140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Let’s hear it for lowered expectations. After everyone, including my daughter, panned it, I couldn’t help but like this more than assumed…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Annie:
Here’s the quick version: Annie is a completely unnecessary re-imagining of a story you’ve seen a dozen different times that contains little of the characteristics of the more enjoyable tellings. It messes with the formula with varied results and ends quite badly. Still…
Annie really isn’t as bad as you’ve heard. I’d even go as far as to say it’s got enough decent direction to become a good movie someday and is halfway there.
I attribute the majority of the bad reviews and reception to two main points:
- “It never should have been made.” Some people are so weary of reboots and re-imaginings that it would never have gotten a fair shake. The analogue to this thought is the beloved status of the 1982 John Huston film version. It was never likely to touch that version and to many audiences was DOA for trying.
- The film goes downhill and fast; despite a strong start and competent early going, the last half-hour is awful, leaving audiences exiting the theater with the feeling they saw a worse film then they actually did.
This factor worked to my personal benefit, as I expected nothing and couldn’t help but be pleased with a film that failed to be truly terrible.
Make no mistake, Annie is not a good film. It just doesn’t really work. But it is nowhere as poor as you’ve been told.
For starters, while I truly loathe the Hollywood project to remake every single earlier film, bear in mind that the seminal 1982 film was already an adaptation of a Broadway musical, itself an adaptation of an old comic serial. So let’s not pretend this 2014 remake was somehow the nadir of originality. And the original film version is hardly without warts.
The story certainly deserves an update, although I disagree that a modern setting is required for modern audiences. It was always a period piece. But if they can create modern-day versions of every other stage production, I don’t know if it’s for me to be critical of a desire to reset the tale in a new time. For the most part, the move to 2014 works.
I generally don’t take notes when watching a film for the first time, believing that I’m not devoting my full attention to the picture. I departed from form on this occasion simply because I fully expected the picture to stink. Shame on me for pre-judging. I’d like to point out, however, that the majority of my comments were positive and I ended up with a favorable review of the picture, so I feel that I made up for my initial read by being particularly attentive.
- Love the rhythmic opening – signals that you’re in for a better movie than you’re likely to get.
- Mixing in the tunes almost like an overture
- The whole picture has good musical and rhythmic flourishes, which is entirely appropriate.
- But auto-tune, ugh…
- What on Earth is going on with this thing?
- Miss Hannigan gets a backstory? She doesn’t need a backstory. Oh, she’s a failed star who was in a band before they broke? C&C Music Factory? Really? Who’s going to explain to 2014 youth who that is?
- Despite my utter dislike of Beasts of the Southern Wild, I like young actress Quvenzhané Wallis – she’s charming and perfect for this role.
- “Maybe” was and is the best song in the whole play. Thankfully they didn’t mess with it too much here.
- Kid is cute enough, but she has no voice at all. She sings ok, but there’s absolutely no projection. Maybe it would be ok to have thin voices, but not since they have amped up all the backing music. I actually don’t mind the updating of the songs, honestly. But it just makes the singing seem even more amateurish by comparison.
- When you make a film out of a Broadway show it should seem more epic, not less. There are only 5 kids and it’s a foster home, not an orphanage.
- I like the action during “It’s A Hard Knock Life”.
- I just don’t know why they feel like they need to hit every song with a backbeat, no matter how inappropriate – we get it – you’re hip.
- Fantastic imagery during “Tomorrow” – she sees happy families everywhere, even when it’s just workers carrying supplies. Really imaginative and well executed.
- I really like the narrative update, making the meet cute of Annie and the Daddy Warbucks character (reimagined as a mobile phone magnate named Will Stacks for some reason) a random event and providing a plausible reason for him to get involved in her life. Works better than the original story, actually…
- So many extraneous characters…
- “I Think I’m Going to Like it Here” – first song totally off-book – big mistake
- Man, every Sony movie looks like a glossly, brightly-lit commercial. They could have spliced in scenes from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and you’d never have noticed. I’m not sure they didn’t…
- Cameron Diaz is so miscast. I can’t believe they let her sing…
- Wow – they even rewrote the song (“Little Girls”) – not that I liked the original, but this whole updating of the character and backstory is so absurd. Ms. Hannigan doesn’t need a backstory…
- Of course Jamie Foxx gets a song, which is fair enough, since he’s arguably the only person in the main cast who can sing. I don’t care for his singing, but he certainly knows how.
- I know Daddy Warbucks had “NYC”, which was admittedly a pretty crap song, but this new New York tune is really dreadful.
- Sandy the dog is cute…
- How did they not have enough time to use all of the original showtunes, but enough time for a bunch of “originals”. Why would you adapt a massive hit and then play so loose with the source material? It would have been easier and cheaper to have just made this as an original film…
- Why does there have to have to be an additional plot – she can’t read? That’s like the 10th plotline going on here…
- Now Cannavale is going to try Easy Street? You’re out of your depth, son…wait, Diaz is back singing again – he looks and sounds better already…
- Rooster is my favorite character in the whole story – and they cut him…
- Diaz gets a second song? Or is this the third? C’mon folks, stop writing new songs…
- Man, the wheels came off of this fast. I was mostly enjoying it, due the power of low expectations. But this is going downhill fast…
- The last tune is like the first tune from the musical they’ve done in like a half an hour. Annnnndddd, they’re rewriting it, too…
- Rose Byrne’s voice is a bit thin, too…
- Umm, they forgot to kill off Annie’s parents. Hello? You’re giving up on your parents there, kid. Remember them, they’re your raison d’être? Every other version of the story made sure that it was known that her parents died some way or another so it wouldn’t be weird that she’s willing to be adopted after protesting for the entire story…
- Mercifully, it’s run out of film before they got themselves into even more trouble.
- How’d they go so wrong? Here’s a clue: there were eight producers of this film. Not executive producers – producers. Eight…
After re-reading those notes, I’m beginning to doubt my opening words about how poor this film wasn’t. See? You have to take time to reflect on the whole picture, not just how a film ends. Many good films have weak third acts. This isn’t a good film, but the theory still holds…
No, it’s not as good as the play. No, it’s not as good as the 1982 film. No, it’s not even as good as the 1999 made for tv film. But it does try some new things by updating the story, a few of which even work. Faint praise, maybe, but have you seen any of the other reviews? Trust me, I’m doing Annie a solid…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: (12 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Quvenzhané Wallis Annie, Cameron Diaz Hannigan, Jamie Foxx Will Stacks, Rose Byrne Grace |
| Rating | PG |
| Release Date | Fri 19 Dec 2014 UTC |
| Director | Will Gluck |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama, Family, Musical |
| Plot | A foster kid, who lives with her mean foster mom, sees her life change when business tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 118 |
| Tagline | It’s a Hard Knock Life |
| Writers | Will Gluck (screenplay) and, Aline Brosh McKenna (screenplay) … |
| Year | 2014 |
