A few years ago I did a short review of the 1989 movie Road House, a dopey flick about a bouncer from NYC who is hired to go out and work at a bar in Missouri.
Originally played by the late Patrick Swayze, his character is expert at bringing calm and order to bars whose clientele spend all of their time beating each other up -- and, of course, there's also a greedy businessman villian and a hot chick who complicate his life.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, people like Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Vandam and some forgotten others were stars (briefly) since there seemed to be a huge appetite amongst audiences for movies where good big guys with muscles beat up bad big guys with muscles.
Lots of big guys with muscles beating each other up was huge box office back then.
Interestingly Patrick Swayze wasn't really one of these guys -- he was a geniunely talented actor better known as a dancer (thanks to Dirty Dancing) and "sensitive" man, but Road House was his contribution to the genre and, extremely dumb movie that it is, it was a huge hit.
Road House has just been remade with Jake Gyllenhaal, another very talented actor. I don't know, if this movie is successful, if it this will trigger another round of movies of big guys with muscles beating each other up -- the main draw for this movie is that apparently he spends most of his time with this shirt off so women should enjoy this.
I haven't seen it yet and I know if the main character originates from NYC like in the original but apparently, instead of Missouri, he heads out to the Florida Keys. But it's a reminder that movies about guys who from NYC who head into the wider world and get into crazy adventures in a great genre all its own.
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