Footloose v2.0 is the remake of a childhood favorite of mine, and many others like me. For those of us who had nothing better to do in the summer of 1984, the original Footloose happily helped us spend our parents’ money, over and over… Well, the movie has now been remade… Let’s see if the new version becomes a favorite of anyone else’s.
When you go into the theater to see a remake of a childhood favorite, you really can’t help but compare it to the original. Some may say that Footloose (2011) is a re-imagining of the original film, but I would be hard pressed to agree with them.
Ok, so the plot of the film… (It wasn’t complicated in 1984 and it’s not in 2011 either):
Big city kid, Ren (Kenny Wormald), comes from Boston to the small town of Bomont, where the town has been thrown into a moral upheaval by an accident that killed some teenagers three years earlier. This caused them to pass laws banning loud music and public dancing by people under the age of 18. Can you imagine being busted for Breakin’? Punished for Poppin’? Oh, no you di’int! Not to be one to conform to the status quo, new kid in town Ren is set on challenging the laws and perking up Bomont.
Anyways, upon arriving, Ren catches the eye of the town’s bad girl (and preacher’s daughter), Ariel (Julianne Hough) who has started to run amok. Ariel is hell-bent on doing anything her father, Reverend Moore (Dennis Quaid), says not to do – smoking, drinking, and dancing, amongst other things. She’s the kind of girl who wears red cowboy boots, just to piss off her conservative father. That’s who we all fall for, right? Well, Ren is no exception…
When the music is playing loud and there’s lots of bumpin’ and grindin’ – that’s when thing heat up.
And that pretty much does it for the plot…
Now, remember when I said I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from comparing it to the original? Well… here goes.
For the most part, Footloose (2011) mirrors Footloose (1984) in regards to the main story. In fact, some scenes are filmed shot for shot from the original, using the same dialogue and even four of the original songs from the soundtrack. (“Footloose”, “Almost Paradise”, “Let’s Hear it for the Boy”, and “Holding Out for a Hero”) The music, this time, moves more towards country, which, at some points, slows the momentum of the scenes. This is where I can’t agree to a re-imagining of the film…
Some interesting plot adjustments happened in the script, such as Ren’s mother having died of Leukemia prior to Ren coming to Bomont. Ren joins the football team in Bomont, but still has a gymnastics background so he can pull of the solo dance in the warehouse. Also, some characters were flopped around: This time Ren comes to Bomont to live with his supportive uncle (his mother’s brother), his open-minded wife and their kids. Other characters were truncated, all but vanishing in the background.
The acting in both versions is weak at points, but it seems that weakness was a bit more pronounced in this version. Both Wormald and Hough were no doubt cast based on their dancing ability and looks, but unfortunately their emotional depth is limited, which, to me, took away from any tension and conflict in the story. The original Bomont seemed to almost be tearing itself apart with conflict, mostly due to the long, extremely conservative, arm of the church. This Bomont is almost too casual to support such strict laws.
Ok, so don’t get me wrong, Footloose (2011) isn’t a bad movie, it told the story that we all went to see, but it just seemed to be lacking that little bit of umpf, if you know what I mean.
