Fight Fan Film Review: McGregor thrives as 'Road House' villain in debut film role

Conor McGregor can now add “movie star” to his lengthy list of career accomplishments.

The former two-weight champion proved a promising action star as he debuted in his first feature film role in Road House, a new movie from Amazon MGM Studios that was released to Prime Video streaming Thursday. It is a reimagining of the 1989 cult classic of the same name starring the late Patrick Swayze.

McGregor has appeared as himself in documentaries and acted in commercials – he was even rumoured to appear in HBO’s Game of Thrones seven or eight years ago although it never came to fruition – but the 35-year-old Irish fighter was cast in a prominent role for his first motion picture appearance.

The discussion below will be spoiler-free (anything shown in the trailer is fair game, though) but essentially here’s all you need to know:

The "Road House" is the rowdiest bar in the Florida Keys and its ownership recruits a new bouncer, who used to fight in the UFC before getting kicked out, to head up security.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays our protagonist, Dalton, who might be the toughest outcast in all the lands. Too tough for his own good, some might say. He’s one of those heroic guys at his core, but he’s also a bad boy, so the ladies love him and trouble always seems to find him.

McGregor plays Knox and even in a rough and tumble town with goons, thugs, and ruffians aplenty, Knox is most feared. He loves cracking skulls whenever and however possible and, oh, he also loves sandwiches. He’s sort of like if Brad Pitt’s character from Guy Ritchie’s Snatch was roided out of his mind, worked as muscle for a local crime boss, and lived in Florida.

With that combination of ingredients and a chef, so to speak, as experienced and acclaimed as Road House director Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity), you have the potential for a hit. There’s fighting, cursing, and explosions, but is there anything UFC and combat sports fans will particularly enjoy? Let’s break it down.

HOW ARE THE FIGHT SCENES?

Certain tussles resemble what would likely happen if a group of drunk idiots tried to fight a UFC-calibre middleweight in a parking lot, while other sequences feature mostly standard movie fight choreography.

At one point Dalton does teach a young member of his security staff a technique to counter a knife attack – seriously, these bar patrons are out of control – and we see a fadeaway right hand that would make Sean O’Malley proud and probably give Aljamain Sterling flashbacks to UFC 292.

Some of the best action is when the leads are battering each other from the clinch. There aren’t too many combinations thrown as the filmmakers relied more on one-at-a-time haymakers, but the sound design is solid enough that it heightened the intensity of the blows and made them feel more impactful.

There isn’t too much MMA-style grappling (there are a few WWE-style slams) but it’s done rather well and isn’t contrived the way some exchanges are in the John Wick franchise for example – a slow imanari roll just doesn't look good on the big screen.

When McGregor starts shooting for takedowns in the cage it’s usually not a good sign for him – Nate Diaz proved that to the world in 2016 – but Knox has no problem driving home a double-leg. McGregor has far more refined technique than his character does, and it’s apparent the villain is being played by a professional athlete who knows how to properly throw and react to punches and other strikes.

Gyllenhaal was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this week where he said he underwent roughly two months of intense MMA training to get in shape and prepare for the role.

“When I got word that he was going to be doing it, I was super psyched because they chased him for a long time to play the part, but then I got totally terrified and I thought, ‘Oh God, I actually have to fake fight this guy and I got to look like I can,’” Gyllenhaal said.

Gyllenhaal has portrayed a pro boxer in the past in 2015’s Southpaw and has starred in many Hollywood action blockbusters. His physique for Road House had him looking like a worthy foe to McGregor. Whether he would’ve passed a Combat Sports Anti-Doping drug screening while filming is an entirely different question.

The 43-year-old one-time supporting actor Oscar nominee held his own on screen when required to get physical with a “Notorious” former world champion.

“Actually, by mistake, he clocked me in the face,” Gyllenhaal explained at one point to Fallon. "We would do a take where we were like fighting and fake fighting, fake fighting, and then we’d go watch the monitor to see it back, to see what worked, and he was always great with me. He would show me, tell me to do things, and like, 'Oh, you know, turn your head, move a little bit more this way to try and make it look more real,’ and it was late because we shot a lot of these fight scenes at night so it was like 3 a.m., and he was talking to me really close, and he was like, ‘Yeah, like that left hook looks good, but then when you do it like, boom,’ and he hit me by mistake.”

Overall, last year was a decent year for sports movies, and Creed III was one of the better offerings. Road House effectively uses some first-person perspectives during a couple of fight scenes similar to the technique Michael B. Jordan used when directing Creed III and starring as Adonis Creed opposite Jonathan Majors’ Damian Anderson.

HOW WAS CONOR MCGREGOR'S ACTING PERFORMANCE?
“Once Knox is on the job, it’s over, baby!”

McGregor didn’t need to go full Daniel Day-Lewis method actor for this role. In fact, the Irish superstar is no stranger to running amok and getting into altercations outside of the cage in his personal life. Knox might be the role he was born to play and to say McGregor has a memorable introductory scene would be a severe understatement.

Anyone with a reverence for the original Road House might enjoy some of the hokey one-liners and comedy beats throughout. I also feel quite confident saying the type of MMA fans who loudly “Woo!” like Ric Flair during preliminary cards and then let out monotonous boos whenever there is a wrestling exchange that lasts more than two seconds are likely to find the jokes legitimately hilarious in an unironic sort of way.

That applies mostly to characters besides McGregor’s.

If you find McGregor dropping f-bombs at UFC press conferences entertaining, then you should have a blast listening to Knox threaten the locals and try to intimidate the stone-faced Dalton.

McGregor has an aesthetically pleasing striking style with an arsenal of flashy kicking techniques that look great on screen. Add that to his natural charisma and it is entirely conceivable we'll one day see McGregor land a part in another studio action franchise.

Georges St-Pierre secured a recurring role as Batroc the Leaper in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and he starred in a great fight scene with Chris Evans in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. St-Pierre’s martial arts prowess and involvement in tweaking the choreography helped improve those on-screen combat sequences. McGregor could follow a similar path if the right opportunities and roles present themselves.  

Randy Couture, Ronda Rousey, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Tyron Woodley, and Kamaru Usman are other former UFC champions to land roles in big-budget blockbusters.

HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO THE ORIGINAL?

You don’t need to be a fan of or even familiar with the Swayze version to enjoy this new one, though, the Gyllenhaal-McGregor project does pay homage to some of what made the original appealing to audiences.

The 1989 version had a cliché 1980s aesthetic and mullets that could rival Mike Pyle’s classic Tennessee Waterfall hairdo. The fight scenes, however, were incredibly campy and choreographed like brouhahas you see in old westerns. The featured one-on-one fight scenes in the 2024 version are far more engaging and on par with most modern big-budget action movies.

The original had a killer soundtrack from The Jeff Healey Band and the new one also features great music from multiple artists; the original had fun supporting performances from Sam Elliott and former pro wrestling legend Terry Funk and the supporting cast for the new one is stellar as well.

There’s plenty to like about the performances from Daniela Melchior (superhero movie nerds like myself know her better as Ratcatcher 2 from 2021’s The Suicide Squad), Billy Magnussen, Arturo Castro, Lukas Gage, Jessica Williams and Post Malone.

During one key fight sequence in the original, a goon played by Marshall Teague, who often stands with a mall karate stance, actually lands a decent low leg kick on one of the good guys during a brawl. That movie came out four years before the first UFC event took place and more than three decades before low leg kicks became a common and effective MMA striking technique, so it was funny and interesting to observe.

The original also had a training sequence in a barn where a sweaty Swayze works the tiniest heavy bag of all time. It’s hilarious. Swayze throws some wheel kicks with technique that, well, let’s just say Edson Barboza wouldn’t ask him for any pointers. The final hand-to-hand showdown between Swayze and Teague is hilarious in hindsight, plus has an all-time out of left field one liner.

The 2024 version has plenty of quotable lines, and as mentioned, many of them are delivered by McGregor, and when he and Gyllenhaal throw down it's legitimately thrilling.

Both Road House movies are full of over-the-top action and small-town organized crime tropes that are perfectly serviceable for a popcorn flick.

WHAT WILL UFC FANS SPECIFICALLY LIKE ABOUT IT? 

As many MMA fans already know, several scenes were filmed live during UFC 285 in Las Vegas last March, and any time they cut to a flashback sequence of Gyllenhaal’s character competing as a UFC fighter the high production quality is on display.

Gyllenhaal described filming in front of a live audience at T-Mobile Arena as “pretty nerve racking” when on Fallon and thankfully for the viewer, those parts of the movie turned out great.

Fight fans should be aware this is not a movie about the sport of mixed martial arts, nor the athletic and personal grind fighters go through the way 2011’s Warrior (still the G.O.A.T. fictional MMA movie in my opinion) or 2021’s Bruised starring Halle Berry did.

Road House has more of a rugged, old-school attitude with explosive modern action that creatively yet loosely ties the lead character and plot to the sport.

The UFC is selective with the projects to which they lend the rights to their logo and the good news here is the UFC branding isn’t propagandistically in your face like it was for 2012’s Here Comes the Boom starring Kevin James, Henry Winkler, and Salma Hayek. That’s not a dig at Here Comes the Boom, by the way. I legitimately enjoy that movie. Krzysztof Soszynski, Mark DellaGrotte and former UFC champion Bas Rutten were all awesome in it.

Actually, Rutten would probably love the new Road House, too. As the real ones know, “El Guapo” is the proprietor of “Bas Rutten’s Lethal Street Fighting Self-Defence System.” Some of those infamous techniques can be seen throughout Road House.

In addition to McGregor, fans will recognize former UFC and Bellator welterweight Jay Hieron as Gyllenhaal’s UFC opponent, and brief appearances from UFC personalities including Bruce Buffer and Jon Anik.

OFFICIAL DECISION: My rating for Road House (2024) is a unanimous decision victory in a five-round UFC Fight Night main event (49-46 on my scorecard).

No knockout or submission finish but it earns a Fight of the Night performance bonus. It also takes place at the UFC Apex without an audience, so you’re left going “wow that was lots of fun…and the viewing experience would’ve totally been enhanced if watching along with a live crowd.”

Not sure if Liman is a big fan of the UFC but if he is I’d guess he also prefers events with thousands of boisterous fans in attendance as opposed to an intimate UFC Apex environment. After all, Liman did write an op-ed for Deadline earlier this year explaining why he planned to boycott the SXSW premiere of his movie, arguing the big-budget motion picture deserved a release on the big screen instead of direct-to-streaming and that studio decisions like this are hurting cinemas.

Overall, is Road House going to compete with Dune: Part Two at the Academy Awards next year? No. But in saying that, this movie will inevitably and deservedly garner a cult following like the original, and it could result in a passionate audience that clamours for a sequel and wants to see McGregor back on the big screen – or, you know, at least a prominent streaming-sized screen.