logan j. fowler and bill bodkin look at the adaptation of the Kevin Bacon classic …
Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? No thanks.
At first, I thought I was watching a trailer for the next Step Up movie when I watched the trailer for Footloose. It runs a parallel line-two people who are from different slices of life come together to make dance magic. Thing was, in 1984, when the original film came out, that was more of a novel concept, plus it had Kevin Bacon, a man who oozes likability. This new guy, Kenny Wormald? He’s no Kevin Bacon. In fact, this movie isn’t Footloose, it’s just a sad remake with a Step Up injection that is trying to introduce a younger generation to a movie that didn’t need to be remade in the first place. Also, there is no Kenny Loggins? Blasphemy. All sarcasm aside, this movie will not be on my “to see” list. Dennis Quaid, you deserve better.
— LJF
Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? No thanks.
There’s no way I’m going to see this film. However, the question I’m going to tackle is … will the rest of America? My answer is … yes, for a few reasons. After Contagion‘s run at the top of the box office, America has become obsessed with feel-good, upbeat movies — e.g., the reissue of the animated classic, The Lion King and beating the odds movies like Doplhin Tale and Real Steel. This is good news for the defying the odds with dance film known as the adaptation of Footloose.
Couple that with the fact the previous No. 1 films at the box office will undoubtedly experience box office drop-off and the other films opening this weekend (The Thing and The Big Year) are not looking overly impressive, I think Footloose dances its way into America’s hearts. We’ve seen dance movies like the Step Up films (outside of the 3D disaster) and Stomp The Yard show us that dance films make bank. This also is teen romantic drama which has Friday night date night written all over. So kick off your Sunday shoes, because when the weekend dust clears, Footloose will be the box-office king. I’ll just have to miss out on, it though.
— BB
