Footloose (2011).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79DcKuxmXMs]
Thoughts on the new Footloose movie (spoilers, obvs):
- The original Footloose, while awesome and wonderful and well-acted and well-written and so on, isn't really all that COMPLICATED. Right? So I hope y'all understand what it means when I say that this new version simply took the original story/script and dumbed it down. There's a whole lot of dialogue that goes something like:
"I'm feeling/thinking FILL IN THE BLANK, and now I'm going to EXPLAIN EXACTLY WHY."
- Rather than Ariel's terrifying (and borderline suicidal) Straddle a Speeding Car/Truck scene, she primly sits in the window of Chuck Cranston's racecar and holds a flag while he does a victory lap around the track. BORING. And definitely not a big enough risk to warrant Rusty's freakout. (Which seems to be there purely to explain to the audience exactly how dangerous the stunt was supposed to be. Even though it clearly wasn't.)
- Also, rather than allowing her to just choose to have sex and not get all angsty about it, the writers added a scene where Chuck pressures her into it. BOO.
- The angry dance didn't hold a candle to the original, though I do think that that was mostly due to the new music.
- Sadly, they killed off both Ren's mother AND the book-burning scene. Making his uncle likable -- and casting someone who looks just like his boss in the original -- was a nice change, though.
- I will never not despise Andie MacDowell, and I will never stop wondering how she keeps getting acting jobs.
- I wanted more Dennis Quaid. (Then again, who doesn't? Not counting Meg Ryan.)
- The new Willard? Is adorbs. As was the new Willard Learns to Dance montage.
- My sister and I both walked out of the theater secretly wanting to go line dancing.