Lets keep this review short: if you go to see this reboot of Footloose, you may like it better if you're completely unfamiliar with the original. To be fair, the original film was a box office hit, but it was far from a hit with critics: having said all of this however, the remake is far weaker than the original.
Kenny Wormald plays Ren, a young man who has just endured the loss of his Mother. This is different from the original, as Ren and his Mother travel to Bomont (Georgia?) following the death of his Father, if I'm not mistaken. In this reboot, there is a more misandristic tone: Ren's Father was a deadbeat, and his Mother was the one who died.
Wormald has screen presence, but he had some huge shoes to fill...and I think this is a case where too much of the original was left in this remake. For instance, there is the scene in the original where Ren (as played by Kevin Bacon) is struggling with the impact of being accosted by his Uncle, harassed by the police, accused by the Principal of the school, teased by Ariel and bullied by Chuck...and he takes out his frustrations in a warehouse. In the original, you can kind of understand why Ren is so angry: he has no outlet for his frustrations, and they just explode.
In this reboot, the warehouse scene is still present...almost in it's entirety...yet we never really understand why Ren needs to explode because he has a fairly supportive Aunt & Uncle, had only one run-in with the law (which the judge dismissed), and even the Principal of the school opts to cut him some slack instead of suspending or expelling him for being caught with drugs!
That in a nut shell is what happens pretty regularly in this remake: it is largely faithful to the specifics of the original, but it just never feels right! Even the fight scene climax, which was so effective in the original, looks so sloppy and poorly choreographed in this remake.
Wormald is likable...he's about the only reason I haven't given this film a sub-5 score. My advice however is this: if you loved the original, wait for this one to come to DVD, and watch it on that.
Kenny Wormald plays Ren, a young man who has just endured the loss of his Mother. This is different from the original, as Ren and his Mother travel to Bomont (Georgia?) following the death of his Father, if I'm not mistaken. In this reboot, there is a more misandristic tone: Ren's Father was a deadbeat, and his Mother was the one who died.
Wormald has screen presence, but he had some huge shoes to fill...and I think this is a case where too much of the original was left in this remake. For instance, there is the scene in the original where Ren (as played by Kevin Bacon) is struggling with the impact of being accosted by his Uncle, harassed by the police, accused by the Principal of the school, teased by Ariel and bullied by Chuck...and he takes out his frustrations in a warehouse. In the original, you can kind of understand why Ren is so angry: he has no outlet for his frustrations, and they just explode.
In this reboot, the warehouse scene is still present...almost in it's entirety...yet we never really understand why Ren needs to explode because he has a fairly supportive Aunt & Uncle, had only one run-in with the law (which the judge dismissed), and even the Principal of the school opts to cut him some slack instead of suspending or expelling him for being caught with drugs!
That in a nut shell is what happens pretty regularly in this remake: it is largely faithful to the specifics of the original, but it just never feels right! Even the fight scene climax, which was so effective in the original, looks so sloppy and poorly choreographed in this remake.
Wormald is likable...he's about the only reason I haven't given this film a sub-5 score. My advice however is this: if you loved the original, wait for this one to come to DVD, and watch it on that.