When I first heard that they were remaking the 80's classic Footloose I decided that it would probably never actually be released. After all Zac Efron was attached to star and as as much as I can see the appeal in him I did NOT see him as Ren McCormick. Kenny Ortega was also set to direct. The next I hear Kenny and Zac were out and Chace Crawford was going to be Ren. Still I thought, there's too much going on with this. It won't make it to production. Well apparently it did and I was wrong. When the trailer popped up and the promotional spots started all I could thing was : "How can they remake a classic?". It's not Footloose if it's not totally 80'stastic! I told everyone that there was no way I would spend money on it.
Then earlier this week I got curious. After all it looked fun. I love dance movies and while I don't care for Julianne Hough the movie also had Andie MacDowell and Dennis Quaid. I decided that if I spotted Ariel's Red cowboy boots in a trailer I would go see it. They were, I went and saw it this afternoon, and I was pleasantly surprised.
It felt to me like those that made it had a love for the original. There were moments that felt like an homage and moments that were solid enough for the film to stand on it's own. In the opening sequence we hear Kenny Loggins's version of the title track and we're shown a group of five teenagers drunkenly leaving a party. It took a moment for me to place it but then I remembered as they were driving across a bridge that Ariel's older brother was killed in a car accident on a bridge after a dance/party. For the first time we saw this accident and the subsequent town meeting where the ban on dancing was passed. I thought it was a powerful way to start things and to say "Hey, we're our own movie but we're staying true to the story."
I had a "Wait, What?" moment when I saw the casting for Rusty, but got over that quickly. Ren still drives a yellow bug, Willard is still a complete cowboy, Ariel is a troubled teenage girl hiding her grief behind rebellion , and many of the songs are the same . To me these were staples from the original that I couldn't live without. They included key parts from the original such as the "Let's hear it for the boy" montage of Willard learning to dance, Ren dancing off steam in an abandoned warehouse , and the examples from the bible Ren uses at the town meeting to attempt to get the ban on public dancing lifted. The final dance sequence? Perfection. Ariel's dress was an updated version of the same style, Ren was in a Maroon tuxedo, it echoed the original scenes but still had just enough changes that it would appeal to a new audience.
I left the theater smiling , to be honest. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon for me. As a self proclaimed lover of the original movie, I'd recommend the remake to anyone.
