Prime Video releases Road House, the “adrenaline-fueled reimagining” of the 1989 Patrick Swayze cult classic, on Thursday.
In the film, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a down-on-his-luck former MMA fighter who takes a job trying to keep the peace as a bouncer at a rowdy Florida Keys roadhouse.
However, Billy Magnussen‘s sleazy Brandt has a family criminal legacy to live up to. He hires Knox, played by MMA champ Conor McGregor in his first movie role, and J.D. Pardo, who plays Dell, the head of a motorcycle gang, to bust up the joint.
Magnussen and Pardo both say the movie celebrates Swayze’s action classic.
“It was just awesome,” Magnussen enthuses of the original.
Pardo adds, “Incredible, man. I absolutely love that movie … So for me, it was just like to be a part of this, and pay tribute in a way to that, and Patrick Swayze, is just incredible.”
Magnussen adds, “You know what I think is really interesting? A film like that, if we look at it on paper, like, like, ‘What is the plot of this movie?’ But then you watch the film and … you go like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to enjoy it.'”
For Daniela Melchior, who plays the local doctor who falls for Gyllenhaal’s character, one of the best parts of the movie was watching McGregor work. “[I]t was so special to get to see Conor doing something for the first time because he’s so … successful in the other areas that he’s working — as a businessman, as a fighter, as everything,” she says. “So it was really special to see him doing something for the first time.”
They all agree, however, McGregor “is a character” but praise how willing he was to learn.
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