Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Annie (2014)





Hmmm. I don't know how I feel about this. I grew up watching the one made in the 80s, with the pale-skinned, red-headed, freckle-faced kid that didn't let anybody (not even an old cranky billionaire) push her around. I didn't mind that they changed Annie's character, it made sense with the year they set it in. However some things didn't make sense. Some lines to the original songs they changed so it made more sense with the decade it was set in, but other lines or words they didn't when they really should have. I mean, they used the "Hard Knock Life" song and kept pretty close to the original. But, what does the phrase "hard knock life" even mean? Yeah, they briefly explained it, but why use that phrase at all? No kid in this decade would use that phrase, let alone know what it means. Also, they're cleaning up didn't make sense; who begins mopping before picking everything off the floor?? Not the best prop director, if you ask me.

I don't want to go into all the details about why I didn't like this film, because it really wasn't a bad film. It was definitely better than the last remake Hollywood attempted (Annie (1999)), and let us never speak of THAT again!!

Annie (2014) does NOT compare to the original, but let's be honest - nothing ever will.

I give Annie 7 out of 10.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Penguins of Madagascar




Pretty funny movie. The villain, Dave (Kevin Malkovich) reminded me of Megamind a bit, but that's ok I guess. They did write themselves into a corner at one point. If all they needed to turn the penguins cute again was something of immense cuteness, why did Dave have to create a serum to make them monsters? Couldn't he have just used something of immense monstrosity to take away their cuteness? Really, Private (Christopher Knights) should have stopped Dave before any of the penguins got shot with the serum.

The jokes were also kind of dead by the time I saw them in the theatre. The parts that were suppose to be the most funny had been in the previews so I was completely desensitized to them. However, I did enjoy Dave's clever name-dropping throughout the film. The first one everyone noticed, of course, but I don't think many noticed the others he through out there. It made me chuckle.

I give Penguins of Madagascar 5 out of 10.