Road House 2: Last Call

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2006 / 86 Minutes / R
Street Date: July 18, 2006

The popular Black Pelican tavern has a rowdy reputation in the Louisiana backwoods. Built onto a river, the Black Pelican is also considered prime real estate for drug trafficking according to one particular dealer, Wild Bill (Jake Busey). He is determined to make the strategically placed club his personal trading dock. But after Wild Bill batters owner Nate Tanner (Will Patton), Tanner’s nephew, New York City undercover DEA agent Shane Tanner (Johnathon Schaech), comes to the rescue to defend the club’s turf. This starts an out-and-out war against megalomaniac Wild Bill and his secretly scheming superiors.

Patrick Swayze’s character James Dalton helped make the 1989 original Road House a hit in theaters as well as a cable mainstay and a profitable home entertainment video. But be aware that Swayze is not in this film. In this sequel Dalton has mysteriously died, and his son, Nate Tanner (why the different last name?) takes the reigns. Once again, the film delivers much of the same plot as the original with elements of bar fights, pecking order, a love interest, and turf wars. And we certainly know there is going to be a dramatic brawl by the end. So the question is, how was the whole film executed?

Director Scott Ziehl treats the subject fairly, gives a few nods to the first movie including lines like, “I thought you’d be bigger,” and delivers what you would likely expect. The acting is fine, the production designs by Phil Dagort are incorporated well giving the Black Pelican a confident presence, and dialogue isn’t clever but it’s not cheesy either. Editing by Edgar Burcksen is efficient and done well especially for the reckless fights near the end, the bar band sounds great, and everything looks and behaves as it should.

The Nate character is less mysterious than James Dalton. But even with his vampire face, Schaech is a confident fit as Nate and wisely doesn’t overdo anything despite some of his impressive fighting scenes. Note that Schaech also had a hand in co-writing the script. The pretty love interest, Ellen Hollman as Beau, does well, if a bit overly sincere. She literally looks like she stepped out of a salon for most scenes, which was somewhat unnatural. Hollman has some surprisingly violent fight scenes near the end where she was certainly more concerned about staying alive than preserving her look. And her character is far more integrated into the script. That gained my respect and made her more interesting than the gorgeous but stoic Kelly Lynch character from the first film.

It’s also interesting to note that stocky supporting actor Larnell Stovall, who plays a bad guy named Marcus, is a former world champion of fighting with weapons. Disappointingly, the film didn’t give Stovall any exciting moves beyond some ordinary, fist swinging fights; it’s a missed opportunity fans certainly would have enjoyed. It’s also interesting to see William Ragsdale, who played Charlie Brewster in 1985’s hit teen-horror film Fright Night, all grown up as Cooper, one of the bouncers. He’s about twice the size he was over 20 years ago, but he doesn’t look like he’s in great shape. Volcanic tempered Busey as Wild Bill chews the scenery sometimes, but he can come across uneven, which drained a consistent sense of danger from his character. As for nude scenes, don’t expect it from the leads; most of the nudity is sprinkled in from some really beautiful strippers on stage and some girls at Wild Bill’s home party.

By film’s end, a fan of the original might feel like they just went on the same ride with a few updates like the lighting style and Schaech’s more low-key performance. Last Call generally delivers what you would expect, and I happened to like this sequel more than the original. Opinions may vary.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in anamorphic video. This transfer is noted on the back as being “Mastered in High Definition” and it indeed looks fantastic. Colors are fully saturated and natural appearing. The print is virtually pristine with no nicks or anomalies whatsoever. Film grain is very, very tight and refined, which provides benefits of clarity and depth. The gray scale is fairly wide with terrifically deep blacks, although they don’t reach perfect inky blacks. Whites are clean and rather sharp, although they can appear faintly dull during evening scenes. A few exterior evening scenes revealed slightly more grain, but it was difficult to discern. I noticed only minor isolated cases of edge halos, and compression issues were never a problem. The 1.85:1 ratio provides pleasing compositions and decent balance. This is a terrific transfer.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The film was recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1. The audio has a pleasant, wide sound with a good dynamic range. There are some decent pans among the front speakers. The highs reach some decent levels, and the lows plunge to an average depth. Nothing is very exciting here, but it is solid and consistent. Dialogue is recorded well, and most of the actors recite their lines clearly. The music sounds quite good during the bar scenes, and the bar itself has an alive ambiance. Surrounds are consistently employed with a nice dynamic range and they help to widen out the atmosphere. I listened hard to discern if they were discrete or not, but nothing stood out. The audio is generally satisfying, but it seemed like the one missing element was a more high frequency range definition in the details. And it would have been more far exciting to deepen and amp-up the bottom end. The audio serves the film respectfully.

A French surround 2.0 mix is available. Optional subtitles are in English and French. English Closed Captions are also included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

There are four trailers: Freedomland, Hollow Man 2, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and Ultraviolet.

There is a five-minute long behind-the-scenes sneak peak of Road House 2: Last Call on the 2006 special edition DVD release of Road House: Deluxe Edition, which has some interviews. It seems ridiculous that 20th Century Fox did not include it here (sigh). If you like this sequel, it’s worth checking out that featurette if you get a chance.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

No DVD-ROM features are included.

Final Thoughts

This seventeen-years-later sequel provides a few respectable nods to the original film, and certainly delivers the expected goods. This time it’s all about the club being in a perfect location for drug trading. The drug lords want to take it over and it becomes a showdown with tons of fights, nudity, and a few explosions thrown in for fun. Lead by the well-cast actor Johnathon Schaech, most of the acting is a little better this time around. And the film has a slightly meaner tone as is ends with two lethal fights. While it has the same basic plot structure as the original film, it delivers. There are no surprises are here, but you can’t fault the filmmakers for simply giving the fans what they want. Recommended for those who like bar fight movies.