zardoz-13 My chief complaint about the otherwise tolerable "Roadhouse 66" is that director John Mark Robinson and rookie scenarists Galen Lee and George Simpson spent almost 90 minutes forging Alan Autry into one of the all-time dastardly villain and then they don't allow us to enjoy his comeuppance. Autry steals the show from leading men Willam Dafoe and Judge Reinhold as the cruel town bully of Kingman, Arizona. It seems that Hoot's father is a judge, and this wicked bastard can get away with virtually anything. By the time that the climactic race gets underway, it appears that events may be catching up to Autry's incredibly sadistic villain. Mind you, Autry gives a superb performance and he is truly despicable to the point that you want to see him go out in a blazing inferno. Meanwhile, there are times when you wonder what the heroes were thinking. They fail to take Autry's villain seriously and poor Stephen Elliot in a small but significant performance pays the price. Ostensibly, Robinson's buddy picture derives its title from a roadside diner on the old Highway 66. Beckman Hallsgood Jr. (Judge Reinhold of "Beverly Hills Cop") is leisurely tooling through Arizona from New York on his way to Palms Springs where he is to learn about the fast-food business. Beck and his father have bought a fast food restaurant franchise called Pork Boy. About the time that our bespectacled hero reaches Arizona, he runs afoul of Hoot (Alan Autry of "North Dallas Forty") and his sidekicks Moss (Peter Van Norden of "Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment") and Dink (Kevyn Major Howard of "Death Wish 2") on the highway. Beck is driving a 1955 Thunderbird when Hoot cruises up alongside him, brandishes his revolver, and blows a hole in Beck's radiator. Roughly about the same time that this incident occurred, a hitchhiker is crossing the road. Johnny Harte (Willam Dafoe of "Platoon") doesn't get hit by either one of them, but he runs into Beck after Beck has had to park his vehicle. The two guys become friends and they arrive in Kingman looking for a radiator.Eventually, they wind up in Roadhouse 66 where Johnny struggles to convince the owner of an auto parts store, Jesse Duran (Kaaren Lee of "St. Elmo's Fire"), to open the store so his new friend can get a radiator. Jesse has just made it through a long day at work and doesn't walk to set foot in his store until 9 AM the next morning. Nothing that either Johnny or Beck can do will change her mind. Eventually, Hoot and Beck cross paths again in the Roadhouse 66 diner, and they square off against each other in a competitive game of pool. Hoot seizes the white pool ball before Beck can take his final shot and win the game. Beck slugs him, but it is like Beck striking a stone stature. Hoot and his two cronies pile up on Beck and beat him senseless. Johnny takes on Hoot, and Hoot leaves with a chip on his shoulder. All along Beck has been trying to get out the two-bit town, but he has fallen in love with with Jesse's younger sister, Melissa (Kate Vernon of "Malcolm X"), and he is having trouble leaving Kingman. Beck decide to enter his Thunderbird in a race that Hoot has won the last three years running. Hoot refuses to lose and stacks the deck against Beck. At the same time, Johnny comes to grips with the memory of a former musical group singer who died in a car accident. As I said, Alan Autry makes a top-notch but despicable villain, and you will love how they make him into a progressive meaner enemy. Our heroes triumph in the end and leave Kingman with their women following them. During the grueling car race, Beck swerves their car into Hoot's car and he flips. Unfortunately, we don't see him die a richly deserved death. At fadeout we can hear the old "Route 66" television theme.

PeterMitchell-506-564364 I'll be fair here, this is just a time passer. I enjoyed it more, when I first saw it back in 85. It's when I first watched Willem Dafoe who's become my favorite actor, but later I realized he was in Streets Of Fire as the lead thug. Now I remember. His performance was done with a intensity of evil when looking back on "Street's" that I really haven't watched since I first saw it in 84. With this one, that wouldn't have a chance at the cinema, he plays a retired rockin' roll singer Johnny Hart who has his reasons, for getting out. Standing in the middle of the road, just like John "Hitcher" Ryder, he's nearly run down by college guy, Reinhold, who's trying to outrun these local thugs, lead by a bad boy Hoot, (Alan Autry) who shoots out his radiator. He's met by drifter Dafoe, who when asked his reasons for standing in the middle of the road, he just answers with a brief smile. For Reinhold this is only the start of conflict, between him and the thugs, who reappear at this Roadhouse that functions at a bar, diner etc. Things escalate into more serious problems for them, when the local car wrecker, who caught Reinhold and Dafoe using one of their cars as a place of sleep, is burnt to death in his shed. All fingers point guiltily to Reinhold, as if he's responsible for the whole catastrophe, where Dafoe and him, plus their girlfriends (who are sisters), were using the shed to rebuild one of the cars for the big town race. Granted, this is the most exciting part of the movie, Hoot resorting to dirty play, before and during the race. Alan Autry gives probably the best performance of the film, and sexy Kate Vernon is good as Reinhold's girl. Dafoe sings a rock song in this too, where he met upon by an old buddy, though I doubt it's really him. In between these two things we have a stick fight between Dafoe and Autry which was pretty cool, where the old lady running the place intervenes with her gun, before they tear up the establishment. So Dafoe redeems himself with this song, that I wish I could get a hold on, plus the one at the start. Roadhouse 66 has a nice ending too, where we don't really know if hoot dies. The movie's no real feat, with no real potency, but still it's a good yarn, but movie wise, fair.

lastliberal One can easily see why Judge Reinhold was cast in the role of Det. William 'Billy' Rosewood in Beverly Hills Cop. This movie, which came out the same year, but was probably made earlier has the same character exactly. It is a real treat seeing him in the role of clueless rich kid. Maybe he gave up on the idea of running Pork Boy franchises and went straight to Beverly Hills for a job.I always enjoy Willem Dafoe, and I really like his character here. You even get to hear him sing. He does his best work with Kaaren Lee, while Judge is taking care of Kate Vernon.Great soundtrack and a predictable ending. It even has Stomper (Kevyn Major Howard) from Death Wish II, and 'Bubba' Skinner (Alan Autry) from "In the Heat of the Night".The 66 Classic was not the most exciting race I have ever seen, but certainly the most scenic. Makes me want to head to Oatman, AZ right now.

sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** Drive-in type movie with bar fights car chases and crashes explosions country music pretty girls badder then bad bad guys and a good guy who's just too good to be true. Where in the end everyone gets whats coming to them good and bad thats what the movie "Roadhouse 66" is all about. Beckman, Judge Reinhold, a spoiled rich kid driving home to California is almost killed by a gang of local toughs Hoot Dink & Moss,Alan Autry Kevyn Major & Peter Van Norden when his 1955 Thunderbird has it's engine almost shot out after he had an altercation with them on the open road in Arizona. Picking up hitch-hiker Johnny Harte, Willem Dafoe, after his car broke down Johnny fixes the Thunderbird so that it can get to the nearest town Bowman Arizona where Beckman can get a new radiator. While at Bowman Beckman and Johnny meet two pretty local girls who happen to be sisters Jesse & Meilssa Duran, Kaaren Lee & Kate Vernon, who really take a shine to them. The boys get a new radiator at Sam's car junkyard and Sam, Stephen Eillott, lets Beckman keep his car in his junkyard garage. Everything seems fine until the three toughs who tried to run Beckman off the road, Hoot Dink & Moss, show up and things really start to get messy. Decent little movie with Willem Dafoe being Mr.Super-Cool as well as a pretty good guitar player. Hoot later beats the hell out of a very drunk Beckman who bet him in a game of pool at the Roadhouse Bar. It's then that Johnny comes to his rescue and ends up smashing up the entire bar in a fight with Hoot. Johnny pays for the damage that he did by going on the stage where his former band just happened to be playing and belt out a song "Marie Marie" that had the bar crowd go wild. Later Beckman decides to enter the "Roadhouse 66" car race, a race restricted to cars that are pre-1966 models, against Hoot and his gang. It's later that his Thunderbird is set on fire in Sam the junkyard man's garage by Hoot and Sam is killed in the fire trying to put it out. With Jesse giving Beckman her car for the race Johnny who left town to get away from all this excitement and danger later shows up to race in the "Roadhouse 66" car race with Moss' car.Moss just had it with both Hoot & Dink after they almost killed him for warning Beckman not to go to the garage where his Thunderbird was set on fire. This time the car race was a lot different then the one at the start of the film with Hoot trying to shoot out Johnny's car engine after he caused Beckman to crash his car in the race. That was after he, Hoot, secretly dropped a scorpion on the front seat that almost stung and killed Beckman. Hoot ends up being up-ended for his effort with his car smashed and him left for dead and losing the race with both Johnny and Beckman ending up with the two girls Jesse and Melissa at the end of the film. It was brought out in the movie that the reason that Hoot gets away, until the end of the movie, with all the trouble that he causes in the town of Bowman is because his dad is a top judge in the state of Arizona. It seemed that his dad didn't teach Hoot a very important lesson about the rule of law that would have saved him a lot of bumps and bruises which is simply: "Crime Doesn't Pay".