Footloose

Footloose (1984)

  • 57% of critics liked it
    (35 reviews)

  • 73% of users liked it
    (249,029 ratings)

In this lively adolescent-oriented musical, a city kid attempts to adapt to life in an ultra-conservative backwater Midwestern town. Once there, he ends up leading the repressed teenagers into a rebellion against the town fathers, who have outlawed rock & roll and dancing. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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PG, 1 hr. 47 min.
Directed By
Herbert Ross
Written By
Dean Pitchford
Genres
Drama, Romance, Musical & Performing Arts
In Theaters
Feb 17, 1984 Wide
On DVD
Oct 8, 2002
Paramount Home Video

Critic Reviews

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    Essential to the result is young Kevin Bacon, superb in the lead part.

  • Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

    Herbert Ross directed this odd but reasonably effective blend of rock music and didactic melodrama.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    Footloose is a seriously confused movie that tries to do three things, and does all of them badly.

  • Janet Maslin, New York Times

    Like the rest of today's video-happy teen-age entertainments, Footloose doesn't expect to be watched closely or taken seriously. It wants to fill the screen with catchy music and pretty kids, and this it certainly accomplishes.

  • Christopher Lloyd, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

    For such an iconic dance movie, Footloose is an odd bird of a movie with surprisingly little dancing.

Read all 12 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • John M


    Kevin Bacons shining moment? I dont know but i still watch this one I catch it on TV. Fun movie.

  • Lady D


    [My predicted rating: 2.5] Just as they remake this film the original shows up on tv. A Classic 80's teen movie with lots of corny cliches. Boy meets girl, the town has banned music, boy brings music to the town for everybody to dance to. A fun watch, if only to see a few… More

  • Jeff "


    Footloose is an entertaining drama starring Kevin Bacon, and is one of the defining films of the 80's. The film focuses on a teen played by Kevin Bacon who moves to a small religious community who has banned dancing and rock music due to a horrible accident five years earlier.… More

  • KJ P


    Footloose is a coming-of-age classic in my eyes, as the new kid on the block (Kevin Bacon) tries to fit in to a school where fights are a day-to-day routine. It is obviously predictable, but the story is so deeply heartwarming and charming that it becomes an irresistible celebratory… More

  • Alexander D


    FOOTLOOSE is an entertaining film. It has the brains and the beauty, the dance-y and the slow, the moves and the rhythm. It also has a nice plot, and it's one of those plots that is so brilliant that a choreographer, such as Kenny Ortega, would finish watching and immediately… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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