I totally dug the remake.  I know there's a legitimate complaint that can be made about how much is a direct carbon copy, but I think it just speaks to the strength of the original that it didn't need that much "fixing," you know?  THere's some stuff like the learning to dance sequence, people would have been complaining if it HADN'T been "Let's Hear It For The Boy."  And the big D, of COURSE it had to be that.

What I liked about this (and one of the big reasons I watched this) is that it took an 80s idea and feel and set it in the present and made it work without bending over backwards, needing to break it or really super update anything.  I will say that the original was sort of old and showing it's age a little... this is sort of like a restored car.  I'm hoping the remake of Carrie will feel like that too.  This is the way to remake something that was good the first time (although I am of the camp that says you should remake what didn't work well the first time).

And as I said in the other thread, I am in love with the soundtrack, it's current but varied (I love the music playing when Ren rolls into town), and it's got this southern soul to the whole thing.  I had to listen to the "Fake ID" sequence twice because I dug that song and it seemed so appropriate for that venue and that scene.  It was just the thing I needed after being... not disappointed, but unimpressed with most of the soundtracks of movies I had been seeing lately.  Nothing really got my attention the way that music in this movie did, and that's something I miss.

I also dig that outside of Dennis Quaid and Andie McDowell (who I both quite liked in the movie), I had no idea who anyone else in the movie was.  I like that it was all fresh-faces getting a crack at it.  Who's the friend, the Chris Penn role (was it Chris Penn in the original?)  I quite liked him.  And maybe it's because I've still got the memory of Pretty In Pink in my head but I like that I'm not seeing the younger faced versions of faces I know real well, that's starting to throw me with these old movies that I'm seeing for the first time.

Watching the opening again and I just love how vital the dancing is, it's not just a camera looking at the feet but it's active, the floor is bouncing, the kids are singing along, the whole thing is full of life (and I noticed a subtle little touch, the drunk kids walking to the car are stepping in unison!) and there have just been so many movies where it feels like a presentation and that you're looking at a picture on a screen and I don't like that, I wanna feel INVOLVED and this movie does that... at least for me.