Back in 1984, the movie Footloose was created and now, in 2011, the movie was remade and is brought up-to-date. Ren McCormack is a teenage boy who moved from Boston to the small town of Bomont. Upon arriving, Ren gets a culture shock. Public dancing along with playing loud music were banned after an accident that killed five of Bomont’s teens. The story goes on to show Ren trying to make a change. He stands up in front of the councilmen, as well as the Reverend Shaw Moore, to abolish the law of not being able to play your music loud and not being able to dance. Along the ride, Ren falls in love the reverend’s daughter Ariel.
The remake goes along the same lines as the original Footloose, except for a few minor details. In the 1984 movie, Ren moves to Bomont with his mother to live with his aunt and uncle. In the new Footloose, Ren moves to Bomont by himself to live with his aunt and uncle because his mother has recently passed away from leukemia. The message, however, is still the same in both the original and the remake. This new kid moves to town and brings back dancing to the county.
Now, of course, there’s a difference in the music and dancing. Back in the 1984 movie, they played more music of that era, such as Sammy Hagar. In the 2011 remake of Footloose, there was more of this era’s music in it. Songs were performed by today’s country artist Blake Shelton and Zac Brown Band; along with Hip Hop’s own David Banner. The dancing is different in both movies as well. In the remake, there’s more “grinding” and country line dancing. In the original, there’s more conservative type of dancing and what they would consider “dirty dancing”. There’s also a lot more foot work and hip hop dancing in the remake rather than in the original.
Out of both the original and remake of Footloose, the best always seems to be the original. But in this case, the remake seems to be better. Regardless, both of the movies are cheesy, but the remake tops the original and takes away the “cheesiness” of the movie. The director brings more life and spice to the movie and teenagers, as well as parents, will find being drawn into the movie because of the more up-to-date styles. The story now seems more realistic and less corny than the original did.