5.5/10

Director Will Gluck adapts the famous stage play to the big screen in this remake to the 1982 original. Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie, a young, enthusiastic foster kid who’s on a search to figure out the mystery that has plagued her entire life. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they’d be back for her someday, it’s been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). Things change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Rose Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, manager (Bobby Cannavale) – makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he’s her guardian angel, and quickly finds that the two need each other equally. “Annie” has never been a play/film that has been one of my favorites, but i feel like this adaptation with please fans of the original. The reasons i wasn’t swayed by the film is that it doesn’t really add much to an already overtold story. The film plays it safe and doesn’t change much for the outline of the script. The cast is full of a-listers who all lent their vocals to the films memorable score. Aside from the obvious main cast who i will get to in a second, the film features surprise cameos from Rihanna, Michael J Fox, and a spoof movie that our characters watch featuring one of Hollywood’s most prominent couples. Jamie Foxx is a well polished R&B singer in real life, so that casting was fairly obvious. He is by far the best part of the movie, as his transition never feels forced or phony. He plays William Stacks with the same kind of gentle gleam in his eyes that Albert Finney did with the 1982 original for Daddy Warbucks. The chemistry between Foxx and Wallis cannot be praised enough, as it’s their unity that carries this film through some of the more roll-your-eyes kind of moments. I had concerns about Wallis filling this role, but she has become a young force in Hollywood. She received an Oscar nomination this year, for her growing up quick role in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, but it’s in “Annie” where she gets to open up more of her shining personality. We find out that the girl has a legitimate decent singing voice that is more than enough proof why she won this role. Cameron Diaz is by far the most uninspiring character of the year. I don’t just say this as her being the villain of the film, but she plays the role completely over the top to the level where she is legitametly smiling on screen as she is yelling at these children. If you looked up the hokiest of villains in the dictionary, Diaz’s picture would be there with with a snarl. Her singing is absolutely attrocious, and the movie suffers greatly anytime she appears on screen. The setting is given an upgrade with today’s technology and rough streets in a post 9/11 New York City. Something that bothered me about these upgrades was Will Stacks being the owner of his own Cell Phone company. He flat out reveals that they can use his technology to not only monitor criminal activity with the “Obama phones” he hands out as part of his campaign, but they can also locate where any person is at any time. If this doesn’t bother the viewer at home, then clearly nothing will bother you about this movie. Another thing i found odd about the movie is that there is a tasteless hurricane Sandy joke in a film shot in New York City. When Stacks first meets Annie, he is frowning because she comes with a dog. The dog runs by him quickly in his house to which Stacks replies “That dog is a hurricane”. Annie replies with “Yeah, his name is Sandy”. It just feels like a tasteless joke with a payoff of bad memories for people legitimately hurt in the events of Hurricane Sandy. There is no doubt that the film works the best during it’s musical numbers. The acting feels forced or corny at times. I would recommend this film to fans of the original, but i definitely don’t think it’s worth a theater viewing. The kids will love the musical score, but the characters feel too wooden to ever lift “Annie” to breathtaking heights.