Patrick Swayze, a classically trained ballet dancer, plays Dalton, who is hired to be the head bouncer (the "cooler") of a wild bar down in the bayou called the Double Deuce. Things get a little out of hand when the local mob boss (played by Ben Gazzara, perhaps better known as The Big Lebowski's Jackie Treehorn) wants to fight. Luckily, Dalton has a friend... an old-time bouncer played by Sam Elliott.
This film is mentioned as Dawson Leery's (from "Dawson's Creek") favorite movie, which seems really odd for a character who emulates Spielberg. The film is non-stop fight scenes that extend into full bar brawls. Okay, wait, not non-stop... there's also a fair amount of sex. Sex and nudity (both male and female). You will see more of Sam Elliott than you ever thought you would. And then back to the fighting.
The bar brawls were enough to earn it the title of "Second Best Fight Movie Ever" (behind "They Live", though the choreography of "Clockwork Orange" is impressive) in my mind, but then the fights turn grotesquely violent. This is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you're looking for. I find this to be the selling point of the film, knowing that Dalton has the strength and training to rip a man's windpipe out through his neck. Yet, he has the cool calmness of a zen master (one wonders how his majoring in philosophy fits into his character... if at all).
There are a few things that seem strange if you're being picky. All stores and houses are packed wall to wall with propane tanks apparently, as explosions happen for no reason. Cops don't show up for fires, bar fights or the destruction of an entire car dealership (by a monster truck). They do show up once in the film without being called, when their presence no longer matters.
This is the kind of movie I can watch over and over and over again. Not because it's a great film (although it is pretty darn good)... but because its absurdity is, well, absurd. The film takes place in a universe I can only dream of. Which, being a late 1980s film, I guess makes it perfectly normal in some way. Well, whatever the case, I loved it and you should love it, too.
