ShareThisLet's hear it for the boy ... again.
Twenty-seven years after Kevin Bacon cut loose, "Footloose" is back with a new cast, favorite old songs and, somehow in these litigious times, a ban on public dancing and loud music.
The surprisingly faithful remake arrives in theaters Friday. By Monday, it could be the No. 1 movie of the weekend, based on its PG-13 rating, familiar title and music. In case you've never seen the first film or it's been a while, here's a look at how they stack up.
BY THE NUMBERS
Original: Made for a reported $8.2 million, "Footloose" pulled in $80 million in 1984 ($169 million in today's dollars) and finished No. 7 for the year, according to boxofficemojo.com. With a run time of 107 minutes and rating of PG, it scored two Oscar nominations, for songs "Footloose" and "Let's Hear It for the Boy." The gold, however, went to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from "The Woman in Red."
Remake: The budget for the remake reportedly was $25 million or less. When director Kenny Ortega left the project in October 2009, Variety reported it was due to differences with Paramount over budget and tone. Craig Brewer, who made "Hustle & Flow" and "Black Snake Moan," directed and co-wrote the new version, 113 minutes and rated PG-13.
REN
Original: Kevin Bacon, then 25, is Ren, a Chicago teen who moves with his mother (his father left them) to a small Midwestern town that prohibits dancing and rock music and sounds an alarm when a teacher plans to assign "Slaughterhouse-Five." Ren and his mom bunk with relatives as the outsider struggles to fit in, falls for the minister's reckless daughter, incurs the wrath of the girl's boyfriend and tries to break the ban on dancing.
Remake: Kenny Wormald, 27, is Ren, a former Bostonian whose mother recently died of leukemia. His father bolted when his mom got sick, and he moves to Bomont, population 19,300, to stay with his empathetic uncle, aunt and two young cousins. He chafes at the small Southern town's rules (playing "Quiet Riot" too loud earns him a citation for disturbing the peace), falls for the minister's reckless daughter, angers her townie beau and tries to reverse the ban on dancing.
Edge goes to: Kevin Bacon, who got there first and dances with effortlessness. To his credit, though, Wormald was a backup dancer for Justin Timberlake and The Pussycat Dolls tours and knows his stuff.
ARIEL
Original: Lori Singer telegraphs Ariel's rebellious streak by wearing red cowboy boots, which her father hates, flouting his curfews, dating a roughneck townie, engaging in dangerous stunts and announcing she's not a virgin. "Ariel, I don't know what I'm gonna do with you," her preacher-father declares. Ariel's life changed the day her older brother died in a car crash after dancing and partying with friends.
Remake: Julianne Hough (pronounced "Huff"), two-time "Dancing with the Stars" winner and a longtime dancer, is Ariel, the preacher's rebellious daughter. She dances with danger, dates an older lunkhead who grows jealous of Ren and violent with her, and takes delight in announcing she's been deflowered. Her dancing credentials are impeccable, and she flirts with abandon, but she fails to nail a serious, emotional scene.
Edge goes to: It's a tie. Singer is the better wild child, but Hough can dance.
STUPID STUNTS
Original: Ariel decides to climb out of a car being driven by a teenage girl and into the window of the truck speeding down the road with her boyfriend at the wheel. She has one foot on each vehicle, not a good place to be when a big rig appears in the opposite direction. Ariel makes it into the pickup in the nick of time and later stares down a train before Ren pushes her out of the way.
Remake: Ariel's boyfriend is a stock-car driver, and she grabs the checkered flag and sits on the driver's-window frame waving it as he cruises around the dirt track. Later, she does the same suicidal trick by standing on the train tracks at night.
Edge goes to: Makers of the 2011 movie, who had sense enough to eliminate the death-defying moment where Ariel straddles the speeding vehicles. They substituted a school-bus race for 1984's game of chicken involving tractors; no one wins that one.
THE DANCING
Original: Dancing was much more simplistic and, therefore, believable for high-school students. Ariel, for instance, pops in a smuggled audiocassette tape outside a restaurant early on and starts to dance but she mainly bops around, while the remake has more elaborate, sexier routines throughout. Bacon acknowledges that doubles were used, particularly in the empty mill, although you wouldn't know it.
Remake: Seems aimed, squarely, at the "Dancing with the Stars" crowd with a greater variety of dances, including hip-hop, street styles, country line with a modern, sexy flair and a combination of acrobatics, athletics and anger management that Ren demonstrates in an empty mill. Even Ren's dance lessons for pal Willard cover more territory.
Edge goes to: The remake, thanks to experienced hoofers in the lead.
THE PREACHER
Original: John Lithgow is the Rev. Shaw Moore from Bomont First Christian Church. As the movie opens, he's preaching about the "sorry state of our society" and singles out "obscene rock 'n' roll music with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality." However, he won't sanction book-burning or the firing of an English teacher and asks his congregation to pray for high-school seniors planning a dance just outside the town limits.
Remake: Dennis Quaid is the reverend who endorses curfews for the teens and a ban on dancing after his son and four others are killed in a fiery crash after a night of partying, dancing and drinking. He wears his pain and anger in a different way than Lithgow's version and doesn't get the benefit of the book-burning thread, but has a nice moment with Ariel toward the end of the movie.
Edge goes to: Lithgow, only because he's given a few more shades to play and it's perhaps more likely that dancing could be banned in 1984 rather than in today's lawsuit-happy times.
THE BEST FRIEND
Original: Chris Penn, listed by his full name of Christopher in the credits, was Willard, the farm boy who befriends Ren on his first day of school. He later confides that he cannot dance -- although he can fight -- and a montage in which he learns to groove and move is light and fun. Penn, a brother of actor Sean Penn, died in 2006 of an enlarged heart and weight-related health problems.
Remake: Miles Teller, best known for playing the teen whose car accidentally strikes and kills a little boy in "Rabbit Hole," starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, takes over as Willard. He, too, befriends Ren and acknowledges that he cannot dance. He takes it on the chin when a stranger starts dancing with his girl at a club, but eventually turns into a dancin' fool.
Edge goes to: A tie. Both nicely fill the role.
(Contact movie editor Barbara Vancheri at bvancheri(at)post-gazette.com. Read her blog: www.post-gazette.com/madaboutmovies.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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