Weekend Movie Trailers and Reviews: Is 'Footloose' Worth a Remake?

Footloose-2011.jpg" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; float: left; width: 300px; height: 200px; " />There is a surprising number of quiet, thoughtful, well-reviewed films in theaters right now. But sometimes you just want to see some people do some crazy dance moves or watch an alien monster kill a bunch of humans. Right? Right. If that's you, then here are a couple of new movies to check out this weekend:

Footloose

Rated PG-13, 113 mins.

The rash of 80's movie remakes (including "Dirty Dancing," "Point Break" and "Red Dawn") and the slew of dance movies (the "Step Up" series, for example) that we've seen recently have combined to create a perfect storm, and that perfect storm is "Footloose." The remake of the 80's Kevin Bacon classic comes from the writer and director of "Hustle & Flow," so expect a tone matching that much more closely than the original.

The story is basically the same: city boy moves to small town where dancing has been banned by the town council and the reverend. There are a few changes in detail that don't particularly help or hinder the movie, and of course the dancing and music is updated. Take that as you will.

Rotten Tomatoes has "Footloose" at a healthy 73% among critics with a 71% positive audience reaction. Critics are calling it enjoyable, but noting that there is nothing to set it apart from or make it stand out against the original.

See it if: Dancing!

The Thing

Rated R, 102 mins.

A remake of a remake of a book adaptation. How about that? "The Thing" follows in the footsteps of John Carpenter's 1982 horror flick of the same name, and the plot is pretty much the same as well: researchers in the Antarctic fight for their lives as an alien creature with the ability to assimilate and imitate organisms terrorizes the group. It's a plenty scary premise, as you never know if someone is human or "The Thing."

However, this re-issue of "The Thing" considers itself a prequel as opposed to a remake. How is discerns itself from the original while having the same plot and setting is a mystery that will have to be solved at the theater.

Rotten Tomatoes has "The Thing" at a measly 29% among critics, but with a 76% positive audience reaction. There's nothing new here: if you've seen the original (or "Alien" or "Predator" for that matter), you've seen this one. But fans of old-fashioned creature horror might enjoy it.

See it if: Monsters!