Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Cinematheque Reviews: 1980's Flashback Double Feature - Footloose (and Fancy Free) & The Thing (From Another Movie)

There seem to be quite a few 1980's films getting remade lately.  Just a few months back, I did a post very similar to this one, linking to reviews of the remakes of Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night.  Now comes another duo of 80's flashbacks making the grade on the same opening day.  And again, just like the aforementioned double feature, we get one surprisingly well done remake and one not-so-surprisingly mediocre one.   This time it is The Thing that gets the short end of the stick.  Not a terrible movie, but merely a retooling of the 1982 Carpenter version, playing as if it is a prequel.  Too much of a copy - and a substantially lesser one at that - to be able to hold itself up on its own merits.  Then again, Craig Brewer's deep south retelling of the iconic 1984 film Footloose, plays it rather close to the original bone (from exactly duplicated dialogue to Ren's yellow bug and maroon tux jacket) but manages to give it enough of its own soul to somehow make it work surprisingly well.  My reviews of both films are now up and running over at that bastion of film criticism known as The Cinematheque.  My review of the Antarctic monster mess-up can be read HERE, while my review of the Dance Your Ass Off southern brew can be read right HERE.  Here are a couple of international posters for these two flashback films.

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