Saw Road House, a winningly stupid film about a cooler (which seems to be some kind of super-bouncer) being hired to work in the saloon of a small town. He drifts into town like a Kurosawa samurai, all cool restraint and manly stoicism. Later on, the bad guy drives a monster truck through a car dealership.
The film follows the main character's attempts to clean up this dirty small town and in the process get himself a girl (of course) and impart some stirring, half-nonsensical pearls of wisdom ("pain don't hurt.") The film stars Patrick Swayze at his Swayziest. Attractive, stoic, friendly and lackadaisical but ready to give a kick to a bad guy. I found it all very winning.
I really hate action movies that celebrate asshole behavior. Late-series Die Hard did this a lot, with John McClane transformed from put-upon every-man to growling, caustic thug. Similarly with the awful Walking Tall, the noble sheriff fighting cartoonish bad guys with a 2x4 of justice. In this movie, in contrast, I sympathized with the character a lot more. I felt like he was slow to violence, preferring it as a tool to shut down conflict than as a pastime. The ending of course has its share of violence and deeply questionable vigilante justice, but then again they do establish that the sheriff is on the take, so what can one do?
The film is fairly fun. It's deeply ridiculous and treats women as smiling dolls who all desire a taste of the Swayze. Swayze's character has its share of stupid myth-building (he has a phd in philosophy! And yet he's a bouncer? This guy has layers!) and unnecessary father figures as well. It's fun though. The bad guy is smug and bad, Swayze is attractive and good. It's a cheese-fest but still I liked it.
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