Movie Review: "Footloose" (2011) Dancing Is Downright Dangerous

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By A. O. SCOTT

HOLLYWOOD - Nobody can stop the youth of America from dancing, and nobody can stop the American film industry from making movies about people who try. The most impressive thing about Craig Brewer’s remake of [2011] “Footloose” — the 1984 Kevin Bacon movie with the Kenny Loggins theme song that will now be stuck in my cranium for another 27 years — is that it handles its shaky, shopworn premise with sensitivity and conviction.  The elders of the little town of Bomont, Ga., have banned dancing.... Somehow “Footloose” never finds its rhythm. The maudlin scenes drag on, and the livelier moments pass by too quickly. It only works when it settles down and lets the characters (and the audience) hang out and have a little fun. Which is all kids really want to do. Why does everyone make it so difficult? [link]