Summary
VFX artists react to theRoad Houseremake’s controversial fight scene CGI. Serving as a remake of the classic 1989 Patrick Swayze movie,Road Housestars Jake Gyllenhaalas Elwood Dalton, a former UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida dive bar. The film, which was directed by Doug Liman, features plenty of hand-to-hand brawls, and the production used a surprisingly VFX-heavy technique to make it look as if characters were actually hitting each other.
In a new episode ofCorridor Crew’s popular “VFX Artists React” YouTube series, VXF artists Niko Pueringer, Wren Weichman, and Sam Gorski praise theRoad Houseremake’s VFX fight scene technique.
The VFX artists highlight how the film essentially filmed all of its fight scenes multiple times with pads hitting actors and being hit by actors, before these different plates were composited together. The end result is fight scenes that feature punches that look as if they’re actually connecting, with Niko saying that it “feels like these impacts have real weight behind them.” He continues: “It’s a lot of [compositing] work, but it’s comp work with real footage. And I actually think it’s really successful. I think the impacts feel different from anything else I’ve seen in a fight scene."
There’s Still Room For Improvement
Traditionally, movie fight scenes are accomplished using fake punches with clever camera angles and cuts. Some films also remove a frame or two of footage at points of impact in order to make hits feel faster and harder.Road House’s reviewsmay have been somewhat lukewarm, but its new fight scene technique has the potential to be a game-changer.
TheRoad Houseremake currently has a 60% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and a lackluster 53% audience score.
That’s not to say that all ofRoad House’s fight scenes look flawless, however.There are some punches and impacts where the VFX is quite apparent, and these moments certainly have the potential to take one out of the movie. It’s worth mentioning, though, that the remake is really the first time this technique has ever been used at this scale, and future uses could further hone and streamline it.
Not all action movies will adopt this technique. It is surely very time-consuming and complicated, after all, to shoot fights multiple times and then composite these different elements together, and fights shot in more traditional ways still have the potential to be hard-hitting and impactful.Road House 2is confirmedto be on the way, though, andthe sequel will surely be using this same technique again, hopefully making it even more effective. WhileRoad House’s fight scenes aren’t all perfect, they prove that there’s still room for some exciting innovation when it comes to movie fist fights.
Road House
Cast
Road House is a remake of the original 1989 film, which followed protagonist Dalton, a Ph.D. educated bouncer at the roughest bar in the south known as the Double Deuce. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Dalton, with two major changes including Dalton being a retired UFC fighter and the bar locale being in the Florida Keys.
