Review of Footloose

Introduction

If you have fond memories of the eighties, you`ll probably remember Footloose, a perennially popular music/dance movie featuring Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer and John Lithgow.

The "plot" sees Bacon moving from the big city to a highly religious small country town where pop music is frowned upon and dancing is banned because it encourages the teenagers to consume alcohol and have sex. Bacon, horrified at the lack of social life in the town, rebels and decidesto host a dance for the senior students, but has to fight the townspeople and the church. Singer plays the romantic interest, conveniently in plot terms, the rebellious daughter of the local preacher, who of course does not approve.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture is only average, with the film looking every bit of its 18 year vintage. The image is grainy, with lots of dirt on the print, and some long shots stoop to VHS levels of clarity. The picture isn`t particularly detailed or crisp either, and all in all the image is rather disappointing to say the least.

Visually, the film has aged reasonably well, and the dancing is the highlight of the film and is well filmed. The filmmakers make good use of locations and the film is generally well made.

Audio

The soundtrack has been remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 and in truth it is little more than the Dolby Pro-Logic track remixed into separate channels with the addition of the LFE channel. The sound quality is fine, although there`s not much to be heard from the rear speakers aside from the music during the dance sequences.

The music itself is very good, with the highlight being Kenny Loggins` memorable title track "Footloose" which still sounds good.

Features

This is a bare disc that doesn`t even feature the trailer, and given that including it would have incurred little or no effort, a black mark goes to Paramount.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, which contains a single page insert listing the 13 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

Despite the visual shortcomings, Footloose is still a very entertaining movie, and I must admit that not having seen it for years, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. The plot is ludicrous, but the strong cast and good music keep things ticking over and at the end I bought the DVD to be entertained - and it delivered.

Having said that, the picture quality is poor and the sound only average - and when combined with the total lack of extras, this disc doesn`t represent good value for money by any standards, therefore despite enjoying the film it is hard for me to recommend this to anyone, unless, like me, they are fans of the movie.