Not as bad as it could have been, but not as good as it should have been.

Rating: 6/10 (9 March 2012)

In general, I'm not a fan of remakes; if it isn't broken, it doesn't need fixing. "Footloose 2011" is "Footloose 1984" with a different cast, some additional (and mostly unnecessary) back-story, and a few minor plot changes. Unlike the original score, the 'updated' music was mostly pretty forgettable, even the covers of the songs from the 1984 movie.
In the 1984 version, Kevin Bacon pretty much carried the show, with an able assist from Chris Penn, while Lori Singer was along for the eye candy. Bacon wasn't a dancer (Peter Tramm was his dance double)and Lori Singer's dancing was at best merely adequate, so director Brewer's idea of casting two professional dancers as leads in the remake seemed like a good idea - he was half right.
Kenny Wormald is an excellent dancer and certainly looked the part of Ren, but he lacks the charisma that Kevin Bacon brought to the role. His acting is adequate, but that's about it. I didn't actually dislike him as Ren, but he didn't do anything to make me particularly like him, either.
Julianne Hough, on the other hand, was a very pleasant surprise. She is a beautiful woman, a superb dancer, and (here is the pleasant surprise part) shows real promise as an actor. One of the things that makes her such a delight to watch (besides the obvious physical attributes) is that when she is dancing, she looks like she is loving every second of it.
In reprising Chris Penn's role as Willard, Miles Teller came pretty close to stealing the show a couple of times, especially in the sequence where Ren and his two young cousins are teaching Willard how to dance.
For a movie supposedly all about dancing, there wasn't nearly enough. What there was of it was nicely choreographed, in some cases a step-for- step recreation of the 1984 dance scenes, but shot with a confusing mishmash of close-ups, very awkward mid-range shots and not nearly enough long shots that would actually show the dancing instead of just hinting at it.
When I left the theater after seeing the 1984 film, I couldn't get the music out of my mind, I was humming "Let's Hear it for the Boy" for weeks afterward. Sadly, not so this time.
I'll give Julianne Hough and Miles Teller B+'s for their roles. Overall, I give the production a C+.