Road House

Director: Rowdy Herrington

1989 / 114min

Oft-quoted (“Pain don’t hurt…”), frequently imitated (most recently in this year’s Doug Liman remake), and never to be topped, the O.G. Road House is a heady mixture of the ridiculous and sublime starring a resplendently mulleted Patrick Swayze as James Dalton, a bouncer with a PhD in philosophy from NYU and a helluva vicious roundhouse kick. After lighting out from the Big Apple under a cloud of tragedy to take a new doorman gig at the Double Deuce, the roughest honky-tonk in Jasper, Missouri, Dalton finds himself locking horns with local crime kingpin Ben Gazzara, with local physician Kelly Lynch and Dalton’s tough hombre mentor Sam Elliott along for the ride. Delectable, right down to its promotional tagline: “The dancing’s over. Now it gets dirty.”