Annie
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 19, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
19
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 18, 2014
The overall vibe of this folly is curdled and utterly blase; it's a 118-minute foregone conclusion, finesse-free and perilously low on the simple performance pleasures we look for in any musical, of any period. Read full review
33
HitfixDrew McWeenyDec 21, 2014
Wallis, who is an appealing young performer, simply doesn't have the chops for what has traditionally been one of the more demanding leads in a musical for a young performer, and Gluck, along with co-writer Aline Brosh McKenna, has built a film around Wallis that is constantly undercutting the songs, the choreography, and the entire idea of musicals. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 19, 2014
The new Annie musical starring Jamie Foxx and Quvenzhané Wallis is pretty bad, but let’s be honest: Despite some decent show tunes, the show was pretty bad to begin with, so it’s not worth getting all righteous about the dumb changes. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 18, 2014
Director Will Gluck's glam, grim re-imagining of the Depression-era musical about the hard-hearted rich man and the little girl who melts him, is truly depressing. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 18, 2014
The cast would have been better served by a middle school production overseen by a creatively frustrated, inappropriately ambitious drama teacher than by this hacky, borderline-incompetent production, which was directed by Will Gluck from a screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna. Read full review
30
VarietyRonnie ScheibDec 14, 2014
The film replaces choreography with metronomic editing, while one-note overstatement drowns out character development. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Courtney SheaDec 19, 2014
Of the movie’s dozen musical numbers, only three are relatively unmangled versions of their predecessors. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMichael OrdonaDec 18, 2014
Fans of previous incarnations are advised to check their nostalgia at the door, while the uninitiated may simply check their brains. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyJason ClarkDec 16, 2014
Aside from an unintentional homage to "Zoolander" that is so tone-deaf it'll make you guffaw, Annie goes out of its way to make viewing it a hard-knock life...for us. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyDec 14, 2014
Putting aside the grating performances, the clumsy direction, the visual ugliness and the haphazard development of story, character and relationships, the movie is hobbled by its intrinsic unsuitability for contemporary retelling. Read full review
12
New York PostLou LumenickDec 18, 2014
The worst Hollywood musical so far this century, it’s another misstep for Sony Pictures, which also sponsored the abortive ‘‘The Interview.’’ Read full review
12
Slant MagazineEric HendersonDec 14, 2014
2014: Annie's America makes director John Huston's elephantine, synthetically charismatic 1982 adaptation look like a Minnelliesque model of focus and concision. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 18, 2014
Where to begin in describing the awfulness of Annie? Why not with Sandy, Annie’s dog, whose name now connects with the superstorm in this hapless contemporary update of a musical that begged to be left in its 1930s period. Have you ever seen a dog suffer from incompetent direction? This one does, but no more or less so than the human members of the cast, none of whom have any emotional connection with one another, let alone with a standoffish pooch. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 17, 2014
When a stage musical as beloved as Annie hits the big screen and falls ignominiously on its fat one, you might ask: WTF? For starters, updating the Depression-era tale to NYC 2014 is a really dumb idea. The strain of the shoehorning is evident in every scene. Read full review
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