Footloose

Aside from some plot details and a few modern references, 2011's Footloose is pretty much the same movie as 1984's Footloose, the surprise hit that helped launch the career of a young Kevin Bacon. It follows the same plot, features the same dialogue, plays the same music, and even has some of the exact same scenes, right down to the camera angles. So, much like last month's faithful to the point of ridiculousness remake of Straw Dogs, the question instantly becomes why should we pay to see this movie, when we can watch the exact same thing at home on DVD? And much like Straw Dogs, Footloose fails to provide an answer.

The plot was pretty old hat back in 1984, and feels downright outdated and corny now. Rebellious teen Ren McCormick (played by 28-year-old Kenny Wormald) is a big city kid who has just got off the bus in the small Southern town of Bomont to live with his Aunt and Uncle, after his mom passed away from a long bout with leukemia. (His deadbeat dad's long gone off somewhere.) As if that's not a big enough bummer for poor Ren, the town of Bomont is currently under the thumb of the well-meaning, but hard-headed preacher, Rev. Moore (Dennis Quaid), who has outlawed all dancing and loud music in Bomont, after his teenage son and some of his friends were killed in a car crash while driving home from a high school tailgate party. What's a goodhearted kid who doesn't play by the rules to do, other than befriend a slow-witted jock named Willard (Miles Teller) and Rev. Moore's equally rebellious and booty-shaking daughter, Ariel (Julianne Hough), and try to convince them and the entire town to overturn the town's stance on public dancing and music?

To its credit, there are moments of energy in Footloose when the actors get to dance. This makes sense since, if the performances on display are any indication, the main young actors were hired for their dancing, rather than their acting ability. Unfortunately for the movie (and us, the audience), the movie puts a lot more emphasis on the dialogue and the drama, rather than the stuff that works - namely, the music and dance sequences. Instead of the high energy sequences we've come for, we get endless long-winded scenes where the young actors try to show emotion, and needless subplots, like Ariel being involved with Chuck the town bully (Patrick John Flueger), until she realizes that Ren's the better guy. There's also a running subplot about Willard not being able to dance, and Ren trying to teach him. I know these plots were in the original movie, but they hold absolutely no weight here, to the point that you wonder why director Craig Brewer (Black Snake Moan) bothered to carry them over to his remake.

The new young cast are certainly attractive and dance well, but as mentioned, seem to have a hard time drawing emotion. In the lead role, Kenny Wormald seems to be competing with Twilight's Taylor Lautner as to who can be a less expressive actor. Julianne Hough makes for an attractive female lead (and also somewhat resembles a young Jennifer Aniston), but brings nothing to her performance in general. Normally in a movie like this, I would say it'd be up to the acting veterans to carry the weight. In this case, that would be Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell (looking astonishingly the same way she looked 20 years ago in films like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Groundhog's Day), who portray the preacher and his wife. However, both of them seem to be pushed into the background for most of the movie. Quaid gets one or two confrontational scenes with his young daughter, while MacDowell pretty much stands around, until it's time for her big scene where she tries to convince her husband to let the kids dance.

Right about now, I should be saying something along the lines of Footloose wasn't for me, but fans of the original should like it. However, this movie sticks so close to the original, I have to wonder if the fans even need it. This is like watching a high school production of a Broadway show. Everything's there as you remember it, but something's just off, or not as professional. The 1984 movie is remembered for launching the careers of some young actors at the time. This movie will most likely become a forgotten little oddity before too long.

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