From the original 1989 film, only the protagonist’s surname remained. This is the conclusion one draws after watching the remake in Hire Killer, which has just debuted on Prime Video. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a former UFC fighter who works as a club bouncer and hardly resembles James Dalton, the character of the late Patrick Swayze in the cult movie
from the 80s. Swayze also played a security chief, but even due to his physical type, he was far from the “professional athlete” standard.
It is true that the new version by the experienced Doug Liman also kept the title of the film directed 35 years ago by Rowdy Herrington. Road House means tavern, roadside bar, should never have been turned into Hire Killer in Brazil. Especially because we don’t see Swayze or Gyllenhaal act as henchmen hired to execute someone else. They are, in fact, invited to provide security at nightclubs where fights between patrons are more common than tips at the counter. The tavern that employs James Dalton is in a small town in Missouri; Elwood Dalton’s is in Florida.
The Dalton of 1989 is a thousand times more charming than the one of 2024. Graduated in philosophy, he controls the confusion in the bar to the limit of kindness, discreetly dismisses corrupt employees, makes friends with local merchants and practices tai chi chuan in the rural property where you rent a room. He masters a blow that, when applied, leaves his opponent’s throat dripping with blood. Gyllenhall’s Dalton is more ironic and audacious. He suffers from nightmares because of an opponent he murdered in the Octagon. And he has terrible taste in women.
While Patrick Swayze’s character gets involved with the doctor played by Kelly Lynch, a stunning blonde with whom he has a lot of chemistry, the “Dalton of the new generation” has a relationship with the doctor played by Portuguese actress Daniela Melchior, a skinny, unattractive woman who needs improve your English pronunciation for future work. Other changes to casting do not hide the fact that this is a film from the era woke, in which everything is guided by “representativeness”. Less than ten minutes into the film, three originally white characters are now played by black women. The thieving bartender gives way to a nice fat bartender. And the owner of an electrical supply store is replaced by a bookseller. Black.
Gladiators of the third millennium
Gyllenhaal himself was not the first choice for the role. MGM studios wanted professional fighter Ronda Rousey to star in the new film. Halfway through, a good part of the team involved was changed, but they invented a role to fit another UFC star: Irishman Conor McGregor plays Knox, who has no equivalent in the 1989 film. rent”, as he enters the story after a call from the local bandit, who is in prison and needs someone to drive Elwood Dalton out of Florida.
In terms of music, the remake takes its biggest beating from the original film. The bar in the outback of Missouri had as its house band a trio led by Canadian Jeff Healey, a blues and rock talent who died prematurely. Blind, Healey even has lines in the film. In addition to singing and playing the guitar in his chair, the musician is the one who alerts locals about James Dalton’s achievements, as he knows him from other carnivals. In the new film, there is a rotation of mediocre bands in the tavern – and one of them even plays exelent reggae from Sublime in one scene.
For these and other reasons, this Hire Killer transforms the 1989 work into something greater than it ever was. See Patrick Swayze with his mullet It’s eye-catching to give the slackers a hard time and also inspire the whole city to rebel against the bossy people who harass those who have any type of business. It’s much more worth it than following the long fights between Gyllenhaal and McGregor. Luckily, Prime also offers the original film in its catalog. So, you can’t go wrong.
