Writing about movies means succumbing to occasional bouts of reductive-itis, inspired by that great bonehead critic Emperor Joseph II in “Amadeus,” who told Mozart nice job on his latest composition, with one caveat: “too many notes.”

Folks, this week has been one of those bouts. First, it was the new “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (verdict: too much “heart” and digital mayhem, not enough funny). And now, streaming on Prime Video, we have another ’80s-derived throwback, the “Road House” remake with Jake Gyllenhaal.

The 1989 Patrick Swayze edition, costarring Kelly Lynch, Sam Elliott, Kathleen Wilhoite and, singing along with “Sh-Boom,” Ben Gazzara, was nothing but ridiculous trash. And fun. Calling it “human-scaled” makes the old “Road House” sound as if it took place somewhere on planet Earth, among humans, which isn’t really true. And yet who says we can’t enjoy a sustained feat of complete fraudulence, if the spirit’s right and a movie takes some downtime for love scenes between beat-downs?

The new “Road House” has no time for sex. Compared with the old one, it’s 30 times bloodier and one-third as fun. Still, there are things to recommend it, namely the Irishman.

Conor McGregor, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video/TNS)

The action has been relocated from outside Kansas City to the fictional Glass Key, Florida. Screenwriters Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry establish bouncer Dalton as a suicidal, scandal-clouded Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight with more baggage than Swayze’s Dalton ever lugged. Traveling by Greyhound, Dalton has come to the Florida Keys to take a job at the beachfront bar owned by Frankie (Jessica Williams). She needs a legit set of abs to control her insanely unruly customers and keep the peace.

That Dalton does, violently. Director Doug Liman escalates the bone-crunch melees with propulsive crimson relish, albeit with tons of editing cheats and medium-good digital trickery. The narrative obstacles in “Road House” carry over from the ’89 movie; there’s a corrupt crime family running amok, with Billy Magnussen amusingly detestable as the primary scumbag. Once again, a discreetly smoldering local doctor (Daniela Melchior) patches up Dalton after his initial run-in with the local rabble, and sees this mysterious, courtly stranger as potential date-night material.

The old “Road House” dripped with casually rampant misogyny disguised as examples of the ungentlemanly bad behavior Dalton must vanquish. Most of that ambiance is gone here. So is any trace of actual sensual anything. The central “romance” this time barely registers. Reductively, you could put it this way: Liman’s “Road House” gets the job done, but it’s the wrong job, and the ratios are off. When movie fantasies like this reduce the sexual current between its leads to nil, the emphasis on crazier and crazier brutality starts feeling not just jaded, or bloodthirsty, but a drag.

On the other hand, you know who’s great in this? Conor McGregor, best known as an Irish UFC star, making his feature debut in “Road House” as Knox, the special guest assailant the bad guys hire to dispose of Dalton. McGregor’s a born entertainer, delightfully overripe and dementedly committed to every close-up and every strutting threat of grievous bodily harm. His bare bottom gets a wittily star-making entrance of its own, in a traveling shot that goes so long, it’s basically a “Road House” spinoff.

Gyllenhaal has his moments; he finds some wit in Dalton’s zingers, and in his scenes with the local bookstore owner’s teenage daughter (Hannah Love Lanier), the star gets a pleasant “Shane” vibe going. To be sure, “Road House” succumbs to its own bouts of reductivist critique, or self-critique. At one point the scrappy, baseball bat-wielding kid summarizes the stranger’s arrival in Western movie genre terms: “Local townsfolk send for hero to help clean up the rowdy saloon.” Then she adds: “You know. That crap.”

“Road House” — 2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for nudity, violence, alcohol use and foul language)

Running time: 1:54

How to watch: Now streaming on Prime Video

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

Linda Gassenheimer | Tribune News Service (TNS)

Passing by the fish case in the market, I noticed some very fresh swordfish. I decided to buy some and complement the richness of the fish by adding the aromatic flavors of lemon, rosemary, and garlic.

Orzo is a rice shaped pasta. It gives a lighter feel than larger pasta. Fresh spinach gives a vibrant color and adds flavor. I added it after the orzo is cooked so that it just wilts in the heat of the pasta.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Other short-cut pasta such as penne or elbow can be used.

2 crushed garlic cloves can be used instead of minced garlic.

You can use 2 teaspoons sugar in place of honey.

COUNTDOWN:

Prepare all the ingredients.

Place water for orzo on to boil.

Mix sauce ingredients and make swordfish.

While swordfish cooks add orzo to boiling water.

Finish swordfish recipe.

Complete orzo recipe.

SHOPPING LIST:

To buy: 1 lemon, 1 container minced garlic, 1 bunch fresh rosemary or 1 bottle dried rosemary, 1 bottle honey, 2 6-ounce fresh swordfish steaks, 1 bottle capers, 1 box orzo, and 1 bag washed, ready-to-eat spinach

Staples: olive oil, salt and freshly ground black peppercorns

Rosemary lemon and garlic swordfish

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided use

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, 2 teaspoons dried rosemary

2 teaspoons honey

2 6-ounce swordfish steaks

1 tablespoon drained capers

Mix lemon zest, lemon juice,1 tablespoon olive oil, garlic, rosemary and honey together in a small bowl for the sauce. Place a medium-size nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sauce to the skillet and cook 2 minutes. Remove the sauce to the bowl and add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil to the same skillet Add the swordfish steaks to the skillet. Saute 4 minutes. Turn steaks over and spoon the sauce over the swordfish. Cover the skillet with a lid and cook 4 minutes. A meat thermometer should read 130 degrees. Place the steaks on two dinner plates and spoon the sauce and capers on top.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 335 calories (47 percent from fat), 17.6 g fat (3.6 g saturated,7.6 g monounsaturated), 66 mg cholesterol, 34.2 g protein, 10.1 g carbohydrates, 1.7 g fiber, 760 mg sodium.

Orzo and spinach

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

1/4 pound orzo

4 cups washed, ready-to-eat spinach

2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fill a large saucepan 3/4 full of water. Bring to a boil. Add the orzo and boil for 9 minutes. Drain and return orzo to the saucepan. Stir in the spinach until it begins to wilt. Mix in the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Divide in half and serve with the swordfish.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 265 calories (19 percent from fat), 5.6 g fat (0.8 g saturated, 2.3 g monounsaturated), no cholesterol, 9.2 g protein, 44.7 g carbohydrates, 3.2 g fiber, 51 mg sodium.

(Linda Gassenheimer is the author of over 30 cookbooks, including her newest, “The 12-Week Diabetes Cookbook.” Listen to Linda on www.WDNA.org and all major podcast sites. Email her at Linda@DinnerInMinutes.com.)

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Consider using ingredients from your pantry and spice shelf if you’ll be dyeing eggs for Easter this year.

When used with white vinegar to set the colors, onion skins, shredded cabbage, carrot tops and pomegranate juice can result in pretty colored eggs whether you use white eggs or brown ones. Eggs are a versatile food with only about 70 calories and offering 6 grams of protein along with Vitamin K, riboflavin, selenium and iodine.

Food-safety issues and the higher price of eggs have made plastic eggs the choice for many egg hunts this year, but colored eggs are an Easter tradition that can brighten a table and be used in recipes for meals. Today’s recipe is great for any meal and can be put together quickly with hard-cooked eggs.

Hard-cooked, unpeeled eggs can be safely stored in a sealable hard-sided container in the refrigerator for up to one week. Don’t leave them out at room temperature for more than two hours.

To dye eggs with natural ingredients, start setting aside the papery skins from your onions to accumulate several cups of skins — red, brown and yellow. With them, you can make pretty marbled eggs and dye others to nice shades of yellow-brown or red. Also, save lemon and orange skins and carrot tops for yellow eggs, and use fresh or frozen spinach for green eggs. For pink eggs, use cranberry juice in place of water.

Save the egg cartons for drying your eggs and buy white vinegar if none is on hand in your pantry.

Vinegar helps to lower the pH so the dye binds to the eggshells. Even if you use a commercial egg dye, you’ll need to add vinegar or another acid such as lemon juice.

Set aside a couple of hours to cook and dye your eggs as the end of the month approaches. Plan whether you’ll color them while cooking, or start with hard-cooked eggs. You can also use food coloring to dye your eggs.

Hot water will result in more intense colors but may soak through to color the egg white, so consider how you’ll be using the finished eggs.

Natural colors

The amounts that follow will color six eggs in a quart of hot water to which 2 tablespoons of white vinegar have been added.

Orange: 4 tablespoons of paprika

Blue: 4 cups of shredded red cabbage or canned blueberries

Red: 4 cups of red onion skins OR heated pomegranate juice in place of water

Pink: 4 cups of shredded beets OR hot cranberry juice in place of water

Green: 4 cups of spinach, fresh or frozen

Ochre: 4 cups of dry outer onion skins

Pale yellow: 4 cups orange or lemon peels or carrot tops with ground cumin added

Mocha: 1 quart of strongly brewed hot coffee in place of water

Instructions:

Add dye ingredients to a pot with eggs and bring to a boil.

Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

The motion of the eggs in the liquid will assure an even color.

Cold dip method

Combine dye materials, vinegar and water and simmer for 20 minutes, then drain, reserving liquid and cool. Dip hard-cooked eggs in the dye until the desired color is achieved, soaking for 5 minutes to several hours in the refrigerator. Dry on paper towels.

Marbled eggs

Wrap uncooked eggs in onion skins of different colors or spinach leaves. Use string to secure the wrap on the eggs and place them in the toe of an old stocking. Place in simmering water for 20 minutes. Leave the eggs wrapped as they cool.

Perfect hard-cooked eggs

For perfect hard-cooked eggs that peel easily and have tender whites and smooth yellow yolks, prick the large end of each egg with a pin. This provides an escape for the air inside and prevents cracking.

Place eggs in a deep saucepan in a single layer and cover with hot water by 1 inch.

Set the pan over low heat and bring water to a low simmer. Place lid on the pan and remove from heat.

Let the eggs sit for 15 minutes.

Prepare a bowl of ice water with plenty of ice cubes.

Place eggs in the ice water for 4 minutes, then dry them off and place in the refrigerator.

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Recipe

Eggs Gratin with Bechamel Sauce, Ham and Mushrooms

(Serves 4 to 6)

Ingredients

5 hard-cooked eggs, sliced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup milk

1 large oyster mushroom, stem removed and sliced

2 slices of ham, cut up

¼ cup cream

⅓ cup Gruyere cheese

Chopped chives

Nutmeg

Freshly ground pepper

Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400.

Melt butter over low heat in a saucepan.

Whisk in flour, whisking until cooked.

Slowly add milk and continue whisking until it thickens.

Stir in cream.

Stir in sliced mushroom.

Set aside.

Place sliced eggs in the bottom of a casserole.

Add shredded cheese and chopped ham over the sliced eggs.

Sprinkle mixture with freshly ground pepper and a little nutmeg.

Pour cream sauce over the top.

Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes.

Serve.

— Adapted from a Jacques Pepin recipe

David G. Savage | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

The Supreme Court’s anti-abortion majority is set to consider whether to order a reversal in U.S. drug laws and restrict women from obtaining abortion medication at pharmacies or through the mail.

A ruling to restrict the most common method of abortion would limit the rights of women in California and other states where abortion remains legal.

“We may have thought we were protected because California is supportive of abortion, but this decision [on abortion pills] will be national in scope,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, a professor of obstetrics at UC San Francisco.

The case is the most significant abortion question to come before the court since it overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

In that Dobbs ruling two years ago, the 5-4 majority sought to reassure those who live in states where abortion remains protected. Judges should not make the rules on abortion, they said, promising to return “that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”

But that pledge faces a major test. Conservative judges in Texas have shown themselves very willing to rewrite the rules for abortion medication and to impose their rules in blue states.

Whether they prevail now depends on the three conservative justices appointed by President Trump who were crucial to overturning Roe vs. Wade: Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. If all three join with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito, they could roll back the use of abortion pills.

“It could eliminate telemedicine and reimpose the in-person dispensing requirement,” Grossman said. “It could also set a very bad precedent for the FDA.”

Several years after the drug mifepristone had been legalized in much of Europe, the Food and Drug Administration in 2000 approved its use as a safe and effective means of ending an early pregnancy. Since 2016, the agency has liberalized its regulations to permit patients to consult a doctor through telemedicine and to obtain the pills without traveling to a clinic. It is now part of a two-drug combination accounting for more than half of U.S. abortions.

When taken in combination with misoprostol, the pills cause cramping and some bleeding. It can sometimes require a doctor’s intervention to complete the abortion, but the FDA says serious complications are “exceedingly rare,” noting that more than 5 million women in the U.S. have used the medication since 2000.

More than a dozen major medical groups, led by the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists and the American Medical Assn., said in friend-of-the court briefs that two decades of studies have shown the drugs are safe.

“When used in medication abortion, major adverse events — significant infection, excessive blood loss or hospitalization — occur in less than .32% of patients,” they wrote.

On Tuesday, however, the court will hear a broad attack on the FDA from attorney Erin M. Hawley, the wife of Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and a former law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts. She says the court should not turn “a blind eye to FDA’s patently unreasonable actions here, which jeopardize women’s health throughout the nation.”

Hawley is not representing women who say they were injured by the drugs or doctors who prescribe the medication. Instead, she is representing a group of doctors who oppose abortion on religious and moral grounds.

She argues they have legal standing to sue the FDA because some of the group’s members work in emergency rooms, and they could be forced to treat patients who took abortion pills and went to a hospital because of bleeding or other complications.

“When faced with these emergencies, [the doctors] have no choice but to provide immediate treatment, even though this kind of participation in an elective abortion harms their consciences and injures them in other ways,” Hawley wrote in her brief to the court.

Shortly after the Supreme Court repealed the right to abortion in the Dobbs case, Hawley filed a lawsuit in Amarillo, Texas, seeking the repeal of the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.

The location was no accident. Her suit would come before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has been an outspoken foe of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights. Kacsmaryk had served as deputy general counsel for First Liberty Institute, a Christian conservative nonprofit that works on religious freedom cases, and had criticized the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision before its reversal.

In past decades, conservatives often railed against “judicial activism” and judges who “legislate from the bench.” In recent years, however, conservative activists have gone before judges in red states seeking to win major changes in the law that they could not win from Congress or the White House.

As predicted, Kacsmaryk handed down a broad ruling against what he called “chemical abortion” and ordered the FDA “to suspend” its approval of the drugs. In a ruling using language common to anti-abortion groups, Kacsmaryk said the studies submitted by the FDA did not convince him mifepristone was safe.

The government rushed to appeal last April, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit agreed to limit Kacsmaryk’s ruling. By a 2-1 vote, the appeals court said it was too late to unravel the approval of the drug in 2000, but not too late to overturn the FDA’s regulations that since 2016 have made it easier for women to obtain the pills.

Biden administration Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth B. Prelogar called the case a first.

She said it “marks the first time any court has restricted access to an FDA-approved drug by second-guessing FDA’s expert judgment about the conditions required to assure that drug’s safe use.”

She urged the Supreme Court to put the lower court rulings on hold, and the justices did so over dissents by Thomas and Alito. A few months later, the court agreed to rule in the case of FDA vs. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

Abortion-rights advocates are troubled the case has gotten so far.

Protestors demonstrate at the March for Reproductive Rights organized by Women’s March L.A. on April 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. The march was organized in response to a Texas federal judge’s ruling to rescind FDA approval of the abortion pill Mifepristone. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance and speech at the event. (Mario Tama/Getty Images/TNS)

“This makes a mockery of our legal system,” said Julia Kaye, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is a group of anti-abortion extremists going before a hand-picked judge and using junk science and sham claims about women’s health to serve their true goal of making abortion inaccessible.”

The solicitor general, representing the FDA, will urge the court to end the case quietly by throwing out the lawsuit.

Usually, the court has said plaintiffs have standing to sue over a law or regulation only if they are or will be personally injured by it.

The anti-abortion doctors who sued “do not prescribe mifepristone, and FDA’s actions allowing other providers to prescribe the drug do not require them to do or refrain from doing anything,” Prelogar wrote in her brief to the court. They “have not identified even a single doctor among their thousands of members who has ever been required to perform an abortion in the decades mifepristone has been on the market.”

___

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.