Footloose

Hey, I didn’t like the first Footloose, and while this nearly beat-for-beat remake has some sweet moments, I don’t like it all that much either. Kenny Wormald replaces Kevin Bacon as Ren MacCormack, newest teen addition to the town of Bomont, where teen dancing has been outlawed in large part due to the party night death of a preacher’s son. Dennis Quaid plays the preacher, replacing John Lithgow, and he labors hard in a dopey role. Julianne Hough is actually surprisingly good as Ariel, played by Lori Singer in the original. Hough handles the emotional stuff nicely, and she’s a major dancer, as is Wormald. Ultimately, the film feels like a useless retread, with some shining moments in the service of a plot that’s just silly. Some of the original recordings show up, including the Kenny Loggins title track, with some more modern re-recordings. Not a bad movie, but not one that needed to be made.