“He struts and smiles like an aggro Popeye.”
MMA fighter, businessman and presidential hopeful Conor McGregor looks to be pivoting into another career change following his acting debut in Road House.
The reboot of the 1989 flick, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, premiered at SXSW festival on Saturday night, and has been getting a decent reception as far as the reviews go.
With a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, the fighter can definitely see that as a success on his new venture, however some viewers are on the fence over his performance in particular.
The fighter plays Knox, a goon-for-hire who goes head to head with Gyllenhaal’s character.
Not known for his subtlety, McGregor seems to have taken his bold and brash attitude straight into the action flick, with some reviewers impressed by his time on screen.
The Guardian gave the Irishman some positive words in their review of the film, saying, “McGregor, it turns out, is a natural at playing a devilishly flamboyant villain, at times stealing the show from a more grounded Gyllenhaal.”
Empire also praised his performance, saying in their four-star review that, “It’s a daring and controversial bit of stunt casting, but after making quite an entrance, McGregor maintains an impressive level of hyper-intensity throughout.”
The big reviews are in for Conor McGregor’s acting debut in Road House
However, some reviewers were more critical of the fighter, with RogerEbert.com saying, “McGregor’s performance is equally fascinating and baffling, delivered almost entirely through a massive grin like he’s doing a bit at a weigh-in before a match.
“He struts and smiles like an aggro Popeye, and it feels like [director, Doug Liman] told him to go over the top and so McGregor shot to the moon.”
Conor McGregor and Jake Gyllenhaal at the 'Road House' premiere #SXSW2024
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 9, 2024
Full gallery here: https://t.co/psL2DZS31V
📸 Getty pic.twitter.com/zKywoAcNFG
There was also some confusion over McGregor’s line delivery, with the same review saying, “There are times when his awkward line readings sound abjectly wrong, but maybe that’s intentional? It’s a constant push-and-pull of whether or not McGregor is purposefully awkward because Knox is a sociopath or if the fighter just doesn’t yet know how to put words together on screen”
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Reviews also hint at allegations that the film’s dialogue was completed with the use of AI during the actor’s strike, which could explain McGregor’s delivery.
IGN said: “While it remains to be seen whether those allegations are true, what’s painfully obvious is how much of the dialogue is ADR (Automated dialogue replacement) – particularly McGregor’s lines, which sound about as bad as the villain in Madame Web.”
While it hasn’t been released to a wider audience just yet, McGregor will be relatively happy by reviews so far – and we might have to get used to him on screen.
He won’t be on the big screen this time, however, as Road House will not be going to theatres. It will rather be releasing on Prime Video on March 21.
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