Annie

It is unfortunate so much money (65 million) and so much talent (Quvenzhane Wallis, Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz) did not equal a better movie. A musical should have great singers; this did not. Foxx, the orphans and Quvenzhane were fine, but they were not great. Consider Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Fiddler on the Roof and Oklahoma. Along with the actors singing in character, there were powerful voices. No one in Annie was a standout musically.

Rose Byrne did her job in Damages, but not so much in this movie. The remainder of the cast was competent; they had their occasional moments.

This rendition of Annie was okay. But, with a few cast changes and voice lessons, it could have been so much better.

Annie is an age old story of an orphan struggling to survive and is magically swept off her feet by a reluctant grouch who suddenly gets a warm heart and yadda yadda yadda. Yes, an updated version of Annie sounded awesome and yes, some of us had hope for it. And HELL NO is this what Annie should have become. This is perhaps one of the most ridiculous, over produced, annoyingly unoriginal remakes in recent years. With a cast like this film, starring Jamie Foxx, Quvenzhane Wallis, Cameron Diaz and Rose Byrne, this should have been a very competent film but it is so bogged down with a ridiculous hip-hop shroud of the musical numbers and poorly executed dance numbers that it is hard to take this seriously. The biggest culprit is Will Gluck, the man directs this with absolutely no flavor. It isn't hard to make the story of Annie heart warming, not in the very least. It is one of the best told stories along with being one of the best musicals of all time. Even if you were asleep at the wheel for most of the production, you could still get something out of it. Gluck fails to do pretty much everything when it comes to direction. It is lazy and unoriginal. To be frank, the only reason why I'm giving this a 3 instead of a 10 is Wallis' performance. She was truly awesome as Annie and it is a shame that the film wasn't even a fraction as good as her performance. Overall, this is a film that will more than likely have you pounding your fist against your head for the entire duration of the film...oh yeah, it is THAT bad.

Regarding the other versions of the classic Broadway hit, the 1982 film was one of my favourite films as a child and is still a personal favourite today while the 1999 film is also good and entertaining if a little short and sugary sweet in places. Annie(2014) certainly should be judged on its own merits and without any comparison as well as with an open mind. Seeing it without any prejudice, I do not think it is quite as bad as people has said but as an updating of the story and as a standalone it didn't work.

There are some good things here. The best thing about it is Quvenzhané Wallis as Annie, her singing is not brilliant but the energy, enthusiasm and feeling she gives to it is. She's consistently winning in the role and performs with much confidence and charisma with twinkling eyes and a bright smile, all this without falling into saccharine camp. Jamie Foxx has the best singing voice of the whole cast and is a likable Will Stacks, playing him with real authority and charm, coming across as appropriately over-serious to someone more relaxed later on. Sandy is also adorable and almost on par with the dog in the 1982 film, and I was charmed by the chemistry between Annie and Grace.

Unfortunately that's it for the things that work. The girls playing the other foster kids try their best but they do come over as over-eager and they don't have much to do, not to do with screen-time but with how they're directed(the only place they shine in some way is Hard Knock Life). Rose Byrne is a mixed bag, she is appropriately kindly and shares a charming chemistry with Wallis but she has very little to do really. Bobby Cannavale underplays the villain role so much that the performance comes across as one-note while Cameron Diaz is rather painful to watch as Miss Hannigan(and this is without any comparison). She's a talented actress but plays the character far too broadly, so over-the-top campy and obnoxiously strident that it makes the rest of the toned-down performances dull in comparison. Regarding the singing, the only one who impresses is Foxx, the rest of the adults can barely carry a tune and the singing in general sounds auto-tuned and in an all-too-obvious way(Easy Street is especially bad in this instance), "auto-tuned disaster" sums it up very aptly. The lip-synching is incredibly amateurish too with the performers' mouths moving at a different tine to the music.

The songs in the Broadway stage show and the 1982 and 1999 films are marvellous, ones with very catchy melodies that are easily hummable and lyrics that you can recite without problem very quickly. The songs that are included here are arranged in a way to make them more "current" but instead they are stripped of their heart and meaning due to the many things added to and taken away from them, some of them changed to the extent they're barely recognisable(like one or two signature lines a song being maintained but the melodies being completely swamped by polyrhythmic harmonies and sounds and even vastly inferior changes in lyrics). Tomorrow just about gets by but Hard Knock Life irritates and Easy Street is completely butchered. And then we have the added ones done especially for this film and while they're "current" they're forgettable at best and largely uninspired in style and writing with lyrics so inane it's enough to make one cringe. For anybody yet to see the film they'd think that there'd be a jarring difference in quality with the original songs and the added ones but you know something is horribly wrong when the originals are changed so much that they're actually on the same level in quality to the added ones, that's how much they've been cheapened by the arrangements. The choreography is both sloppy and chaotic, flailing arms being the most memorable and frequent movement of the lot, and apart from Foxx and to a lesser extent Wallis nobody looks natural dancing it. For example I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here looked like it was completely made up on the spot.

The equally chaotic and music-video-like production values don't help, most of the musical numbers especially Easy Street were very haphazardly edited, and neither does Will Gluck's leaden direction that has inexperience stamped all over it. The script is weak, with crass humour, cloying cutesiness and the once memorable and engaging characters reduced to bland clichés. The film does try hard to make the famous story relevant by today's standards, but by doing that the heart of the original story is lost and Annie's positivity amidst a harsh world doesn't resonate, which is really what the story and Annie's character is all about. Annie and Stacks's relationship never really grows, despite Foxx's best efforts if there was meant to be a character change for Stacks it wasn't believable while Miss Hannigan's back story suffered from some really clumsy and badly placed writing. The message is more cynical in alternative to heart-warming, handling the benefits of materialism idea very heavy-handedly, while the climatic helicopter chase is just ludicrous, completely devoid of tension and completely out of place compared to the rest of the film.

Overall, Annie(2014) is not THAT terrible but while it tries hard the execution for this viewer was awkward and sloppy. 4/10 Bethany Cox

All the critics out there need to go see this movie with a bunch of 8-13 year old kids. I feel bad for the cast of this film, because I think the reviews are going to stop people from going to see it; We almost didn't go see it, because the reviews were so bad. We talked our kids and their friends into seeing another movie, but then we were late, so we ended up going to see Annie. They all loved it-- boys and girls--and it was so sweet to see them bopping around to the music. It was special for me because this was the first musical I ever saw live in the theater. I was worried that I was going to hate the re-write, but I loved the modern changes they made to make it relevant to a whole new generation. It wasn't perfect and there were a few changes I would've made to dial down the cheese factor a little, but the way the reviews were written it sounded like the worst movie ever: bad singing, bad writing, bad re- writes of the songs, bad acting. Was there something political behind all those awful reviews??? I've sat through a lot more mundane kids' movies through the years with my children that didn't get ripped apart like this movie. I thought the casting was perfect, the singing sounded authentic, the chemistry between the cast was apparent, and the songs were just as catchy as I remember it. At the end, I even had a "little pollen" in my eyes, and the audience clapped during the final number. I haven't been in a movie where that has happened in a long time. This movie is for kids and the kid in all of us!

-Annie is a modern adaptation of the Broadway Musical in which an orphan (foster child in this) who lives with the somewhat evil Mrs. Hannigan when, one day, she meets Mr. Warbucks (Will Stacks in this), a rich business man who takes Annie in and truly starts to learn what it is to have family.

-This adaptation of Annie is definitely a little ambitions, but I think they pulled it off well! I am a big fan of the 1994 film and I like this version about as much as that! -The story itself is different from the original somewhat, but the modern update called for some changes and I liked them.

-The pace was good, but there is a slow point in the film that is noticeable.

-The supporting characters, everyone but Annie, are a bit cheesy. And kinda goofy, but they are not too much over-the-top. There are a few elements like the characters that did feel geared towards younger audiences.

-The acting is good though. I noticed that both Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz both acted will in their over-the-top characters. I will say the true star was Annie though. I can't spell her name, but she outshined Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz in most of the scenes. Good work! -Now the music is pretty great! I liked the updated music and, although not every original song was in it, I really liked the new songs they added! -The film is also very funny! I laughed at most of the jokes made and them adding jokes poking fun at musicals was very smart.

-It is rated PG for some mild language. Nowhere near as bad as like Rango.

-So Annie has a few elements that feel younger or cheesy, but I thought it was very fun, entertaining, and I loved the music! I honestly would give it a good 7.5 and say that Annie is totally worth seeing in theaters!