Nobody should make a Dirty Dancing reboot…
But if you're going to, do it right.
Before you read any further, know that I really did try to give ABC's musical adaptation a chance, I did. There have been plenty of remakes of classical hits over the past few years -- some which were not so great, but others, like Grease: Live, that were wonderfully done and satisfied almost all of the viewers who tuned in. Of course, whenever you hear the news that one of your favorite movies of All Time is going to be remade, there's that moment of excitement -- "Yes! I am pumped for this!" -- followed by fear -- "Wait, what if this goes terribly wrong?"
Vestron Pictures
So after hearing who would take on the beloved roles of Patrick Swayze's Johnny Castle (newcomer Colt Prattes) and Jennifer Grey's Baby Houseman (Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigail Breslin), I told...
But if you're going to, do it right.
Before you read any further, know that I really did try to give ABC's musical adaptation a chance, I did. There have been plenty of remakes of classical hits over the past few years -- some which were not so great, but others, like Grease: Live, that were wonderfully done and satisfied almost all of the viewers who tuned in. Of course, whenever you hear the news that one of your favorite movies of All Time is going to be remade, there's that moment of excitement -- "Yes! I am pumped for this!" -- followed by fear -- "Wait, what if this goes terribly wrong?"
Vestron Pictures
So after hearing who would take on the beloved roles of Patrick Swayze's Johnny Castle (newcomer Colt Prattes) and Jennifer Grey's Baby Houseman (Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigail Breslin), I told...
- 5/24/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
” Look, spaghetti arms. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don’t go into yours, you don’t go into mine. You gotta hold the frame!”
Grab your watermelons because Dirty Dancing: 30th Anniversary Edition is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, along with a special Limited Collector’s Edition Box Set.
Check out this clip:
Relive the enduring romance of Baby and Johnny when Dirty Dancing 30th Anniversary Edition arrives on a limited Collector’s Edition numbered box set (Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital HD), DVD and Digital HD on February 7 from Lionsgate. The pop phenomenon that gave audiences some of the most iconic catchphrases and dance sequences in film history stars Patrick Swayze (Ghost), Jennifer Grey (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), Jerry Orbach ( TV’s “Law & Order”), Cynthia Rhodes (Flashdance), Kelly Bishop...
Grab your watermelons because Dirty Dancing: 30th Anniversary Edition is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, along with a special Limited Collector’s Edition Box Set.
Check out this clip:
Relive the enduring romance of Baby and Johnny when Dirty Dancing 30th Anniversary Edition arrives on a limited Collector’s Edition numbered box set (Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital HD), DVD and Digital HD on February 7 from Lionsgate. The pop phenomenon that gave audiences some of the most iconic catchphrases and dance sequences in film history stars Patrick Swayze (Ghost), Jennifer Grey (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), Jerry Orbach ( TV’s “Law & Order”), Cynthia Rhodes (Flashdance), Kelly Bishop...
- 2/8/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Hurricane Katey is bearing down on the Catskills.
Sons of Anarchy vet Katey Sagal has joined ABC’s three-hour Dirty Dancing remake in the role of Vivian Pressman, TVLine has learned.
Vivian — aka the Kellerman’s “bungalow bunny” — is a former beauty queen who likes to seduce younger male staff members like Johnny (played by dancer Colt Prattes). Recently divorced and fabulously wealthy, Vivian introduces Marjorie (Debra Messing) to the freedoms of being single, causing her to question her own marriage. Vivian isn’t used to being rejected, so when Johnny calls things off to be with Baby (Abigail Breslin...
Sons of Anarchy vet Katey Sagal has joined ABC’s three-hour Dirty Dancing remake in the role of Vivian Pressman, TVLine has learned.
Vivian — aka the Kellerman’s “bungalow bunny” — is a former beauty queen who likes to seduce younger male staff members like Johnny (played by dancer Colt Prattes). Recently divorced and fabulously wealthy, Vivian introduces Marjorie (Debra Messing) to the freedoms of being single, causing her to question her own marriage. Vivian isn’t used to being rejected, so when Johnny calls things off to be with Baby (Abigail Breslin...
- 4/4/2016
- TVLine.com
Simon Brew Feb 3, 2017
Dirty Dancing was one of the biggest indie hits of the 1980s. But it came very close to not happening at all...
Dirty Dancing, I fully accept, isn't the kind of film you necessarily load up a site like Den Of Geek to read about. I can't sit here and tell you that it's ever been a movie that's been particularly special to me, although I know people who could happily watch it on loop.
See related World War Z 2: David Fincher linked with directing World War Z 2 nearly hit by Jurassic World 2
I've never met anyone who could say that about its sequel, Havana Nights, however.
That said, since writing about the troubles that befell the production of The Addams Family, I've been hunting for other generally off-radar stories of just how many problems a seemingly trouble-free film had behind the scenes. And...
Dirty Dancing was one of the biggest indie hits of the 1980s. But it came very close to not happening at all...
Dirty Dancing, I fully accept, isn't the kind of film you necessarily load up a site like Den Of Geek to read about. I can't sit here and tell you that it's ever been a movie that's been particularly special to me, although I know people who could happily watch it on loop.
See related World War Z 2: David Fincher linked with directing World War Z 2 nearly hit by Jurassic World 2
I've never met anyone who could say that about its sequel, Havana Nights, however.
That said, since writing about the troubles that befell the production of The Addams Family, I've been hunting for other generally off-radar stories of just how many problems a seemingly trouble-free film had behind the scenes. And...
- 11/4/2014
- Den of Geek
In the 1980s, Linda Gottlieb, an East Coast producer for MGM Studios, had lunch in New York City with writer Eleanor Bergstein, who had an idea for a movie about two sisters who are dancers, based in the Catskills.
“I said, ‘Well what’s the story?' And she said, ‘I don’t really have a story, but it should involve Latin dancing…’” Gottlieb recalled. “So I switched the subject and said, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ She said, ‘I grew up in Brooklyn, my father was a doctor, I was one of those kids who used to go across the tracks to go dirty dancing.’
“I said, ‘That’s a million-dollar title! Now we’ll figure out the story.’ We invented Johnny Castle at lunch.”
“Dirty Dancing,” the film they made, was released 25 years ago today. The movie tells the story of an idealistic, college-bound girl named Frances “Baby” Houseman...
“I said, ‘Well what’s the story?' And she said, ‘I don’t really have a story, but it should involve Latin dancing…’” Gottlieb recalled. “So I switched the subject and said, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ She said, ‘I grew up in Brooklyn, my father was a doctor, I was one of those kids who used to go across the tracks to go dirty dancing.’
“I said, ‘That’s a million-dollar title! Now we’ll figure out the story.’ We invented Johnny Castle at lunch.”
“Dirty Dancing,” the film they made, was released 25 years ago today. The movie tells the story of an idealistic, college-bound girl named Frances “Baby” Houseman...
- 8/21/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Admit it: You've seen "Dirty Dancing" more times than you'd care to admit. You're drawn in by its blend of music, dance, nostalgia, and romance between macho-yet-tender Johnny (Patrick Swayze) and awkward-yet-brave Baby (Jennifer Grey) every time it's on TV. Which is often: it seems to have been running on endless loop since its release 25 years ago, on August 21, 1987. Still, as much as you love "Dirty Dancing," you may not realize how often the production skirted disaster, from almost not being made at all, to almost not casting Swayze, to almost cutting a key subplot to please a squeamish potential corporate sponsor, to its catastrophic test screenings that almost led the film's backers to let the film go unreleased and write it off as a bad investment. How did all that trauma lead to moviegoers having the time of their lives? Read on. 1. Writer/producer Eleanor Bergstein based the story on her own childhood.
- 8/20/2012
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Chicago – The generation raised on movies of the ’80s is now the one that buys the most Blu-rays. And so it makes sense that more and more of the films of our youth are hitting the format. Again. And again. Lionsgate has turned releasing and re-releasing “Dirty Dancing” into an art form (and would never pass up the 25th anniversary without another re-release). And Warner Bros. has finally given both “Gremlins” and “Gremlins 2” an HD polish although one wishes they had given more care and love to Joe Dante’s gems. Oh yeah, you can also now own “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” on Blu-ray if there’s anyone out there who considers that valuable information.
It may say something about the war of the sexes but I imagine more men would choose the “Gremlins” 2-pack and more women would lean toward the “Dirty Dancing” 2-film collection on the new releases shelf.
It may say something about the war of the sexes but I imagine more men would choose the “Gremlins” 2-pack and more women would lean toward the “Dirty Dancing” 2-film collection on the new releases shelf.
- 5/15/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
One could just as easily write a negative review as a positive one of Dirty Dancing without even making points that contradict one another. Dancing is a film so ridiculous, so self-assured, so enraptured in a time period that looks like the 1960s but plays like a cross between 1910 and 1987 that you could certainly feel free to deride it for all of its leaps of logic and flagrant cloying, but after a while, you kind of have to wonder what the point would be. Seen from 23 years hindsight, Dancing is certainly one of the films most emblematic of the late 1980s, possessing all of the guilt-free (or is it shameless?) nostalgia and pop musical escapism that the decade has come to represent. But at the same time, the benefit of history has revealed the film to have made just enough interesting and unique creative decisions to justify the strong feelings...
- 5/8/2010
- by Anders Nelson
- JustPressPlay.net
Chicago – How does one review a lavish “Keepsake Edition” of a beloved hit? Does it matter what the critic thinks of the movie itself? It’s not like anyone out there will be buying a gift set such as this having not even seen the film, so the opinion of a potential buyer is pretty much set in stone. With that in mind, if you love “Dirty Dancing” as so many do, it’s hard to think of anything missing from Lionsgate’s new “Limited Keepsake Edition”.
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
I’m old enough to remember when the cult of “Dirty Dancing” started and to still have a cassette tape of the unbelievably successful soundtrack sitting in a box in the attic. “Dirty Dancing” wasn’t just a hit movie, it was a cultural phenomenon for those of who were the right age. Personally, I was surprised to note that the...
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
I’m old enough to remember when the cult of “Dirty Dancing” started and to still have a cassette tape of the unbelievably successful soundtrack sitting in a box in the attic. “Dirty Dancing” wasn’t just a hit movie, it was a cultural phenomenon for those of who were the right age. Personally, I was surprised to note that the...
- 5/4/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Britain's Got Talent dancer Tobias Mead, whose audition on the reality show aired earlier today, has experience of appearing on a reality TV show. Mead, 22, was a contestant on Living series Dirty Dancing: The Time Of Your Life in 2008, where he performed among the finalists for judges Kelly Brook, Sean Cheesman, Miranda Garrison and Vivian Pressman. He failed to win the series, but did go on to land a backing dancer role on a Take That tour afterwards. On tonight's Got Talent show, Mead was shown talking about his decision to abandon a football career for dancing. The performer also claimed that it upset his father and brothers when he ditched the sport. "He had high hopes for me to be a footballer," Mead told Ant & Dec. "He really wanted me to do something (more)...
- 4/17/2010
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
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