No Joke: ‘The Fast and the Furious’ Director to Remake ‘Road House’

Since last year’s remake of Red Dawn was such a massive success, pulling in a whopping $44 million on a $65 million budget, it’s only natural that Hollywood producers will continue ravaging their VHS collections for fresh “ideas.” The latest ’80s classic to get thrown into the fire is Road House, which The Wrap reports now has Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, xXx) attached to direct.

The best thing I can say about MGM’s choice is that Cohen is certainly a product of the ’80s. He got his start directing episodes of Miami Vice and producing entertaining schlock like The Running Man and The Monster Squad, so maybe there’s a chance he knows what he’s doing with Road House. Cohen also has to be credited with launching one of the 2000s most successful (and consistently fun) franchises with The Fast and the Furious, even if that series didn’t truly hit its stride until the last few installments.

The original Road House is revered by movie lovers, not because it’s a great movie, but because it’s incredibly quotable, endearingly cheesy and features a ridiculously hunky and charismatic Patrick Swayze in the lead role. And that’s kind of the problem with remaking movies like these. Today’s audiences either don’t “get” camp, or they simply don’t want it. They prefer the super-serious handling of often-silly premises, whether it be children killing other children or a rich dude in a batsuit banding with a cat burglar to take down an international terrorist.

Perhaps Cohen will recognize the mistakes of his predecessors and succeed where the remakes of Red Dawn, Total Recall and Nightmare on Elm Street failed. These movies are supposed to be fun. No one is taking them seriously anyway. For crying out loud, Road House is about a bouncer trying to clean up a trashy bar. And who do you see working in that role? Channing Tatum? I mean, c’mon.

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