Road House (1989)

Dalton (Patrick Swayze) is a legendary “Cooler” who directs and backs up bouncers in rough-and-tumble bars. When a man known as Tilghman (Kevin Tighe) offers to pay him whatever he wants to charge in order to clean up his own bar, the Double Deuce, Dalton accepts and when he moves there and begins cleaning up house, he finds that some folks are resistant to his changes – chief among them Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzarra), who is a lot more dangerous than he looks.

I put off watching the film for years, due to a love-hate relationship I had with Patrick Swayze. I finally found it on Netflix and decided to watch it.

I have to say right off the bat that I did enjoy the film, despite anything that was wrong with it. If anyone could pull off playing a philosopher/bouncer….it was Swayze. Of course, in Road House, he doesn’t really get to pull out all the stops with his lines or dialogue…but he does kick some serious ass, even while wearing mom jeans.

Sam Elliott also has a role in this film as Wade Garrett, although his screen time is far too short. It was great to see HIM kick some ass, too. Most of the fights are your run-of-the mill 80’s bar fights but there were also generous amounts of topless scenes and even a few explosions (I know, right?).

If anything, Road House is worth watching in honor of the now-deceased Patrick Swayze. Though his acting chops weren’t quite up to par like they were in Donnie Darko, you can definitely see why Swayze was all the rage back in the day.

Whether you appreciate Swayze or just need a good, cheesy flick to watch on a Friday night – this one’s for you.

JOE Rating: ★★★★

Hell On Wheels: Season 1 (2011)

Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) is a former Confederate soldier in a country that’s healing after the American Civil War and the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln – and he’s searching for his wife’s killers, most of whom were Union soldiers during the war. Leaving a bunch of corpses in his wake, Cullen finds himself one of the individuals living in Hell On Wheels – the temporary, mobile town following the progress of the Transcontinental Railroad as it spreads west.

When I first saw the description of this show on Netflix, I thought it might be some sort of cheesy programming reserved for late nights at home. I was wrong on that count.

Hell On Wheels, at least the first season, was pretty enjoyable overall. The main character, Cullen, shrugs off traditional southern “Rebel” stereotypes and in a way flips it so that the Union has a few bad eggs in it, too. Cullen has his low points but overall seems to use his own code of honor.

One thing I have to say is that for a man searching for his wife’s killers, he seems to take a while to really get into the hunt. We have a few instances early on in the season where he really digs in but then it almost seems as if he forgets his mission while he’s moving on down the rails.

Since Deadwood hasn’t been on the air, I’ve been looking for similar programming and while this show isn’t as great as Deadwood, it has some of the same, dusty, late 1800’s flavoring that made Deadwood so cool. I’ll definitely be checking out the second season. Hell On Wheels, like many of its characters, is likable even if it has some flaws.

JOE Rating: ★★★★