Yes, Footloose is a all-time favorite hit with the younger generation. The dancing is top rate along with the music sountrack. It's an enjoyment I think the whole family to enjoy. But I do believe that (Ariel) Lori Singer needs to chill out. They really want to portray hr as wild,outta control preachers daughter. But she tries too hard. Chill out Girl!!!!

I'm not giving this movie 5 stars because of the movie. Let's face it, it's 'Footloose' for heavens sake. BUT it is one of those really great/crappy all in 1 80's movies that we've come to know and love. And if can't watch this and come away comepletely loving Kevin Bacon, then there's something wrong with you ;)

All in all, DVD features are geat, movie is restored well. Great purchase, very well done!

Footloose begins in the rural town of Bowmont, Oklahoma, where dancing, drinking, and certain types of music have been banned. Ren McCormack has just moved there with his mother from Michigan, and immediately he can be pinpointed as an outsider. But little did his new classmates know that in him was a revolution that would alter the way the entire town viewed morality.

Ren has sparked the interest of Reverend Moore's daughter, Ariel, who willfully rebels against her father and his unfair rules. Primarily, Reverend Moore is adamant in his distaste towards Ren and the new ideals he is exposing the teenagers of the town to. But after some convincing, and a tension-filled scene where Ren proclaims in the town council meeting that dancing is a "celebration of life" and nothing damnable, as they believe, Ren wins over the trust of many of the parents. Ren and the entire senior class are allowed to have a senior prom, and contentedly shoulder the burden and blessing of putting it all together. Of course, they hit a few snags. But, as they say, cracks in the cement are only reminders that even the best of us can break, no matter how strong. The real test of strength and courage is if you are willing to pick yourself back up and try again.

In my day, I have been witness to many Grammy-award winning movies and productions, video biographies, and even live stage productions. But never in my short thirteen years have I seen something so thought provoking and emotional that it made me grip the edge of my chair, the rhythm of my heart quicken to what must be an unhealthy rate, and just leap up in my seat and a give a rebel yell. Footloose is the kind of movie that, even if one has never experienced that exact form of oppression, every teenager--everyone--can relate to it in some way. You find yourself wholeheartedly rooting Ren and Ariel on, fervently wishing that they succeed in their endeavor.

After hearing that "Footloose" was being remade (just in time for its 25th anniversary; god I feel old) with Zac Effron of "High School Musical" fame in the lead role made famous by Kevin Bacon, I couldn't resist revisiting a movie that was a huge a part of my own high school years. No doubt about it, "Footloose" is a film that screams EIGHTIES, defining its era in the same way that "Saturday Night Fever" defined the disco days of the Seventies (and perhaps the way that the HSM films will be seen to define this decade in the future.) It's all here: big hair, tight sweaters, tighter jeans, legwarmers (in a brief opening montage) and super-slick Eighties pop music...it was the golden age of MTV, and in many ways, "Footloose," like "Flashdance" before it, is a glorified, movie-length music video, especially in it's tightly choreographed dance scenes. To the credit of the makers of "Footloose," they tried to give the film some dramatic heft, rather than let it become just another of the fluffy, insubstantial teen exploitation flicks of the time. The problem with that is the juxtaposition of drama and dance is so jarring at times that the movie seems to suffer from a split personality, not sure whether it wants to be a hard-hitting message movie or little more than a live-action cartoon (kids who supposedly have never danced before suddenly cutting a rug with the best of them at the prom? Please. And the type of dancing that Bacon's character seems to favor is far more artistic than you would see on the dance floors of big-city clubs, despite what he says.)

In his star-making role, Bacon plays Ren McCormick, a Chicago kid who finds himself the proverbial fish out of water when he loses his father (Death? Divorce? We're never quite told) and his mother moves the family back to her hometown, a small, rural, red-state community somewhere in the midwest. (At least that's what we're supposed to believe but the Rocky Mountains in the distance say otherwise; the film was shot in Utah.) The pastor of the local church (an excellent John Lithgow in his pre-"3rd Rock" days) wields a disproportionate amount of influence in the community--he also serves on the town council--and at his direction, the town has banned dancing. There hasn't been a prom in six years. Not surprisingly this doesn't sit well with the new arrival, so Ren sets out to change the ordinance while teaching his classmates about the forbidden thrills of dancing, and romancing the pastor's daughter, the strong-willed Ariel, who feels stifled by her family and the town. (She's also in a relationship with a local boy that is disturbingly abusive; the movie is ahead if it's time in portraying the problem of dating violence and abuse in teen relationships.) Not surprisingly Ren is quickly labeled a troublemaker and will face a variety of obstacles before he makes an impassioned speech (complete with Bible quotes) to persuade the council to overturn the ban, allowing the Senior class to have a prom and even bringing a much-needed healing to the pastor's family.

In lesser hands the dramatic content of "Footloose" could fall into maudlin TV movie territory; thanks to a talented cast of actors (including Bacon, Lithgow, Lori Singer as Ariel and an almost unrecognizable Sarah Jessica Parker in an early role as Ariel's best friend) it rises above that level and the characters have some complexity. Ren is no saint; in the name of introducing his friends to dancing, he takes them over the county line, sneaks them into a bar and manages to get in a fight. Lithgow's character is revealed as not so much a rigid moralist than a father whose unresolved anger and grief over the death of his only son (after a night of music- and dance-inspired drunken revelry) prompted the infamous ban. Indeed it is the pastor who talks some of the townsfolk out of conducting a book burning at the local library. Diane Wiest portrays the pastor's wife as a woman who secretly sympathizes with the kids, and whose meek exterior hides a spine of steel.

It will be interesting to see how "Footloose" fares as a remake; will they keep it true to the original and maintain its gritty dramatic edge (the film drew a PG rating when it came out but would likely be PG-13 today), or, given Effron's popularity, will they be tempted to turn it into another "High School Musical" type production that's all sweetness and light? Hopefully not, because in the end what makes "Footloose" appealing is its reality and humanity, not just it's dance numbers.

my boss was asking if i owned this movie and i don't so i ordered it. this one is an all time favorite movie and i'm glad to have it in my collection. thanks