Not good,not bad,just kinda average

Rating: 5/10 (28 August 2011)

I was able to catch an early promotional screening of the remake of Footloose on August 25th in San Diego. When I got my pass to it,I finally decided to watch the original Footloose for the first time,which I really enjoyed. A remake of this film sounded so pointless,especially of its MTV-esque "Step Up" vibe it added to appeal to this generation,but I must say that I didn't hate this film as much as I thought I would.
Instead of coming from Chicago,the new Ren McCormack (Kenny Wormald) arrives in Bomont,GA,to live with his aunt and uncle's family. However,he arrives in a town that has outlawed loud music and dancing due to the deaths of five high school students in a car accident that mixed together alcohol and loud music. He decides to start a rebellion against the town's preacher Reverend Moore (Dennis Quaid) to abolish the law in time for the senior dance. Basically,if you have seen the original film,you pretty much already know the main plot but since this is a remake and the fact that it's set in the south,it sets up a new town culture along with modern music.
I expected Kenny Wormald to suck the life out the character of Ren McCormack, but he surprisingly did a halfway-decent job. However,he is definitely no Kevin Bacon! Julianne Hough on the other hand,I thought did a better job that Lori Singer playing Ariel Moore. She looked more believable as a high school student than Lori Singer did in the original,and she never took the role too seriously. Dennis Quaid also did a decent job as the new Reverend Moore,but maybe he had to step it up when his agent told him you're going to have to match the way The Trinity Killer played him 27 years ago (Dexter FTW). Otherwise,everyone else was very average in their performances,especially Andie Macdowell whose portrayal of Vi Moore was treated as a neglected aspect in this version.
Director Craig Brewer did a pretty good job at staying true to the original film,but his Southern grit style that has been present in has past films Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan is one thing that brings this movie down. The southern culture is very evident throughout the film,but there are points where it makes it a bit too annoying. The dance choreography was pretty good,but there are two scenes involving a rap song being played that that really killed the vibe in comparison to the original film. However,I think that Brewer did a good job with 3 scenes in particular: the opening credits scene,the "Teaching Willard to dance" scene,and the ending dance number even though there's a new version of the Footloose song played for modern audiences only.
Overall,the Footloose remake is not as bad as I thought it would be,but at the same time,I found it quite useless to remake an 80s classic that starred one of my favorite actors Kevin Bacon. This generation's MTV fans and Step Up franchise fanatics will enjoy it a lot,but I have a strong feeling that fans of the original will pass it off as a useless remake,despite it staying mostly true to the 80s classic.
5.5/10