Footloose (2011)

Footloose (2011)
Starring: Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough, Dennis Quaid
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Rating: I Liked It

I began writing this post in a completely different manner as I was rewatching the original 1984 version of the film.  You can read that HERE if you want.  It was getting to be way too long, and I wasn't even halfway through the movie.

The problem I was running into was that the movie is almost, shot-for-shot a remake of the original.  I state almost the exact opposite of that in my first post, but I wrote that much of it before I began my rewatch of the 1984 movie.  The more I watched, the more I realized it was almost a clone in its entirety.  There were some improvements, but overall, it's the same.  So, here's my extremely shortened and abbreviated list in the format I usually use, only this one is based solely on the differences between the original and its remake.

The Good:

• There are some serious improvements in Ren's (Wormald) character and his development.  I think having his mother die allows the viewer and members of the town to feel some added sympathy for him.  
• Hough is a much better in the role of Ariel than Singer was in '84.  Hough's piercing blue eyes and amazing smile put her head and shoulder's above Singer in the looks department.  I also think Hough has more natural acting and dancing prowess.  She performed the character very well, and Singer's portrayal seemed over the top at times...the wrong times.  Hough even manages to make those ugly red boots that stuck around from 1984 look good, and that's a feat in and of itself.  Finally, even though she's "been kissed a lot", according to Willard in both films, she doesn't seem like as much of a hoe in 2011. 
• There were a few added characters that gave Ren a little extra support in this movie.  Particularly, his uncle Wes (Ray McKinnon) is a great addition to the story.  He backs Ren up on more than one occasion.  In the original  the family Ren has, other than his mom, don't seem to want to support him at all.  The owner of the mill where Ren works also plays a slightly larger role, and we see the addition of a few other minor characters who help out along the way and understand the overbearing nature of the laws in place in the town.  
• One action sequence in the movie improved greatly.  The scene where Ren and Ariel's boyfriend(?) play chicken with tractors is so embarrassing it makes me not want to watch that scene.  In the new film we at least get some derby buses racing.  It's not the best thing ever,but it's definitely better than tractors.  
• Chuck (Patrick Flueger), the aforementioned boyfriend, is a much better villain in the 2011 version.  You can hate him a lot more easily, mainly because the character is more serious.  I'm not sure what to accredit that to, but I thin some credit goes to Flueger.  
• Please reference my note in the ugly section below, but there are some throwbacks I liked.  Particularly the beginning of the montage scene where Ren teaches Willard (Miles Teller) to dance begins with Ren's little cousins singing the original version of "Let's Hear it for the Boy" that appeared in the first film on their toy karaoke machine.  
• I can't imagine a better replacement for Vi (Dianne Wiest), the Rve. Shaw's wife, than Adnie McDowell.  Wiest was perfect for the role, and McDowell did a great job filling in for the part.  

The Bad: 

• While one action sequence mentioned above did improve, another took a step in the other direction.  In the original we're shown Ariel's wild side by having her prop herself up between her friend's car and boyfriend's truck while they speed down the road, a tractor-trailer barreling at them.  In the newer version, Ariel (Hough) hangs out the window of her boyfriend's race car as he does a victory lap around the track.  This one has to go to 1984, basically because there was little to no danger really involved in the slow victory lap where no one else was even on the track.  
• I'm somewhat influenced by the fact that I don't really care for Quaid to begin with, but even putting my preconceptions aside, John Lithgow just does a better job as Rev. Shaw.  He's tougher when he needs to be tough, and that just makes his soft moments even more effective.  Quaid failed, though not through lack of effort, to show the same range.  Lithgow is just so much more believable, and while you can still seem him as the strong religious figure he is, the story allows him to show that he's not a zealot by disagreeing with the dismissal of a "young English teach", asking if it takes as long for corruption to take hold as it does for compassion to die, and stopping the burning of books.  
• Warmold does a pretty decent job of filling Kevin Bacon's shoes, but he falls a little short.  One scene that really proves it is Ren's speech to the town council.  It's delivered so much more strongly by Bacon.  Warmold holds his own, but it's hard to meet the original.  

The Ugly: 

• Not only was the movie an almost shot-for-shot remake of the original, there was so much stolen dialogue that I'd swear they used the same script almost.  I'm not exagerating either.  There are so many times that the characters' lines are exactly the same as the original movie.  While I found this quality endearing after watching the new one, it just came off as lazy when I rewatched the Kevin Bacon version.  I can see now why I thought the new one was pretty good: it's the same as the old one that I love.  However, after coming to that realization, I like this one a lot less.  
• Very early in the 1984 movie, we're given a hint at how ridiculous and Stalin-like some of the laws in place are when the topic of Slaughterhouse 5 is brought into conversation.  It's clear the people of Beaumont think it's ghastly, for lack of a better term, but Wren (Bacon) refers to it as a classic.  He's told that "Tom Sawyer is a classic".  This ties into one of my favorite scenes in the original, where Lithgow's Shaw deters a group of people burning inappropriate books.  It really goes to show Shaw's understanding of the need for limits on restrictiveness.  This topic is only grazed over momentarily in 2011 when it's mentioned that certain books were banned by one of the laws that was passed.  I'm not sure why it was left out of the new version, but it allowed us a significant insight into part of Rev. Shaw's psyche.  
• The final aspect of the movie that was just downright bad for me is the cover of Kenny Loggins' original song by Blake Shelton.  It's like they just took out all the things that made it a great song, anything that was too complicated to worry with learning.  It's nowhere near the tune the original was.  On the other hand I enjoyed the cover of "Holding Out for a Hero" quite a bit.