With all the discussion and hand-wringing in the last few days about the Dirty Dancing remake, Craig Brewer's remake of Footloose is suddenly being viewed as the opening fire in a flood of 80s remakes that everyone instinctively seems to reject outright. But, as you might have read in our interview with Brewer, the Footloose remake is probably going to be more than you're expecting, truer to the sexy, gritty, almost R-rated quality of the original that everyone seems to have forgotten in the 20-plus years since we saw Kevin Bacon tell everyone to cut loose, footloose.
You get a little bit of that grittiness, or at least a sense that this is not High School Musical goes south, in the latest trailer for the movie, which debuted at Yahoo and can also be viewed below. Take a look at we'll talk after.
The constant, percussive soundtrack over the trailer emphasizes both that this is a dance movie-- as if the shots of star Kenny Wormald writhing alone in a warehouse didn't tell you-- and one about tension, as newcomer Ren McCormack arrives in town and challenges the strait-laced elders who run Bomont, Tennessee. The footage in this trailer is pretty similar to what we already saw in the teaser trailer, but the whole feel is more mature and distinct this time around, further proof that Brewer-- the director of Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan, remember-- has done something really distinctive here.
As tempting as it is to automatically reject the idea of a remake, especially of a movie as well-loved as Footloose, this one seems well worth keeping an open mind. Who knows if we'll be able to say the same for Dirty Dancing-- and from what I can tell in the comments, you guys aren't particularly fans of either idea. But watch that Footloose trailer again and tell me you don't think there's enough interesting stuff going on there to merit a look. If you want to decide for yourself, Footloose comes to theaters October 14 this year.
