Opening

87% Star Trek Into Darkness May 16
24% Erased May 17
91% Frances Ha May 17
44% The English Teacher May 17
42% Black Rock May 17
77% Pieta May 17
—— Populaire May 17
21% 33 Postcards May 17

Top Box Office

78% Iron Man 3 $72.5M
50% The Great Gatsby $50.1M
47% Pain & Gain $5.0M
37% Peeples $4.6M
77% 42 $4.6M
56% Oblivion $4.1M
69% The Croods $3.6M
98% Mud $2.5M
8% The Big Wedding $2.5M
60% Oz the Great and Powerful $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
77% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— Epic May 24
94% Before Midnight May 24

Road House (1989)

tomatometer

14

Average Rating: 4.2/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 6

No consensus yet.

audience

66

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 58,715

My Rating

Movie Info

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 Duce, a rough-and-tumble honky tonk in Jasper, Missouri, where beer-soaked free-for-alls are a nightly event.

R,

Drama, Action & Adventure, Romance

Feb 4, 2003

United Artists - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (28) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (19) | DVD (18)

Eventually it mutates into a paranoid revenge plot that might be called Walking Short.

April 30, 2012 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Its vigilante justice, lawlessness and wanton violence feel ludicrous in a modern setting.

January 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
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Mindless entertainment of the highest order.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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Road House is much funnier than most comedies, until it turns vile instead of just stupid.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The grotesque soon drowns out the giggles.

May 12, 2001
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Road House lays out its story with the subtlety of a wrestling match, and probably with less sharpness or savvy.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An immensely enjoyable slice of romanticised fisticuffs, this is a Western in every respect except the stetsons and six guns.

April 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

Good-natured enough, but essentially an excuse for lots of mindless violence perpetrated by one-dimensional characters.

April 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

Swayze kicks some serious ass

March 23, 2008

Swayze is up to a part that requires him merely to show his muscles and dexterity, but Gazzara is trapped in his hopelessly evil caricature, leaving Sam Elliott (in a too-limited role) to provide the film's only real charm.

January 8, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Badass brawls, broken beer bottles, booming beats, big boobs and bad blood.

July 27, 2006 Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal
Montreal Film Journal

Road House is the mother of all stop signs for channel surfers everywhere.

July 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Bullz-Eye.com
Bullz-Eye.com

As trite and clichéd as the screenplay is, two additional commentary options are so clever that it's like going to watch a really bad movie with awfully funny people--the kind who make side comments the whole time.

July 19, 2006
Reel.com

'Road House' is a terrible movie, and by 'terrible' I mean 'awesome.'

July 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star

...it's hard to go wrong with a film that features such choice bits of dialogue as "nobody ever wins a fight," "be nice until it's time to not be nice," and, of course, "pain don't hurt."

July 11, 2006 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

the gayest thing next to a gladiator movie

May 31, 2006 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comments (2)
Filmcritic.com

Very cool, Very fast, and more action than the L.A Freeway. Perfect Popcorn Entertainment.

May 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Moviehole
Moviehole

I hated this movie as a teen. Haven't seen it since.

July 25, 2005 | Comments (3)
Juicy Cerebellum

Audience Reviews for Road House

File under 'You could only get away with this kind of thing in the 80s'. Honestly, in the 80s you could get away with murder just as long as nobody saw it. It's incredibly cheesy but with a brilliant cast including Patrick Swayze, Sam Elliott and Ben Gazzara it's hard not to like it. As I get older I am becoming more and more pleased that I haven't seen all these old 80s films, it's like rediscovering and enjoying a decade all over again each time I catch up with one. RIP Mr. Swayze and RIP Ben Gazzara too, I had no idea he had passed away :o(
September 26, 2012
SirPant

Super Reviewer

Some might call Road House one of the worst movies ever made, and they would be both right and wrong in that estimation. The movie is a conundrum, because it's entertaining on the most basic of levels but yet you still want to hate on it. It's actually got all the classic 80's ingredients (big hair, strippers, monster trucks, etc) and it's got a sort of western vibe with the hero coming to town to save it from an evil overlord, but it just doesn't really work all that well... but yet it does. I can't say that it's amazing or a classic, but it's definitely an interesting watch - and somewhat entertaining.
January 24, 2007
FilmFanatik
Tim Salmons

Super Reviewer

    1. Dr. Elizabeth "Doc" Clay: You know, for that line of work I thought you'd be bigger.
    – Submitted by Kelly E (3 months ago)
    1. Morgan: You know, I heard you had balls big enough to come in a dump truck, but you don't look like much to me.
    – Submitted by Kelly E (3 months ago)
    1. Wade Garrett: You got a skinny little runt named Dalton working here?
    – Submitted by Kelly E (3 months ago)
    1. Wade Garrett: A man puts a gun in yer face, you got two choices - stand there 'n die or kill the motherfucker!
    – Submitted by Kelly E (3 months ago)
    1. Tilghman: It's a good night. Nobody died.
    2. Dalton: It'll get worse before it gets better.
    – Submitted by Kelly E (3 months ago)
    1. Dalton: You're too stupid to have a good time.
    – Submitted by Kelly E (3 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Road House (1989) (DE)
  • Road House (1989) (UK)
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