Dance/romance. PG-13. 1 hour, 53 minutes. At area theaters.
Toes are tapping, feet are shuffling, and boots are bouncing in the opening to the new “Footloose.” Kids are dancing and frolicking, maybe even having a few beers, to the title song of a 1984 movie. Then tragedy strikes.
And Bomont, Ga., becomes the town that banned organized dances.
But time passes, and it’s up to the dance-crazy new kid, Ren, to tame the local preacher’s daughter and get Bomont back on its dancing feet.
If there is a movie more familiar to multiple generations than “Footloose,” chances are it has hills covered in edelweiss or Atlanta burning down. You tamper with a formula and a story this beloved, you do it at your own peril.
Craig Brewer, the director of “Hustle & Flow” and “Black Snake Moan,” resets the Midwestern story in the rural South. He swaps a game of tractor chicken with a school-bus crash and ingeniously adds singing 10-year-olds to the show-stopping “Let’s Hear It for the Boy.”
He brought in real Southerners Dennis Quaid, Andie MacDowell and Ray McKinnon. Suddenly, it makes a lot more sense. In most regards — we still miss Kevin Bacon — this is a new and improved “Footloose,” funnier, sunnier and funkier. Simply put, it works.
Kenny Wormald, a dancer- turned-actor (“You Got Served”), is the Boston kid who likes his music too loud for Bomont. His drawling Uncle Wes (Ray McKinnon of “Dolphin Tale”) is just the guy to show the kid the rules.
Julianne Hough (“Dancing With the Stars”) plays Ariel as an oversexed demon in cowboy boots, teasing the boys, especially her rich redneck boyfriend. Of course she’s going to flirt with the new kid, as soon as she sees how much her preacher dad (Quaid) disapproves. Miles Teller is very funny as Willard, the football-playing classmate who takes Ren under his wing.
It’s a corny story and just as dated as it was when it first came out around 27 years ago. But the dance scenes are more fun, and Hough gives it a sexy, sassy edge, all by herself — lots of hair-flipping on the dance floor, tight skirts, tighter jeans. “Put a quarter in her back pocket,” one guy suggests. “You could tell if it was heads or tails.”
If the opening doesn’t get you, the kids taking their shot at making line-dancing cool will. If it doesn’t, well, you probably never got over that crush on Kevin Bacon.
