Why Does the “Road House” Remake Pull Its Punches?

The confrontation is over almost before it begins, but watching it again recently I couldn’t help imagining what would have happened if the two had come to blows. In a bout between Donnie Darko and Dirty Dancer, who would win? Swayze had already moved on from the action-movie glories of “Road House” and “Point Break” (1991), but could he have prevailed based on his golden-god physicality alone? Or would the young Gyllenhaal have revealed, beneath the baby fat and the gawky smile, some of the vengeful fighting spirit he would later display in the frenzied boxing drama “Southpaw” (2015)?