‘Road House’ (2024)
Amazon’s acquisition of the vaunted MGM film library a few years back put some delightful things in motion, not the least of which is a reboot of Road House, the trashy basic cable fave best epitomized by Patrick Swayze’s inimitable catchphrase “Pain don’t hurt.” Road House 2024 director Doug Liman does a good job adapting the property for today’s more modern sensibilities, and one thing he absolutely improves upon from the original is in the ingenious casting of notorious MMA superstar Conor McGregor as one of the movie’s primary villains. McGregor won’t ever appear on anyone’s Oscar shortlists, but he does bring manic, chaotic, and hilarious energy to his role of Knox, a wildman who abhors pants and seems hellbent on inflicting maximum pain on our flawed antihero Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal). Cinematic villains have been far too serious for far too long, and McGregor and Liman understand this innately; McGregor’s goofiness is a welcome callback to ’80s action movies, and is already the stuff that memes are made of. Let the viral campaign for a Leprechaun reboot starring McGregor start here!