Stars: Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn

Director: Herbert Ross

Summary: A big-city boy moves, with his mother, to a small town where rock music and dancing are banned. He sets out to persuade the local people to change their hostile attitudes.

This classic tale of teen rebellion and repression features a delightful combination of dance choreography and realistic and touching performances. When teenager Ren (Kevin Bacon) and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small midwestern town, he's in for a real case of culture shock. Though he tries hard to fit in, the streetwise Ren can't quite believe he's living in a place where rock music and dancing are illegal. There is one small pleasure, however: Ariel (Lori Singer), a troubled but lovely blonde--who also has a jealous boyfriend. In fact, it is Ariel's dad (John Lithgow), a Bible-thumping minister, who is responsible for keeping the town dance-free. Ren and his classmates want to do away with this ordinance, especially since the senior prom is around the corner, but only Ren has the courage to initiate a battle. Ren's pent-up frustrations cause a confrontation with Rev. Shaw Moore and the local town council as he takes on the small-town establishment struggling to abolish the outmoded ban and revitalize the spirit of the repressed townspeople. Herb Ross's fast-paced drama is filled with such hit songs as the title track and "Let's Hear It for the Boy."

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

First released in 1984, Footloosenow enjoys the same sort of semi-ironic nostalgic cachet as John Hughes' contemporary schlock-fests about angst-ridden teens with silly hair. This is partly due to the fact that, as breathtakingly predictable kids-against-the-squares romps go, it's really pretty tolerable, but it's mostly because of the soundtrack. The songs that appear in the film--notably Kenny Loggins' infectiously vapid title track, and gale-force screecher Bonnie Tyler's excruciating "Holding Out for a Hero"--are possessed of an awfulness so monolithic that they have transcended their era and become reliable floor-fillers at 80s nostalgia discos all over the western world.

The plot, such as it is, sees the eerily androidal Kevin Bacon playing a hip rock &roll youth from the big city rebelling against the strictures of the conservative small town in which he finds himself living. Inevitably, he falls for the daughter of his nemesis, the local preacher (the latter, it has to be said, is played with some aplomb by John Lithgow, who very nearly wrings depth from a character otherwise straight out of the colour-by-numbers guide to movie-making). Inevitably, there are some dance sequences. Inevitably, the kids win out, and the grown-ups realise that maybe they aren't so bad after all.

On the DVD:Footloosecan be watched on disc, should you so desire, dubbed in German, Spanish, French or Italian. There also subtitles available in pretty well every European language, as well as Arabic, Hebrew, Russian and Turkish. Other than that there are no extras. --Andrew Mueller

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1984
Release Date:	October 7, 2002
Runtime:	103 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P H E 8245
Keywords:	General, Footloose, Drama
Genre:	Drama