Annie (2014), PG, ★

The sun will come out tomorrow...you know the rest.

The sun'll come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that'll come out tomorrow
there'll be sun
Just thinkin' about tomorrow...

If you're familiar with these lyrics, well, then, good for you, I'm glad you remember them because someone had to. If not wondering where it comes from, I will just tell you. Annie is a broadway play adapted from the comic books of Little Orphan Annie that opened in 1977. It had a cute premise with girls living in an orphanage singing how they feel in that state with a terrible caretaker. But, then, Annie is luckily adopted by a person who wants the owner to raise her during the Christmas holiday. It then unravels to a heartfelt conclusion. I enjoy the whole story. But, however, film adaptations take the story and develop into something weird and unsatisfying. Out of all the film adaptations about the sweet girl, this version is the absolute worst.

I already explained the story, but, this version has a different set-up. Hey, not all film adaptations will be the same, so, here we go...

Annie Bennett (Quvenzhane Wallis), a 10-year old orphan, is presenting her project regarding Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a homage to the original play, and encourages everyone in her class to do a clapping number. *sighs* Anyway, Annie runs to a restaurant in New York City after school to finally meet her foster parents. Unfortunately, it does not happen. She goes back to her foster home with her foster sisters waiting and taken cared of by the mean-spirited Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), who was a performer and is now miserable taking care of the girls. An example of her behavior is Hannigan waking up the kids early Saturday morning to clean the place home for Social Services to inspect and they break into song.

We also meet Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx), a cellphone-carrying, stiff man who is running for mayor of New York City with the help of his advisor, Guy (Bobby Cannavale), his assistant, Grace (Rose Byrne) and bodyguard, Nash (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje). Stacks is a germaphobic person who tries to care about the homeless when he eats their mashed potatoes, however, he spits them out towards a homeless man.

Later, Annie tries to work for a florist for some money for some information regarding her real parents. Then, after seeing two boys throwing rocks at a dog, she chases them and coincidentally, Stacks is walking down on the street as Annie bumps into him accidentally and falls down on the street. As the van is going to drive by, Stacks rescues her. The media hails him as a hero and the popularity rating skyrockets and Guy tells Stacks that him adopting Annie will be good for publicity. Grace goes to the foster home and tells Annie that she will stay with the ignorant Stacks for a few days. And, then, la-dee-da, la-dee-da, the movie turns into a phony adoptive tale with updated songs.

Wallis singing with Foxx glimpsing in the background. 

This movie is so outdated that I think that this generation of viewers will be bored out of their minds and the fans of the play will be angry at how they took the musical up a notch in a negative fashion. However, some of the New York City shots look like they were shot on the lot and looks cheesy. With some of the big songs, it has to look grand with every extra raise their hands like it is a state where you can perform Broadway songs anywhere. I would actually ban that. In the songs where there in little separate quarters like Jamie Foxx and Wallis singing in a small helicopter and they sound like they are yelling, at times, in a small helicopter and it is awkward.

Quvenzhane Wallis, bless her heart, from Beasts of the Southern Wild, is charming and cute but however her version of Annie is reduced into a one-note bubbly character that just projects her emotions on predictable situations as being glum or being spectacularly happy as she gloats onto materialistic goods, we'll get to that in a moment. Jamie Foxx looks uncomfortable in the "Daddy" role as he looks like he is suffering throughout the whole film and gives a forced performance when he has to be laughing and smiling and singing. Diaz is embarrassing and is a terrible singer. Byrne, actually gives a good performance, but is reduced to a sort of a small role. Cannavale does nothing great and also gives another one-note performance as a moronic person trying to set an image for Foxx and also something relevant to Annie.

This film is so materialistic that Annie is gleaming with all the electronics and material that Foxx has and says that this should be her home. It is sort of an insult to lower-class and middle-class people as orphans just want to be in a family. The message is "be rich and encourage an orphan to live with you." Ugh! Even, the foster children are given cellphones and they do not look awful or as sloppy as the other versions. They look like they are having a non-stop sleepover making a mess under the care of a teenager. They look kind of happy, they should not.

In the end, Annie is a cringe-inducing, repetitive, grand-scale celebration on how awful the singing numbers are and why this movie should not be made. I was shocked on how awful this production was and they should have gotten experienced Broadway singers to produce their talent on-screen and that would have been great. I was flabbergasted by the experience and result on who and what Annie is and the message it send out along with the new and unmemorable songs sung terribly by A-list actors. Kids, families, I hope there is another movie you want to see because this is not the one.

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