Film Assessment: A remake of ‘Highway Home’ with Jake Gyllenhaal turns right into a muscular, Florida romp
Elwood P. Dalton is an aesthetic type of bouncer. Whereas 5 powerful guys circle him outdoors a bar trying to bash his cranium in, he has a query for them: “Earlier than we begin, do you could have insurance coverage?” And after savagely beating every up, he kindly drives them to the hospital.
Dalton — performed by a muscular and languid Jake Gyllenhaal — is a former UFC fighter with a darkish previous in “Highway Home,” a remodeling of the pulpy 1989 motion movie starring Patrick Swayze.
“You positive you thought this all through?” Dalton at one level asks an assailant who has the nerve to plunge a knife into his stomach. The identical query might be requested of the filmmakers: Is it actually smart to retread this previous flick? The reply is as stunning as a sucker punch: Sure, certainly.
Gyllenhaal is a type of Spider-Man-meets-Jack Reacher-meets Jason Bourne, an oddball loner with ferocious preventing skills who makes a dwelling in unlawful fights and lives in his automotive, haunted by what he did to a good friend within the octagon. He douses booze on his open wounds and makes use of electrical tape as an alternative of a bandage, but he additionally oddly makes use of wheelie baggage. (You anticipated a giant previous black duffel, proper?) What’s within the baggage? A loss of life want, after all.
He’s lured to the Florida Keys by a roadhouse bar proprietor (the all the time brilliantly tart Jessica Williams), who wants a wonderful bouncer to guard her from nightly violence. He is provided $5,000 every week to cease thugs in sleeveless jean jackets from throwing bottles, flipping tables and breaking pool cues. (The Florida vacationer board will love this film).
“I’m hoping you’re totally different,” a bar worker says and he’s. Dalton settles within the fictional Glass Key, dates a cutie, makes pals with the nice folks and lives in what all broken loners gravitate to, a houseboat. He quickly teaches the opposite bouncers the methods of the commerce, Zen-like, and finds wonderful causes to take off his shirt.
“I’m just a few man,” he says. “You don’t wish to know me.”
Then he uncovers a conspiracy proper out of “Scooby-Doo:” The land beneath the bar is essential to the creation of a luxurious resort dreamed up by the native wealthy man and crooked cops. Mainly, organized crime is attempting to drive the bar proprietor out of enterprise. “Zoinks!”
At this level, “Highway Home” will get an instantaneous jolt of electrical energy from former UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who makes his appearing debut as a psychotic gun-for-hire Knox. He might have among the best intros in movie historical past, casually strolling down a European city buck bare apart from a pair of shoes.
Dalton and Knox are destined to go mano-a-mano and there is a grudging respect between them. They’re each deeply reduce and so they’re each tousled. “There’s one thing improper with you. Me too,” the Irish mountain of muscle groups says. He is the type of chaos agent who picks up a golf membership and says he needs to go “clubbing.”
Like an evening of heavy ingesting, issues will get slightly weird towards the top of the film because it begins straying removed from the roadhouse. Pace boats go flying, explosions go bang and somebody makes use of arson to ship a message. A lethal crocodile that performs an outsized position is unfortunately deserted.
Screenwriters Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry have leaned into cliches — lifeless moms, double-crosses and quirky children that pull out the paternal a part of our heroes. However a menacing, unstable McGregor is a present. So is Billy Magnussen, who performs the wealthy boy bully deliciously preppy. He is so evil, he throws his cellphone into the ocean out of frustration, then asks an underling to retrieve it.
“The Bourne Identification” director Doug Liman appears to be having enjoyable, his digital camera lingering on the chiseled beefsteak and mixing in honky tonk songs by the deliciously named Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & The Zydeco Twisters. The motion scenes are dynamite, layering POV digital camera work with nice, thundering, bottle smashing stunts. It is aware of it is foolish, but it surely’s nonetheless a very good time.
That is motive sufficient that Liman is upset the film is avoiding cineplexes and going straight to streaming. However he might rectify that. He might rent, like, an unstable, however gracious, former fighter who lives in his automotive. For just a few thousand, that man could make issues proper.
“Highway Home,” an Amazon MGM Studios launch streaming on Prime Video from March 21, is rated R for “nudity, violence, alcohol use and foul language.” Working time: 114 minutes. Three stars out of 4.
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MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Beneath 17 requires accompanying father or mother or grownup guardian.
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On-line: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/element/B0CH61M727/ref=atv_hm_hom_c_foFU9R_10_2?jic=8percent7CEgNhbGwpercent3D
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
