Road House 2: Last Call is set in in a small town in Lousiana where Nate Tanner (Will Patton) owns a bar named The Black Pelican which a violent drug dealer named Wild Bill (Jake Busey) wants as it's in the perfect location to smuggle drugs through the swamps undetected, however Nate doesn't want to sell & stands up against Wild Bill & his gang of dealers. To get Nate out of the way Wild Bill tries to kill him but only ends up wounding him & putting him in hospital, his DEA agent nephew Shane Tanner (Jonathon Schaech) hears about his uncle & decides to visit him. Shane quickly learns about Wild Bill & his drug dealing, Shane take temporary control of The Black Pelican & embarks on an all out war with the dealers to clean the town up...
Directed by Scott Ziehl this is a sequel to the Patrick Swayze action thriller Road House (1989) which I incidentally saw less than a week ago so I can compare the two against each with some authority, I was never a big fan of the original Road House apart from some unintentionally funny moments & I actually think Road House 2 is a better film. The script has Patrick Swayze's character's from the original dead & gone after being murdered sometime between the two films & his son Shane (why is Shane's second name Tanner & not Dalton after his father?) fill his boots & gets to clean up a small town all by himself. There are numerous references to Dalton (the three rules for instance) in Road House 2 but otherwise there's nothing connecting the two films at all. The original delt with extortion while here it's drug dealers, the general plot is similar to the original with a lone man driving into town & getting himself deeper into trouble than he could have expected & eventually takes on all the bad guy's & saves the day. The pace is brisk, it never lets up, there's enough fights & action to keep one satisfied & there's also some funny moments as well with some priceless dialogue especially from Jake Busey as Wild Bill who is a hoot here. The plot is nothing that special, it tells a story I suppose but no-one will be surprised by anything that happens & there's a bit too much of an effort to tie things together & get a really happy ending. While no masterpiece I was actually surprised at how much I liked Road House 2, as a simple & straight forward action film you could do a lot, lot worse.
I really liked the action scenes in Road House 2, thank god the makers didn't go for that horrible machine gun edited shaky camera crap where you can't see a damned thing. Nope, here in Road House 2 everything is clear, well shot, well edited & well choreographed & the fights here are some of the best I've seen in a direct to video flick, seriously there's no shaky camera shots or quick editing anywhere & for that I salute the makers of Road House 2. While not as gay as the original Road House there's still a lot of topless bodies on show here, luckily a lot of them this time around are female so the boy's & girls will both be happy. The character of Wild Bill is great, he sits in a jacuzzi talking drugs while he has a naked girl either side of him, he wears some of the silliest looking shirts ever & he's just a great villain.
Originally to be filmed in New Orleans the location was moved after Hurricane Katrina hit although it was still shot in Louisiana. The acting isn't bad I suppose, it's not great but it's not bad. Jonathon Schaech isn't leading man material, Jake Busey looks like he's having a ball while Ellen Hollman is very cute as the token love interest.
Road House 2: Last Call is a pretty fun violent low budget direct to video action thriller that I liked quite a lot, sure it's predictable & silly & is no classic but what it is it's pretty good.
Directed by Scott Ziehl this is a sequel to the Patrick Swayze action thriller Road House (1989) which I incidentally saw less than a week ago so I can compare the two against each with some authority, I was never a big fan of the original Road House apart from some unintentionally funny moments & I actually think Road House 2 is a better film. The script has Patrick Swayze's character's from the original dead & gone after being murdered sometime between the two films & his son Shane (why is Shane's second name Tanner & not Dalton after his father?) fill his boots & gets to clean up a small town all by himself. There are numerous references to Dalton (the three rules for instance) in Road House 2 but otherwise there's nothing connecting the two films at all. The original delt with extortion while here it's drug dealers, the general plot is similar to the original with a lone man driving into town & getting himself deeper into trouble than he could have expected & eventually takes on all the bad guy's & saves the day. The pace is brisk, it never lets up, there's enough fights & action to keep one satisfied & there's also some funny moments as well with some priceless dialogue especially from Jake Busey as Wild Bill who is a hoot here. The plot is nothing that special, it tells a story I suppose but no-one will be surprised by anything that happens & there's a bit too much of an effort to tie things together & get a really happy ending. While no masterpiece I was actually surprised at how much I liked Road House 2, as a simple & straight forward action film you could do a lot, lot worse.
I really liked the action scenes in Road House 2, thank god the makers didn't go for that horrible machine gun edited shaky camera crap where you can't see a damned thing. Nope, here in Road House 2 everything is clear, well shot, well edited & well choreographed & the fights here are some of the best I've seen in a direct to video flick, seriously there's no shaky camera shots or quick editing anywhere & for that I salute the makers of Road House 2. While not as gay as the original Road House there's still a lot of topless bodies on show here, luckily a lot of them this time around are female so the boy's & girls will both be happy. The character of Wild Bill is great, he sits in a jacuzzi talking drugs while he has a naked girl either side of him, he wears some of the silliest looking shirts ever & he's just a great villain.
Originally to be filmed in New Orleans the location was moved after Hurricane Katrina hit although it was still shot in Louisiana. The acting isn't bad I suppose, it's not great but it's not bad. Jonathon Schaech isn't leading man material, Jake Busey looks like he's having a ball while Ellen Hollman is very cute as the token love interest.
Road House 2: Last Call is a pretty fun violent low budget direct to video action thriller that I liked quite a lot, sure it's predictable & silly & is no classic but what it is it's pretty good.