RAMA has delivered another great review.
It is possible for a movie musical to show that the actors seem to be having fun on the screen, but unfortunately that fun is not shared by the audiences watching them. ANNIE is one of those movies. It’s a remake just for a remake sake, just so that the studio can have something they can call a new version, with new level of riches, billionaire with a ‘B’, just so that they can have something that simply exists. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the vibe or the hyper energy, but everything about this new ANNIE manages to make musical fans like me hate musicals. It’s a hard knock life indeed for us.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to update something using a diverse group of actors, I’m all for that, but if you have a weak script with a runtime that’s unnecessary long, and songs that push you away instead of inviting you in, you’ve got a disaster in your hand. I actually feel sorry for Quvenzhane Wallis, Rose Byrne, Bobby Canavale, Jamie Foxx, even David Zayas, because they’re all fantastic actors but they’re victims of this poorly scripted, poorly staged, poorly choreographed film.
Oscar nominee Wallis plays a foster kid named Annie who lives with his friends in a foster home run by their evil foster mom, played by Cameron Diaz whose character, Miss Hannigan, is a self-pity mean b*tch, nice effort by Diaz but her sex appeal which is still fully attached to her, makes it hard for some of us to completely hate her.
Jamie Foxx plays a business tycoon turns New York mayoral candidate named Will Stacks, who saves Annie from an accident. Stacks advisers, played by Bobby Canavale and Rose Byrne, see it fit for Stacks to take Annie in under his care, they think it’s good for Stacks’ public image and that it would get him votes.
I get it, I totally do, this film essentially wants to speak about what truly matters and what truly matters is not money or wealth, or power or reputation, what truly matters is the people around us whom we care about, being there for them no matter how busy you may get. ANNIE’s themes are always meant for good. But as a film, this version of ANNIE is just unlikable, not even the songs could compensate. There’s something missing, something that the play and the 1982 film had, that this version just doesn’t.
And this ANNIE remake shows why other countries or the 99% of our citizens hate the idea of capitalism. This overwhelming depiction of ridiculous wealth in forms of today’s technology and smart homes. There’s nothing wrong with being rich, but this type of riches is quite the turn off.
In the end, if kids watch this movie and find it entertaining and perhaps they can learn a thing or two from it, I guess we can give ANNIE a passing card.
But other than that, CIA’s next torture program should be tying up those terrorists to a chair and forcing them to watch this ANNIE,… that’ll make ‘em talk.
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