If you've been to any movies lately, you'll have heard of the new remake version of the classic Annie. Starring adorable Quvenzhane Wallis as Annie, Jamie Foxx as "Daddy Warbucks" (renamed William Stacks), and Cameron Diaz as Ms. Hannigan. If anything, watch the trailer and you'll know what I'm talking about.
I had my doubts, but I wanted to see the movie none the less. So my hubby and I decided to risk it and go see it! Well, here's my movie review of it. Warning: some spoilers and very strong opinions ahead.
Let's start with the things I liked (because unfortunately they are few and far between). Annie (who I'm just gonna call Annie because I don't want to spell out her name) is charming and sassy and definitely the high point of this movie. She's cute as a button and definitely a triple threat as well. However, Rose Byrne is almost as charming and is incredibly relatable as Grace. All of Annie's adorable side kicks are there as well, including her friends and the most adorable dog as Sandy yet!
The beginning of the movie had me hooked. It had potential to be like the movie version of Annie that I loved but revamped and modernized. The feel of modern day New York using the sounds of the street to propel Annie to her brand new sunny tomorrow had me toe tapping and wanting to sing along! I was even ok with SPOILER: them changing Annie from being an orphan to a girl in foster care. Everything seemed modern and promising. But after the first 3 songs that were just like the musical, it came to a screeching halt.
The first problem I had was Cameron Diaz as Ms Hannigan. In my opinion, you can't beat Carol Burnett as Ms. Hannigan and Kathy Bates in the 1995 TV movie is a close second. There's something about Ms Hannigan's character. She's evil and hilarious at the same time. You can't help but sing her villain song because it's so darn catchy! But with this movie they turn her into a SPOILER: drunk, gold digging, wanna be rock star. She's pushy and loud and inappropriate and annoying. It makes for a miserable performance. (In reference to the drinking: what the PG kid friendly rating? Listening to the father behind me having to diffuse all the alcoholic references from his young little girl who kept asking questions made me SO uncomfortable.) I lost all the fun love I had for Ms Hannigan as it was replaced with dread every time a scene with her showed up.
The next problem was the music. Now, don't get me wrong. I loved the first 3 songs in the movie. They were the songs I knew and loved with a refreshing twist. But after that, they completely lost me. Every song I recognized started out to be the song I knew and loved. I mouthed the words and was smiling, when within bars it turned into a completely different song that left me with my mouth wide open and completely speechless. It was almost like a false pretense! They sucked me in with the original hook and punched me in the gut and whacked me over the head with a new top 40 bass line and completely new lyrics. I will give some credit and say that the original songs they created I actually throughly enjoyed! Mostly because they were new! But other than that I missed my Little Girls, NYC, and Easy Street tunes. The revamps weren't catchy enough to make me want to sing them over and over again.
But not only was it the music, but it was the singing also! You could just tell there was an incredible over use of auto tune for everyone to make everyone seem like a good singer. And while that makes my well trained ears happy, there also was such a disconnect to the songs. The auto tuning sucked out any real and raw emotion that would have been involved in the songs. (Minus the song Wallis sings at the benefit about opportunities. That one is exempt.)
The movie as a whole just seemed so disjunct. It went from musical moments to High School Musical moments to music video moments. Nothing was connected. It was filled with bad choreography to go along with the bad auto tuning and bad songs.
I think I didn't like it because I went into the movie thinking it was going to be a modernized version of the movie/musical I love. Instead I got a completely different movie/musical that maybe would have been good if it hadn't lured me in under the false pretense of being the movie Annie. While the movie has it's funny moments (beyond what you see in the trailer), and its fantastic references to the original movie, it failed to make it's way into my heart as a great version of Annie that my little girls will be watching.
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