Poster of Dirty Dancing (1987) |
One of the major
factors that played a role in the success of this uber-cool film (you could
quote me on this one) is the music that was absolutely in keeping with the
times. Although the original movie came out in 1984, tracks like Footloose, and Dancing in the Sheets still remain favorites among teeny-boppers
(and the older ones too, I confess).
While I
thought the worst had come when they remade Footloose in 2011 (reference to
line one of this blog post); I guess I was sadly mistaken. The worst is yet to
come; and ‘yet’ seems to be coming in the summer of 2013. I just read reports
about how they’re planning to ‘REMAKE’ yet another cult movie. This time around
the movie chosen breaks my heart, because the original was one of my all-time
favorites. They’ve apparently chosen to rip apart ‘Dirty Dancing’.
Dirty Dancing
(1987) is a movie that brought with it a certain amount of freshness, innocence
and spunk. Although the movie is as old as I am, I never tire of watching it.
Patrick Swayze, who played the role of Johnny Castle, was an absolute delight
to watch. Some of the scenes (like their first love making scene) will leave
you wanting more of him. Jennifer Gray did a fabulous job of being ‘Baby’, the naive
rich girl who is unlike most other patrons at the holiday camp. It is at this
very holiday camp that Baby meets Castle, the dance instructor; and as movies
will have it, they fall in love.
With Patrick
Swayze no longer among us and Jennifer Gray happy with her Dancing with the Star stints, who will play the iconic Johnny and
Baby couple this time around?
Although there
are no official reports about who’ll be joining the cast of the Dirty Dancing
Remake, if insiders are to be believed; Derek Hough should step into the shoes
of Patrick Swayze to play Johnny Castle. His female lead might go to Lea
Michele.
Lea Michele & Derek Hough |
Personally, I
can’t imagine Lea Michele doing justice to the role. I would have to loved to
see Julianne Hough play the role of Baby (and so would many others, as per
blog posts that I have read so far).
Jennifer Gray (l) as Baby in Dirty Dancing and Julianna Hough (r) |
The only
reason (make that one of the reasons) why I am skeptical about the remake is because we’ve seen some rather
crappy iconic-movie-remakes. They somehow manage to ruin all of them.
Whether or
not they’ll do a good job of making Dirty Dancing 2013 is something that only
time will tell. (If other Hollywood movies are to be believed, the world might
end in 2012. That way we’d never have to endure the tortures of this movie,
just like we’ve had to sit through previous remakes.)
For now, I’ll
leave with you the best dance sequence of the movie (and a classic song as
well) – I’ve Had The Time of my Life (OST – Dirty Dancing 1987).
I think Glee did do some justice when it did a cover of 'I had the time of my life'. But it was just one song and DD fans could bear the risk of a disaster.
ReplyDeleteOh dear... Disaster is an understatement. DD is a cult movie and it is not nice to mess with cult movies... The more popularity an original movie gained in its time, the higher the risk of its fans being unforgiving towards the remake... And Derek Hough, although a great dancer, does not possess the star-like quality that was naturally bestowed upon Swayze. Honest to God, I cried like a baby the day I heard about his death...
DeleteAh! You girls, I tell you!
DeleteHahahah.. Don't you go around playing the gender card now!
Delete