'Road House' Remake Crackles With Unruly Energy

Disreputability is tragically undervalued in modern movies. Streaming has virtually erased the concept, and the allure, of the “straight-to-video” release. Cheap, sensationalistic films are still being made, but they’re more likely to be appreciated only by niche audiences. There’s no such thing as a mainstream B movie—made truly with just a few nickels and not backed by a cool, name-brand studio—that hungry moviegoers, en masse, will trek out to see. Cheap thrills have become so scarce that they now feel as rare as gold.