thoughts on the Footloose remake

A few of us went to see the new Footloose movie this evening, and a good time was had by all. It was a fun movie; there were literally four dance scenes that had me grinning from ear to ear (the scene where they dance in front of the burger shop or whatever it is, which is much more of a production in the remake than in the original; the scene at the country dance bar, which is also more of a production; the Willard "Let's Hear it for the Boy" scene, which is mostly the same; and the scene at the dance at the end). Thoughts like, "That looks like a lot of fun," and, "They look like they're having fun," crossed my mind more than once, which says a lot, I think, for a dance movie. Anyway, I don't want to spend a tons of time comparing it to the original, but here are a few differences that I thought were interesting:

1) Unlike in the original, Ren's uncle is not even a little bit of a jerk; he's very supportive, always has his back, and even goes so far as to stand up to Reverend Moore on his behalf. It's pretty awesome.

2) Dennis Quaid's Reverend Moore is angrier than John Lithgow's was. Like, John Lithgow just came across as genuinely concerned for the kids of Bomont (sp?); Dennis Quaid comes across as kind of controlling. This movie, moreso than the previous version, made it clear that both Reverend Moore and Ariel are reacting to their son's/brother's death in really extreme, reactionary ways. With that in mind...

3)...in the original, Ariel came across as rebellious and tough. In this movie, at one point I actually thought to myself, "I think something might be wrong with her." The weird thing is that this moment happened during a scene that was also in the original, the scene where Ariel stands in front of an oncoming train. In the original, it just seemed like, "There's crazy Ariel doing more crazy stuff." I never remember worrying that she was in any real danger, or actually had any intention of dying. In this movie, she really seemed like she might have a death wish. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. Like, if this makes sense, in the original, even when she was doing potentially dangerous stuff, it seemed 1) like basic normal teenage rebellion and 2) like she could take care of herself, so there was no reason to worry about it. Here, I felt like we should be worried for her. For much of the movie, I kind of missed tough Ariel from the original, but now that I think about it more, I think I liked Julianne Hough's performance. She came across more as someone putting on an act rather than someone who was genuinely tough, which I think was right given her character's history.

4) I've heard some critics say that Kenny Wormald, who played Ren, didn't have Kevin Bacon' charisma. I've gotta say, I liked him a lot. Very confident. Played Ren as having a lot of nerve. I also liked whoever played Willard (no, I don't feel like looking his name up).

5) The fight scenes seemed more violent in this movie. Like, you know that part where they go out of town to the country bar, and Willard gets in a fight with that guy who hits on Rusty? In this movie, Rusty HITS HIM WITH A BEER BOTTLE. Like, it shatters, and he crumples to the ground. Like, for a second there I was like, "OH MY GOD, IS HE DEAD?!" And when Chuck shows up at the dance with his friends and they get in a fight with Ren and Willard, I had this weird "SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET KILLED!" worry that I didn't get in the original.

6) What all of these comparisons seem to be coming down to is that the stakes felt higher here, somehow. Everything seemed like a bigger deal. Conversations felt more intense. Tensions were higher. You felt like something big could happen at any moment. Maybe that's why the dance numbers felt like so much fun-- it really did seem like a big deal for these characters to feel like celebrating. All of that is good, I think. Yeah. I liked it a lot.

Oh, and P.S.-- you know that part in the original where Ariel takes Ren to that place near the train tracks where people have written quotes and song lyrics and stuff, and proceeds to read him a horrible, horrible poem she wrote? She doesn't read him the horrible, horrible poem here. This is another Good Thing.