people who would like to dance, flirt and have a good time at the Double Deuce music venue, but the motley clientele keeps attendance figures well down. Dalton is to change that.

At first the transformation from seedy joint to respectable club goes fairly smoothly, but gradually Dalton learns that he has more odds stacked against him than expected. The cynical moneyman Wade Garrett, who has the town in the palm of his hand, has it in for Dalton, both because he cannot be bought and because the doctor Elizabeth, whom Garrett is pursuing, falls for the new man in town.

After a promising first half, in which the dialogue works, the characters seem reasonably credible and the story actually grips, the drama degenerates into a tasteless explosion of violence. The idiotic ending, which is very hard to take seriously, makes the film fall flat with a crash. One can more easily come to terms with the fact that there is some eye candy on offer - for both men and women.