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History may relegate Patrick Swayze to the dust heap of Hollywood has-beens; but with his lead turn in Rowdy Herrington’s Road House, he stakes his claim to cinematic immortality. Swayze, clad in cowboy boots and skin-tight jeans, is Dalton, a former New York University philosophy student and martial arts expert who (we kid you not) works as a "cooler" (head bouncer) at a rough-and-tumble honky-tonk in Jasper, Missouri. This place is so tough that the house band (led by blind blues guitarist Jeff Healey) plays in a cage to protect them from flying bottles and hurled bodies. None of this fazes Dalton, who manages to: keep the unruly rednecks in line without mussing a strand of his blow-dried hair; clean up the town, which is under the thumb of a wealthy thug (Ben Gazzara); and get down with a hot blonde doctor (Kelly Lynch). Along the way he dodges monster trucks and mouths lines like "Pain don’t hurt" while stitching up his own wounds, Terminator-style. Is this schizophrenic mishmash of westerns, gangster films, and kung fu movies ludicrous? Completely, and that’s what makes Road House so much fun. Swayze, taking the role of soulful hunk to heart, plays the whole thing utterly straight: He’s the ultimate strong-silent screen archetype of the Reagan ‘80s. Bad movies just don’t get any better than this. Kryssa Schemmerling

All Movie Guide

Love, treachery, and broken furniture are the hallmarks of this rollicking action drama. Dalton (Patrick Swayze) has a Ph.D., but rather than make a living teaching Socrates at some university, he's opted to become a top-drawer "cooler" -- an expert barroom bouncer who can break up fights without getting himself killed in the process. Dalton is hired to keep the peace at the Double Deuce, a rough-and-tumble honky tonk in Jasper, Missouri, where beer-soaked free-for-alls are a nightly event. Dalton is hurt on his first night on the job, and he is patched up by "Doc" Clay (Kelly Lynch), a beautiful woman working as the town's physician. Dalton and Doc immediately hit it off, but Dalton learns that another man, Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara), already has his eye on her. Wesley is a man used to getting his way; he's an extortionist and crime boss who has nearly everyone in Jasper under his thumb, and he sets out to teach Dalton a lesson, while Dalton is determined to clean up the town like he breaks up brawls at the Double Deuce. Sam Elliott plays Dalton's mentor Wade, and Red West, a one-time member of Elvis Presley's "Memphis Mafia," appears as Webster; Canadian blues-rock guitarist Jeff Healey leads the Double Deuce house band. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 027616151186
• Source: MGM (VIDEO & DVD)
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Editions: Special Edition, Subtitled, Dubbed
• Time: 1:54:00
• Sales Rank: 2,838

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• United Artists Super Deluxe Gift Set (90 films)

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