What do you think about remakes of movies? Good… or bad?
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INTRODUCE
I chose this movie because it is a remake of the
1984 Footloose and I had heard from my sister and mother that the new Footloose
was really really good. This movie
stands out to me because a lot of remakes are not very good, but of the two
movies I actually enjoyed the new movie better, which is not usually the case. I don’t recall seeing this movie in the news,
but I did seem to hear about it more than other movies at the time.
DESCRIBE
This film shows how religion, ethics, and politics
can all overlap in the lives of teenagers.
The film shows how all three of these can express themselves very
strongly within different groups of people from teenagers to adults, religious
leaders and laws. This movie has a law
set in place so that loud music and dancing is not allowed. A new guy (Kenny Wormald) comes to town and
catches the eye of the reverends daughter (Julianne Hough) and tries to get the
law banned so that they can once again listen to music and dance in public.
This film as well as the first, is known for the
Footloose song so click here and watch the music video of this well known song!
The main actor is Kenny Wormald who plays a character
by the name of Ren MacCormack. IMDb
says, “Kenny Wormald grew up in Stoughton,
Massachusetts, and began taking dancing lessons at the age of six. He won a
string of dance contests throughout the North East in his teens and took to
dancing professionally. He worked as a
dancer and choreographer, appearing in a number of music videos and touring
with Justin Timberlake. He made his TV debut in an
episode of "The Drew Carey Show (1995) in 2002, but he rose to worldwide fame in 2010
when Paramount announced that he was to star in the remake of Footloose (2011).”
In the first Footloose, Lori Singer was the lead
actress and she beat out Madonna who also auditioned for the part. Lori Singer also won over Madonna in the
movie Fame. Another interesting fact is
that Craig Brewer had originally turned down the invite to remake Footloose
because he didn’t think there was a way to remake Footloose because what town would
ban music and dancing these days.
ANALYZE
A few of Craig’s work seem to surround the idea of music,
not any certain type of music, but music within itself. Other movies of his, Black Snake Moan and
Hustle and Flow are two examples that are surrounded by music. I haven’t seen either of these movies, but
from what I have read it seems to me that these three movies also have a “slut”
character and an “abusive” character in them which I think is a bit weird; it
shows how times have really changed I think and how our society thinks that
these ideals are okay. In an interview
with Home Theatre Forum, Craig says that Hustle and Flow was made by inspiration
from the original 1984 Footloose so I think it’s pretty cool that Craig was
able to remake a movie that he already enjoyed very much.
As you can see from the pictures above, the two movies
are very different. You could easily
guess without knowing when the movies were made, that they were made in two
very different times. The first picture
shows the main character by himself and the second picture shows the main
character with a girl. If the second
film had just the man on the cover now-a-days, I think that it would not appeal
to as many people as it does with the man and the woman on the front cover. The two films are very similar as they have
the same story plot, but they are so different because of how the characters
react to the same situations completely different because the stories are meant
to be played in two completely different times.
INTERPRETATION
This movie matters because it shows the difference
between the first movie and the second.
The second movie shows how times have changed and how movies have really
changed. This movie definitely reflects
our culture, the type of dancing and the type of music that is played
throughout the film shows how and what we do with music now-a-days, especially
compared to the 1984 Footloose. Because
this movie is a remake from 1984, it targets the majority. My younger brother who is eleven liked this
movie, my sister, roommate, and I enjoyed this movie and so did my mother. Footloose is an all around good movie for
anyone. Footloose shows stereotypes
throughout the film, some examples include the popular girl in school and that her
boyfriend, it displays her as a slut and him as an abusive boyfriend.
EVALUATE
Remaking a film is not always easy, you usually have
to out dazzle the first make and sometimes that just makes a crappy movie that
no one enjoys. Craig did a very nice job
keeping the main idea of Footloose and did a very good job in making a modern
twist throughout the entire movie. I
really liked this movie, I thought it was put together very well and was one of
my favorite remakes. I like this movie
better than the first and so does my sister, but my roommate likes the 1984 version
better than the new one, so it really depends on the person if they enjoy this
film but overall I haven’t heard any bad comments. Overall it was a good movie, but you have an
older version to compare it to, so it is up for interpretation. I would have to say that because Craig Brewer
loved the 1984 Footloose that he probably enjoyed making/directing this film
more than any of his other films. After
all, some of his other films were inspired by the 1984 Footloose so I would
imagine that he had a lot of fun remaking the movie. This movie is memorable to me because I remember watching the
1984 Footloose with my mom when I was younger, I thought it was kind of a weird
movie because I wasn't in to musicals and that is what it reminded me of with
all the music. Now I find myself appreciating the 1984 version so much
more because the two movies show the differences in times and how our society,
values, and beliefs have changed, but in the same way they have stayed pretty
similar. The 2011 Footloose is way more modern which catches the eyes of
a younger crowd and since it the second film or more related to our generation
it makes it memorable for us. If you were to show my generation the 1984
version, we probably wouldn't like it much if we hadn't seen it before the 2011
film. Most critics really
enjoyed this movie; Mike LaSelle of The Charlotte Observer says that Craig
Brewer did everything he needed to, to make this new film as good as the
first. He says that Brewer did an
excellent job in making Footloose appeal to our youth today who would most likely
not be interested in watching the older version because times have changed so
much. I also read that some critics didn’t
like the way dancing was filmed because it did not show that the two main characters
(Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough) were really professional dancers, they said
that the short clips were not portraying that these two had the dance
experience that they claim to have.
ENGAGE
I have not bought this movie on DVD, but I do plan on buying it
since I also own the 1984 Footloose. I looked up some of the characters
online because I had not heard of them and I was surprised to find out that one
of the actresses was a member on Dancing with the Stars, I thought that was
really cool.
