Footloose (2011)

Drama, Dancing
3 stars
Cute remake which follows the original very closely. The first film had much better actors, but the new version has better dancing – too bad we couldn’t have both. For those who weren’t around when the original came out: a city boy moves to a strict religious small farming town where public dancing became prohibited after a tragic accident. Kenny Wormald stars as Ren, Julianne Hough plays sexy rebel Ariel, and Dennis Quaid plays her preacher father. I liked the amiable Miles Teller as Ren’s buddy. Scene by scene this film is faithful to the original with only 3 minor deviations: 1) the location is set in Georgia and Ren hails from Boston, rather than the original’s Midwestern locale with Ren arriving from Chicago 2) that crazy tractor racing scene was changed to souped-up school buses and 3) the tragic accident that defined the town is played out for the audience. Even many of the original songs were used, which surprised me. Cute but corny movie with lots of dancing.