Of all the current action stars, there’s likely no current draw with the expertise in fight scenes that Scott Adkins does. Not only has he starred in dozens of low-budget actioners (including the great Undisputed films), in addition to his roles in bigger films like John Wick: Chapter 4, but he also hosts an amazing YouTube show called The Art of Action, where he deconstructs fight scenes in classic movies alongside their original stars. This weekend, like many folks, Adkins decided to watch Prime Video’s Road House remake, and while he had high praise for the movie, he also criticized the use of CGI in the fight scenes.
As posted on X, “I really enjoyed Road House. Doug Liman – great job subverting genre & Gyllenhaal in amazing shape, respect! What a debut from @TheNotoriousMMA happy when a movie like this does well as it’s my bread & butter but c’mon, what’s with the CGI fight scenes?! Swayze didn’t need it.”
Indeed, if you watch the film, several of the fights seem to have been sweetened with CGI, with the opening fight sequence with Post Malone an especially unconvincing (and unfortunate) way to kick off a film with such good action. In a follow-up tweet, Adkins elaborated on CGI use in fights, saying that it can be very effective when used sparingly (to demonstrate impact). To illustrate this, he linked to a video interview he did with Vietnamese-American actor/ choreographer Johnny Trí Nguyễn, who openly used some CGI in his excellent martial arts film, The Rebel, but in a limited, creative way. Adkins says the result blew him away when he realized what had been done. Clearly, this was more convincing to him than the fights in Road House.
Did you notice any CGI cheats in the Road House fight scenes? Let us know in the comments what you think.