FilmSnobReviews

Title: Annie
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Will Gluck
Starring: Quvenzhane Wallis, Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

What It Is: Little Annie (Wallis) is certain she knows where to find the parents that abandoned her when she was but four years old. As a result she was placed in foster care and left with the terrible Ms. Hannigan (Cameron Diaz) one day while out and about trying to find out about her parents she’s saved from an approaching car by mayoral candidate and cellular phone mogul Will Stacks  (Foxx) who decides that having Annie around might be good for his public image. So he temporarily adopts her, but as is the case sometimes with childre it nevers turns out the way Will wanted. You see little orphan Annie is a thief and she appears to have stolen Will Stacks heart.

What We Think: This film completely misses the mark on being interesting in a wide regard. Kids may enjoy the all singing and the all dancing mess of a film, but there’s really not much  for the adults in the crowd to enjoy. From a performance standpoint it seems like most of the cast is sleepwalking through this thing, with two exceptions. Firstly the good news Quavenzhane Wallis is truly enjoyable as the contemporary little orphan. Now the bad news Cameron Diaz is so painful as Ms. Hannigan I was hoping there’d be a scene where her character died. From the over acting of every single scene she’s in to her tepid singing attempts Diaz is more a distraction then she is an asset. Some of it comes from the lukewarm writing, most of the awfulness falls on Gluck’s clumsy direction.

Our Grade: D-, This is a reboot that should not have happened! There’s only two reasons this thing even got off the ground…Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. They were producers on it and much like their previous (and much better) reboot of the Karate Kid which they manipulated into a way to push their son into a leading role. Despite not being a good film. One whose black characters could’ve been both a beacon and herald for black cinema instead fall to the way side as ridiculous fodder for a film that isn’t even certain it wants to be a musical. Despite the catchy Sia song on the soundtrack, normally musical feature intrinsic music but this one has many songs played over the top of the action. This really takes you out of that really cool vibe musicals can have.