Good start, but then it gets ruined

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A rich city boy from back East named Beckman (Judge Reinhold) encounters local bullies in the form of rural Arizona rednecks as he drives west through the desert. Together with his hitchhiking companion, Johnny (Willem Dafoe), the two buddies function as updated characters to Buz and Todd, from the old television series "Route 66". I never saw the TV series, but it must surely have been better than "Roadhouse 66".A lot of the screen time takes place in or near this roadhouse, a local greasy spoon, where guys play pool, a local band livens things up with blue-suede songs, and the manager is a savvy, streetwise gal who reminds me of actress Ida Lupino. The plot has Beckman and Johnny meeting some local babes and fighting the bullies in the cafe.The best thing the film has going for it is that it was filmed entirely on-location in Arizona; and there's no CGI. The desert scenery is nice. And I like the performance of the café manager who doesn't suffer fools gladly, having been one herself when previously married to the star bully.But like the town itself, the film is boring. Not a lot happens here. Original songs are blah and forgettable for the most part. And the ending is predictable. But the worst element is the casting of the two leads. I can't take Judge Reinhold seriously as an actor. He always reminds me of those irritatingly lightweight "comedies" of the 1980s. I also dislike his geeky persona and annoying smirk. Willem Dafoe carries around the same irritating regional accent in all movies I have seen him in. At least he had the smarts to avoid a career as a singer. This film shows why.This is a below average buddy/road film. For some viewers, and depending on their mood, it may help pass the time. Oh, and the prod design for the greasy spoon is not realistic, owing to the absence of a major component ... flies.

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.

Lemme see if I done got this right:Hayseed peoples they be peoples too and most of your cinema pickings they's for city folks with pretensions and academic duh-grees and walking around using fancy French words and stuff like that.But a good old boy likes a good barroom brawl now and then and some cute dixie chicks - and you should have more skin than Daisy used to show on prime time - and oh but we gotta have a great big old car race with clumsy looking backwoods Chevy 56s and 57s and they gotta rev their engines like they got no mufflers no more.And we gotta have some good old country picking through this here race and - intermittently as they say - throughout the movie.But here's the trick: you don't almost have to pay nobody any good money to do no good cos them hayseeds what like movies like this they don't know much about no film making anyways, and as long as ya got the obligatory nudie bonk with female nipple and round female breast in subdued light and stuff and someone playing who's ostensibly studying James Burton on guitar, then that's real fine Slim - they'll never notice the difference! No way!And the money keeps on coming in... And who said money doesn't make the world go 'round?PS. For the best laugh of all, waiting until the closing titles - listen to the music! The people who made this movie - who are these people? Oh goodness.

****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".