Footloose 2011

I have a staunch dislike for remakes of perfectly good classics for the most part. There is always room to be pleasantly surprised in that area, however rarely that it occurs.  Take for instance, the iconic classic of Kevin Bacon in the original Footloose. I can never watch a movie with him in it without recalling the David Bowie tie and poorly crafted accent, not to mention the infamous dance and his revolution that he brought to the town of Bomont.

 I am aware that this review is late in the making, but it took me a while to build up the courage to watch the remake of such a timeless movie. Well...timeless for girls like me who love their dancing!

Like the original, the movie was light on plot, wary of acting talent, but heavy on the dancing. The makers tried to bring the movie into an era where teenagers were no longer conceived in the 80s, pumping the music but keeping some things true to form and old school.  For instance, what teenybopper of this day and age actually knows what a drive in movie theater is? Or would recognize the movie's first big dance scene (outside of the intro, that is) as being at that particular location? But that's besides the point. Perhaps they were trying to make the movie accessible both to new lovers of the movie and to the old. Who knows.

Other than the Kenny Wormald's abysmal accent that tended more Aussie than Bostonian (I mean really, Ben Affleck did a better job at a Boston accent), and Julianne Hough's poor timing, the only shining acting was from vet Dennis Quaid. But a lot can be said for an actor who was willing to delve into so many different projects, even if most were flops, an actor who can work with original CGI elements like he did in Dragonheart must be up to snuff. 

Luckily the movie had a couple good one-liners (most notably, "it's line dancing...it's a white man's wet dream" and "I think its sexier than socks on a rooster") and of course, the dancing and the music of Kenny Loggins to make up for the lack of everything else.

I suppose though, the original was probably also lacking in those areas, only it's iconic cult following has made it memorable and somehow always better.