Annie

Confession time: I have always hated the musical Annie, and I really hated the original movie directed by John Huston. Growing up in New York, that damn play was shoved down my throat every day when it was playing on Broadway. So I had no hope for the new film version, especially after the first wave of reviews came out. I'm going against the grain a bit on this one. No, it's not a great film, but it's surprisingly fun and pleasant one. It still has that awful music in it, and no amount of auto-tuning and remixing can fix that dreck. What makes the movie fun is a goofy turn from Jamie Foxx as the billionaire who takes in orphan Annie (Quvenzhane Wallis). The two have a good rapport, and their fun work cancels out grating work from Cameron Diaz as Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett in the original film) and Rose Byrne's terrible singing. I admit to laughing at this movie a lot more than I thought I would, and Wallis qualifies as my all time favorite Annie. It's a good family film.