“Footloose”:

I freely admit that I am not obsessive about my film going. I like to see films on the big screen and I’m not interested in seeing them over and over again on DVD so when I saw the new “Footloose”, the Craig Brewer remake of the iconic Kevin Bacon vehicle, I was not burdened by slavish devotion to the original film. Kenny Wormald (“Center Stage:Turn It Up”) plays Ren McCormack and is very likable as a Boston transplant to the little Georgia town of Bomont. The town is still reeling from the death of the preacher’s son and four other teens in a horrendous car crash after a night of drinking and dancing three years earlier. Dennis Quaid does a fine job as Rev. Shaw Moore, the preacher/father in mourning, and makes the premise of the onerous restrictions on teen dancing and drinking plausible. He has a rebellious daughter Ariel played by “Dancing With The Stars” two time champ, Julianne Hough, who has impossibly blue eyes, a well acted headstrong attitude, and an eye  for bad boys including the local thug, Chuck (Patrick John Flueger). When Ren shows up as a Boston fish out of water, mourning the loss of his mother to cancer, the restrictive Bomont atmosphere gives him a new focus, a campaign to shake things up. He’s helped along the way with good-old-boy Willard ( Miles Teller does a fine job as a comical wing man) and Ariel, who warms to to the newcomer Ren’s good guy-bad boy charms. The music blends Southern Rock with Urban rap overtones to revitalize the many hits the  from the original movie, and the boot-scootin’ dancing is brilliant. Ren’s warehouse dance of rage nicely updates the moves that made Kevin Bacon an 80’s poster boy. A new generation of film goers not shadowed with the ghost of the original film will find plenty to enjoy with this remake.

Rated: PG13

My GPA: 3.4