Ever since her parents left her as a baby, little Annie (Quvenzhané Wallis) has led a hard-knock life with her calculating foster mother, Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). However, all that changes when hard-nosed billionaire and mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) takes her in on the recommendation of his advisers (Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale). Stacks believes that he’s Annie’s guardian angel, but the plucky youngster’s confidence and sunny outlook may mean that Annie will save Will instead.
For those of you not familiar with this classic story, Annie was a Broadway hit which originally hit the big screen in 1982 and filled the hearts of children across the world. There was another attempt in 1999 to remake this age old classic starring Kathy Bates. Now in 2014 Columbia pictures have attempted to present us with a new contemporary vision for a new generation.
Whilst the story basically stays true to the original format, with a few minor upgrades relevant to today’s society, Annie, this time isn’t a ginger haired white girl but an equally cute, big haired black girl full of energy and enthusiasm, which I for one absolutely loved Quvenzhane Wallis portrayal of this classic character. Have Columbia pictures made this change to bring in a wider audience? Are Hollywood finally opening up their doors to the many talented black actors out there to shine a light on an extremely under represented race? I hope so. Anyway let’s move away from that issue and back to the film.
If you’ve seen the trailer you would think it a bit cheesy and yes you would be right. This is a complete cheese fest but everyone needs a bit of cheese in their lives. Whilst not being a good movie it really isn’t a bad one either. Annie is filled with massive heart warming moments, lots of song (which actually stays pretty faithful to the original) and dance. For a lot of you though it may just be a little too sickly sweet and stomach turning, vomit worthy.
I do think however that Jamie Foxx as the self obsessed multi millionaire has the best comedic lines but there really isn’t much comedy to give you a big belly laugh, you may find yourself smiling at a few choice one liners but mostly you’ll find yourself smiling rather than plain out laughing. Actually saying that, the moment Cameron Diaz opens her mouth to sing you’ll find yourself laughing at her, hers is the only character I wish didn’t have a singing part. Truly awful and you may just find your ears bleeding. However, she does play a nasty skank really well!
Overall, the kids will probably love this and bug you until you buy a copy on DVD for them, if I’m totally honest I kind of enjoyed it to and it even got a tear or two out of me but I’m just putting that down to the fact it’s Christmas time and it does silly soppy things to a person. Even if it is slightly too long in being just under two hours it’s actually quite painless. Annie is a happy all round family film.
