Footloose

I was little skeptical about a remake of "Footloose", but director Craig Brewer continues on with a nice little winning streak (previously efforts were "Hustle and Flow" and "Black Snake Moan"), and comes up with another watchable film, this time steeped with a lot of nostalgia of those of us who grew up as teens in the mid 1980s. What Brewster does well is develop good character interactions on-screen, even if the plot is threadbare, as there's not a lot of high-brow material here, it's embracing youthful hormones and the release of pent-up energy due to the town's heavy-handedness with the laws of youthful conduct.

Bomont, GA, has an anti-dancing law due to tragic circumstances 3 years ago, and Ren (Kenny Wormald) arrives from Boston to live with his uncle and family due to his own tragic circumstances. Ren is the new boy in town, talks "funny" in a town of southerners, and has to deal with more civil limitations than he's accustomed to from his former life. Rev. Moore (Dennis Quaid) was the one who worked the laws to put on the clamps of teenage behavior (teens also had curfews, as well as the anti-dance laws), and Rev. Moore's daughter, Ariel (Julianne Hough), is in a rebellious phase, hanging with the bad boy, Chuck, in town, who doesn't quite treat women with respect. Ren makes a new friend in Williard, drafting off that original film's buddy-buddy bromance with Kevin Bacon and Chris Penn. And it works, Williard is a fun character and plays off well with Ren. Of course, Ren and Ariel are sniffing around one another, in antagonistic ways at the start, but that soon melts away, and they connect on more than superficial levels.

In a film like this, you just have to let the dance choreography wash over you, it's fun, and lively, just what you'd expect. There is enough heart in the film to like the cast of characters, and detest the ones who deserve the audience's derision. In the end, the film won me over, though it won't quite totally replace the original film, but it's not a terrible remake, as I feared it would be.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.