A remake of the 1984 classic about a city boy who moved to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned.
Remakes are coming through thick and fast these days and the latest on the cards is FOOTLOOSE the original came out in 1984 and starred Kevin Bacon it was made for about $8million dollars and took in around $80million in the US Box office it was an absolute smash for its time, it even helped Kevin Bacon’s career take off. This time around the more modernised and sexier version of FOOTLOOSE failed to disappoint.
I was sceptical to a remake of this film, I just felt that the story was old and just wouldn’t pass these days but they jazzed it up a bit and added a few subtle things that the original didn’t have, even though there are some scenes that are completely identical shot for shot and some of the dialog is the same but honestly that didn’t matter what matters was they pulled in the same feeling and fun the first movie had and the fact they cast two relative unknowns as the leads was I think a great choice.
Kenny Wormald plays Ren McCormack who’s last role was in the film ‘Centre Stage: Turn it up'(2008), prior to this he had a few small dancing roles mainly background in movies such as ‘Clerks 2′(2006) and ‘You Got Served'(2004) pulls off the role of Ren with ease and had quite the presence on screen, even with the flashy dance moves. The character of Ariel Moore played by Julianne Hough is extremely well known in the US for her role as a dancer on the TV Show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ recently got her break into movies in ‘Burlesque'(2010) opposite Christina Aguilera, don’t get me wrong this girl oozes sex appeal but towards the start of the film I didn’t think I could put up with her voice for a whole movie and I also thought her acting ability kind of lacked, but after a few ‘key’ scenes that she absolutely nailed, I got impressed quite quickly and got over those two issue’s.
The supporting cast was great, Dennis Quaid as the Reverend Shaw Moore did well with the role and Andie MacDowell lacked screen time but was great in the scenes she had, but the stand out was by far Miles Teller who plays Willard who was recently in the film ‘Rabbit Hole'(2010), he’s the country boy who has two left feet and is also slightly stupid but he’s just so damn hilarious he really made this film what it is.
FOOTLOOSE accomplishes with ease to give us a fun and sexy re-telling of the original. I give this film 3.5/5
In Cinemas 6th October.
You can check out the trailer to FOOTLOOSE here.