Now before you get too excited...or — if you anything like me and do not share the world's fascination with Brittany Spear's musical talents nor her off-stage antics (although I applaud her for digging herself out of that dark, dank and hairless hole) — before you roll your eyes, this is not about that chart-topping mind-numbing song.
It's about another Baby, one that is so near and dear to my heart. I'm talking of Frances Houseman, better known as Baby, from the 1987 classic "Dirty Dancing."
It is probably my all-time favorite movie for more reasons than I can mention, so I'm going to cover the most important: 1. Patrick Swayze! Need I say more. 2. Patrick Swayze dancing! 3. The fact that Jennifer Grey is not your average gorgeous leading lady. 4. I learned to dance watching Baby learn to dance. 5. My mother insisted on staying in the theater through the entire movie, even though I was pounding away in her womb to let me out and dance with Patrick. Needless to say, I grew up watching this movie!
Now, Lions Gate has decided to remake the classic...again.
Let me first say I'm all for remakes...to an extent. I think getting a new interruption of a story or plot line in a new time period or setting leads to such diversity and brings to light new-found delights not seen before.
Remember, Lions Gate already tried the remake in a widely-unappreciated 2004 movie, "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," which I actually love. But it come no where close to the level of esteem that I place on the original.
So why go for a third-time at bat? It can't be that the old adage "third time's the charm" because if that first 1987 version didn't hit it out of the park, I'm not sure they can do much better.
And to make matters worse, the film company doesn't plan to change anything...not the time period it was set in, not the plot of a thrilling first-love and sexual awakening, not even the choreographer! That's right, Kenny Ortega is back! I actually am secretly thrilled about this because I love his work. He has choreographed and directed masterpieces such as "The Newies," with the multi-talented Christian Bale, who will forever be a New York cowboy to me, "Gilmore Girls," "Hocus Pocus," "High School Musical" (all of them), and Michael Jackson's farewell "This Is It."
The film is still in its early stages, slated to come out in 2013, so there are still a lot of factors to hash out. But there is obviously one important piece that made such movie magic that will change in this latest rendition: the cast. Patrick lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2009 and Jennifer Grey, while still capable of a little dirty dancing as evident from her championship season on "Dancing with the Stars," she would not be right cast as the doe-eye daddy's girl now.
Apparently, Zac Efron's name has been batted around to play Patrick Swayze's Johnny Castle, which I think is a bit predictable. Although the boy can dance...and sing (dear God, please don't let them turn this into a musical), he doesn't quite have the bad boy air about him that is needed for the role.
Also in the running is Derek Hough, Grey's former dancing partner (after Patrick, of course). This is laughable. I like Derek, but really? I think he's just exercising some sibling rivalry. His sister, Julianne Hough, landed the role of Ariel Moore, in the new "Footloose" remake...more on that later. Again, Derek, like Zac, doesn't have a bad boy bone in his limber body. Both are baby-faced and boyish, while Johnny Castle is a man, tough and rugged, with substantial life experience, which has embittered him.
But after all this talk, I'm kind of excited to see what, and who, they come up with and at the same time, dread it. I hope that it lives up the first one, but am not holding my hopes too high because, to use what I think is the cheesiest line in the movie (forgive me), "no one puts Baby in the corner."
I fear that is essentially what the film will do. It will either surpass the former glory of the Swayze-Grey dynamic, which as I said, is unlikely, or it will make a mockery of the entire trilogy and the beloved classic will be stuffed into the back corner of entertainment centers hiding in shame.
So Lions Gate, I warn you. Think carefully before proceeding with this misadventure.
And while we're at it...MTV, the same goes to you too. Although my advice is much too late to save you from the October premiere of "Footloose," which looks exactly the same as the 1984 version but with Bostonian Kenny Wormald (from the "Center Stage" follow-up "Turn It Up") as Chicago-rebel Ren MacCormack instead of Kevin Bacon. From the looks of the trailers, it is exactly the same movie with a even more forbidden dancing and an updated wardrobe except it appears that they got Ren's from a 1984 Kevin Bacon yard sale..down to the grimy gray sweat shirt he rips off revealing the fitted white tank in that legendary dance number in the barn. Oh wait, they have graffitied school buses instead of tractors for the chicken race! Come on!
I most likely will not dare to fork out the $10 to see either film in theaters, so my reviews will have to wait until the remakes come out on DVD. All I can say is good luck movie goers.
