teenager ren ( kevin bacon ) move to a small mid western town with his mom after his parent divorce . it seem the reverend moore ( john lithgow ) and of the town only church and have totally ban rock and roll music from the entire town . he have a daughter name ariel ( lori singer ) who be basically a hell raiser yet love her father . rem decides to stop the ban and bring the town back to life . ok be not deal with reality here at all . a town ban rock music entirely be ridiculous and the town only have one church . and the game of chicken use tractor be just silly . and do not get me start on how bacon and singer and chris penn and sarah jessica parker look way too old to be high school student singer be thirty when she do this . and how the heck do all the kid from the town learn how to dance so quickly . but and a a no brain musical and this do work . the opening sequence alone be great ( it show various foot dance to the title tune ) . also the acting help a lot . bacon be just great he doesn not take the movie too seriously and give out a very good performance . he also have a big dance number ( to a song call never ) which be him and three different stuntman do the more unrealistic move . singer be too old for her role but she try . penn be pretty good a bacon best friend his learn how to dance sequence be a highlight . parker do this before she be know and she not bad . lithgow and wiest be just great a the reverend and his wife wiest have a great scene where she calmly tell him off and lithgow ( wisely ) do not play the reverend a a one note character . you see him try to understand his daughter and slowly realize that music isn not bad . so this be no singin in the rain but for a 1980s teen musical it lot of fun . great song too . just turn off your brain and enjoy .