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Footloose

Footloose

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Now I gotta cut loose... but where are the extras!?!
Review: Who was a teen in the 80s and did NOT feel an impact of this movie? Whether you liked or hated this film, like Flashdance, this was one of the key examples of the unique mixture of music and movies that we saw in the 80s.

Why just 4 stars, then? LACK OF EXTRAS! If a studio is going to re-release a movie on DVD and charge over $...for it, there should be plenty of extras. How about the original music videos, or even interviews with cast/crew on the making of the film and the hype after its release? After all, it helped launch at least one major star's career and the cast was rich with very recognizable talent. Something could have and should have been done.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you were a teen in the 80s, this is for you!
Review: Loved it! I love any movies with dancing. Kevin Bacon is a total hottie in this flick. Has lots of humor, some drama and a lot of entertainment. Excellent cast, love John Lithgow. If you were the same age as the main characters, you can identify!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dancin', dancin', dancin' (she's a dancing machine)...
Review: Footloose is a rock rebellion story about a big city kid (Kevin Bacon) who moves into a deeply religious small community that has banned all manner of things, like rock and roll and dancing. Bacon's character is determined to change peoples minds about the 'dangers' of rock music and gyrations of the body.

The movie is rich and paradigmatic of the rebellious teen genre. Handsome people, great music, impatient screen shots, and a plot that includes some dynamism and general excitement.

There are two trouble spots, however. For one, I can't quite understand why Kevin Bacon's character falls for the preacher's daughter. Shy of any redeemable character traits, she is a crass, rude, obnoxious, and terribly immature young lady.

Agreed, she has a troubled life, and throughout the movie you do get hints of what she may be like in the future. There is clearly a sense that she will stop living through the rebellion of others, and will grow as a person. Nevertheless, other than her beauty, it is difficult to understand why Bacon's character falls for her.

The other trouble is with the big defense scene, where a case is made for allowing the teens to have a prom dance party. The defense is structured entirely out of a biblical perspective--since they danced to celebrate and give thanks to God, so, too, should the kids be allowed to celebrate by dancing. This is smart because the town is a Bible-thumping town, but the writers could have added a defense of dancing on grounds other than religious (freedom of expression, for instance).

Other than that, the movie is fabulous. Great dance scenes, and music that still inspires and is catchy many years later. I especially enjoyed the portrayal of the preacher in the movie as dynamic, rather than as a stale caricature of the small-minded, small town preacher cliche depicted in many other movies. His eventual tolerance, if not acceptance, of rock & roll dancing was endearing and appropriate.

Overall, the movie is worth a look.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: there is time to dance.....
Review: i grew up with this movie and the soundtrack. i love the new remaster soundtrack that has the extra tracks. i was dissapointed with the movie on my dvd. the picture quality reminds you, of viewing the LD version. although, i dont remember the ld version was this bad in grainey picture quality. of course paramount is very stingy with the extras on the dvds. they are getting better but even 20th centry fox is ahead of them in the extra dept. i love this movie enought to get it on dvd. if you are a die hard footloose fan then get it. if you can overlook the picture quality it has to offer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Loved the movie!
Review: I'm 14 and i have almost always had this movie around the house and almost always loved it. Great music and dancing, and may i say Bacon is quite cute, and a great role for the movie. Good movie if you loved the older music Bacon and dancing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Teens Prevailing Over Adults
Review: This is another story of teenagers fighting the adult establishment and winning, though in the case of Footloose they skirted an anti-dancing law by moving their dance to another municipality. Sarah Jessica was beautiful in this film, and she really should have stuck to acting (rather than voicing her opinions about anything in the real world). Kevin and Chris were good, John Lithgow was terrific, and Lori was absolutely captivating.

One thing, though: Dancing had been banned for several years in this town -- but when the kids finally arranged to have a dance, everyone knew exactly how to dance... and I don't mean the fox-trot. These young folks were Olympic gymnasts, flipping around and break-dancing and hip-hopping to beat the band. The only thing I can figure is that they secretly took lessons during all those years dancing was prohibited, smuggling in the necessary instructors and concealing all of the required conditioning exercises. Well, he IS testing us! Every, every day he is testing us!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: HORRIBLE VIDEO QUALITY
Review: I have the laser disc version of Footloose, and I was hoping to obtain the DVD version in order to have better video and sound quality. Unfortunately, the video quality was horrible. There was a dark yellow cast over the picture. My laser disc copy has slightly less resolution than a typical DVD, but has beautiful color and contrast. I do not what happened to cause the video defect, but I suggest people should avoid this particular DVD version.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great nostalgia, BAD DVD
Review: FOOTLOOSE brings back a lot of great memories -- I loved this movie in high school, played the soundtrack a million times, and have wondered for several years why this movie wasn't available on DVD.

Now Paramount underwhelms us again with a very disappointing DVD release. While at least we get a widescreen presentation and a 5.1 channel audio mix, that's ALL we get. Period. Were this a [$] budget release, I could understand the lack of extra features, but this is a full-price DVD!

At the very least, I would like to have seen the music videos for songs on the soundtrack included as bonus material. An audio commentary from the director/cast would have been great. A behind-the-scenes documentary, interviews with the cast, ANYTHING!!!

But we must remember that this comes from Paramount, the studio that doesn't like the DVD format. I suppose we should be grateful to see any Paramount films on DVD at all...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Harmless and Inoffensive
Review: "Footloose" is the story of a big city kid named Ren MacCormack (Kevin Bacon) who's family moves to a small town where the local preacher has gotten music and dancing banned following the death of his oldest daughter after a night of partying. Ren of course falls in love with the preacher's younger daughter, Ariel Moore (Lori Singer), and converts her to the wild dancing life. Ariel already has a boyfriend though named Woody (John Laughlin) who stirs up trouble for Ren wherever he goes. Meanwhile, Ren attempts to teach his new best bud Willard (Chris Penn) how to dance so he can get a date to the dance that Ren is setting up with Ariel.

"Footloose" is the typical teenager and his friends against the world movie that gets made for every generation. Each generation's group of these movies tends to have its own little spin on the genre with "Footloose" and its kind featuring the musical collage. Not that this is a musical but that every movie from this generation always featured at least one series of scenes with the characters doing outrageously fun things while some sugary bubble gum song blares over the scene. The fact that "Footloose" is a semi-musical only increases its dependence on this technique.

The movie itself is the old harmless fun that most people opine is missing from contemporary films of this genre. "Footloose" does its best not to offend or make any kind of statement beyond "having fun is okay". For this you can't hammer it but you can't praise it either.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Dated
Review: I was embarrassed in re-watching this movie how dated it was. The dancing is cheesy, really bad hair, bad music, and great actors like John Lithgow and Diane Wiest stuck in bad roles. Skip this one and watch "Streets of Fire."


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