Footloosier

The "Footloose" remake opened last weekend.

Yeah, I did.  Wanna call a cop?

The 1984 original has always been a guilty pleasure for me.  One of those movies that I am almost embarrassed to admit that I enjoyed.  With a soundtrack album that, yes, I bought.  And frequently listened to on my, gasp, Sony Walkman.

I can't explain why this film resonates with me, but it does.  It is pure cinematic cheese, but, then again, who doesn't enjoy a big hunk of Velveeta every once in a while?  I most recently increased my cheddar intake by purchasing the Blu-Ray release and watched it as soon as I could rip the cellophane off.

Just five days later, I wound up seeing the 2011 remake.  I was officially in Footloose overload.  Like the kids in the movie, my right leg couldn't stop twitching.  Was that euphoria or a tic?  No clue.  All I know is that I had been infected all over again. 

And, frankly, if I'm alive in 27 years when the newest version comes out, I'm probably be there, too.  Ready to get all gooey all over again. 

Not that the 2011 edition makes any great inroads.  Or deviations from the original.  In some cases, the scenes are identical except for newer---and younger actors hoofing it up in the gin mill.  Line by line, word by word, look by look, this is like a reprint of the Mona Lisa.  Or, more appropriately, a copy of that old Farrah Fawcett poster.

As soon as it started, I thought I was watching my Blu-Ray.  The same feet with more modern shoewear.  Tapping away to the strains of the original theme song sung by the original warbler Kenny Loggins.  Whoo-ee, Mar-ee.  Even at the bargain matinee, I began to wonder if I had wasted coin on this.

And then, out of the blue, the 2011 movie veered into a scene you did not see in 1984.  A loud and violent car crash that was only referred to in the previous version.  Five young Bomont teenagers snuffed out in the blink of a headlight.  The impetus for the town to ban dancing and carousing. 

I cringed immediately.  Wow, did they really need to show this?  Did I need to see this?

By the end of this "Footloose," I had to admit.  The inclusion worked.  And, in some mystical way, it made the 2011 film work just a little bit better than what we watched back when MTV was in its infancy.  Now you feel the pain of the town because you actually could see it.  It makes every character's motivation a little bit more realistic because it becomes more organic.  You finally understand.

As a result, the town preacher, once played by John Lithgow and now essayed by Dennis Quaid, is a more complex character.  You understand his dilemma.  And, with a less verbose actor at the helm, the pastor has many more layers, albeit softer ones.  I wonder what the part would have been like if producers had gotten gimmicky and hired Kevin Bacon for the role.  But, nevertheless, Quaid is a distinct improvement in a plot line that now seems a little richer.

That's not to say that the new "Footloose" is light years better than the old "Footloose."  The current cast of "youngsters" is much weaker, although they really are dancers, as opposed to Bacon and Lori Singer who had to doubled by some stunt "two-steppers."   Kenny Wormald is from Boston, so the writers now have Ren McCormick relocating from Massachusetts with his accent but without his mother, who is missing from this version after succumbing to a convenient case of leukemia. 

The heroine, Ariel, still wears those damn red boots and is played by somebody named Julianne Hough.  She apparently is a veteran of "Dancing with the Stars" and that explains why I'd never seen her before.  She and Wormald both can dance up a storm, but neither should be giving up their introductory membership to the Actor's Studio.

Most of this "Footloose" is the same with some changes instituted for the sake of change only.  There are a few more Black kids in Bomont this time around, as opposed to the 1984 town which might have been marshalled by the Klu Klux Klan.  Ariel's best friend Rusty, once played by Sarah Jessica Parker when she was so young that she still wasn't wearing high heels, is now either Black or Hispanic or the love child of Derek Jeter.  In any case, there was no reason to switch out this ethnicity except to fulfill the filmmakers' need for a rainbow.

The wonderful highlight from 1984 was the musical montage where Bacon taught Chris Penn's character how to dance as accompanied by Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for the Boy."  The number now is almost identical, but still equally infectious.  Somehow and some way, it still is gold.

Ultimately, was there any reason to remake "Footloose?"  Of course not.  And it just makes me think how no classic movie is safe anymore.  How long will it be until we are saddled with attempts at duplicating the greatness of, say, "The Apartment," "Some Like It Hot," or "North By Northwest?"  My stomach is getting tied up in knots just typing that.

But, still, compared to anything else that opened last weekend, you could have done worse than this "Footloose."   Mom's meatloaf with a side of macaroni and cheese is always good, no matter how many times you reheat. 

As long as you're not expecting it to taste like Kobe beef.

Dinner last night:  Turkey burger at the Cheesecake Factory.