The Footloose remake: A pleasant surprise?

Proving just as fun as the original film (if not more so), an update of the classic, if cheesy, 1984 Kevin Bacon dance flick is shocking skeptics

The "Footloose" remake
(Image credit: Facebook/Footloose)

When a remake of Footloose was first announced, the reaction was not positive: "Completely unnecessary!" cried critics. The 1984 dance flick, about a city kid who kicks up all kinds of trouble when he moves to a town where dancing has been outlawed, was a kitschy, of-its-time classic, they said — a contemporary update couldn't possibly work. The new Footloose dances into theaters this weekend, with former Justin Timberlake backup dancer Kenny Wormald stepping into Kevin Bacon's "Sunday shoes" and Dancing With the Stars alum Julianne Hough assuming Lori Singer's role as Ariel, the defiant daughter of the preacher who institutes the boogie ban. Critics couldn't be more surprised by the remake, calling it "one of the more pleasant surprises of 2011" and "even better than the original." Really?

It's that good: We didn't need a new version of Footloose, says Alfonso Duralde at The Wrap. "But not needing a second piece of birthday cake doesn't make it any less delicious." The remake, smartly, incorporates a more multiracial Georgia setting and a heftier backstory for Bacon's character, Ren (he's an orphan now). But, thankfully, it leaves much of the original flick's script, songs, and iconic moments — maroon tuxedo and warehouse angry dance included — intact. Also unchanged: Footloose's glorious cheesiness. The remake is "as cornball as the original, but it's also just as exuberantly entertaining."

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