Roadhouse 66

Willem Dafoe plays a drifter who quit the music business after his band partner was killed in a car accident. Judge Reinhold is the stereotypical rich kid from back east, driving his 55 T.Bird. These two meet up in the Arizona desert and spend some time in a small town because of car trouble. There they are harassed by a trio of local goons, and are attracted to a couple of cute blonde sisters. The acting is good, the location photography is stunning, the 57 Chevy, 55 Thunderbird, 55 Chevy, 59 Caddy and 66 Mustang are great, there is even a touch of nudity, along with some terrific rockabilly tunes. "Roadhouse 66" is definitely above average entertainment. If you can sit back and just enjoy the ride, this movie will not disappoint. - MERK

The box copy hints that this is an action-comedy adventure, but don't be fooled. There really isn't much comedy and the action is pretty intermittent for an adventure movie, but the two lead performances make the exercise watchable. Spoiled preppie Judge Reinhold and cool drifter Willem Dafoe make a likable mismatched pair of traveling buddies, and once you get past the odd logic that Dafoe as Johnny would bother taking his social opposite under his wing to show him the rules of survival on the road, the movie passes pleasantly. The wide open, largely empty desert makes a nice setting and is well used as a place of isolation, where a philosophical loner like Johnny can find solitude to think. The viewer gets slowly sucked into Johnny's view of the world and begins to cheer Reinhold in his philosophical make-over, and leaves with a positive glow. The movie is neither particularly striking or memorable visually, but the chemistry between the two actors makes the time pass amiably and it can be revisited to get back the same good feeling. This is one of those movies that is more a mood altering substance than entertainment, but as such it's nice.

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.

Despite what you may think about who is the headliner in this movie, its definitely Dafoe. Even if Reinhold was the bigger name on paper. Roadhouse 66 was released around the same time as Streets Of Fire, but the budget and pacing couldn't be more different.

Roadhouse 66 is fairly low budget road cum action movie, in which Reinhold plays a preppy businessman on a scouting mission who falls foul of a trio of local bullies. In steps Dafoe to try and steer him away from trouble. Add a couple of cute local sisters and a road race and we have Roadhouse 66.

This is definitely a slow burner of a movie, which will appeal to fans of old school Americana. Vintage cars, leather jackets, Levis and Rock and Roll. The soundtrack is stacked with bluesy guitars and featured artists.

I can see why some people may have rated this low, as its not balls to the wall action and the car races are fairly slow. But it is entertaining none the less and Dafoe is the stand out here.

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.