Annie

              Stacks: "I've learned you can count the people who truly love you on one hand."
              Annie: "You know you're making a fist, right."

What is Annie? It's a modernised update of the classic stage musical, made for the children of 2014. Set in New York City, specifically Harlem. The race of the leads are inverted to, along with excessive producer credits that include two hip-hop stars (Will Smith and Jay-Z) and Jada Pinkett-Smith, give the impression that this movie has the appeal and feel of a Tyler Perry or Oprah Winfrey production, or one of those Ja-Rule movies (a.k.a often bad and intended for black audiences only). With a script by the writers of Friends with Benefits, Morning Glory, 27 Dresses, We Bought a Zoo, Fired Up! and The Michael J. Fox Show. Directed by the man who directed Fired Up!, Friends with Benefits, Easy A and was the creator/executive producer of the Michael J. Fox show. And with a trailer for such a film it's hard not to walk in to this childless and not be full of a passionate, frothing hatred and the expectation to be delighted by the shoddyness on-screen. But like the titular little "foster care kid", Annie is not as awfully annoying as it would seem.

In Harlem, the precocious and eponymous orphan (Quvenzhane Wallis) lives with four other "foster care" children, waiting and wishing to be adopted and saved from the hammy Cruella-DeVille-ing of Cameron Diaz's Miss Hannigan, an alcoholic and abusive spinster who denigrates the chirpy young girls, and occasionally drunkenly smacks their heads into walls. Annie visits the same restaurant every Friday night as it is the only clue to her patronage, but otherwise spends her time at school, running about the neighbourhood, or cleaning her foster home. While trying to protect a Shiba Inu doge from some boys who are throwing cans at it, she is saved from a speeding van by billionaire mobile phone mogul Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx). Stacks is in the middle of a mayoral election campaign, but losing to a man who talks about being pissed on during a kids film ("Don't pee in my ear and tell me it's hot rain"). So Stacks, his British assistant Grace (Rose Byrne) and fast-talking money-loving adviser Guy (Bobby Canavale) intend to exploit the humanity the young girl gives him to win votes, and he soon invites her to live with him for a while. During her stay the two bond and learn off of each other, most often Stacks learning that there is more to life than hard work and business.

Annie has a certain precocious charm to it, though this is surrounded by discussions of political campaigns, phone mechanics, wildly inappropriate jokes about prostitution, alcoholism and abandonment, and such inexplicable marginalisation of real issues such as alcoholism, domestic abuse, abandonment and repression that its baffling to see these details even present in what is intended to be a sweet childrens musical, let alone being mocked. There's also many references to actors and pop culture that's fine for older audiences, including a Young Adult film-adaptation parody featuring Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis and a political ad featuring Michael J. Fox. You know, jokes for children. Chuck in a  Deliverance joke while you're at it.

"No, thanks. I don't want....companionship. Not that I'm judging!"
Literally a line of dialogue in this childrens film.

Quvezhane Wallis is undeniably great in the lead role. She's smart-mouthed, but innocent enough to be completely endearing, and possibly the best thing to say about the film as a whole. Jamie Foxx is serviceable, Rose Byrne is Rose Byrne (solid and sweet), but the hammyness of Bobby Canavale and Cameron Diaz meanders between entertaining and cringe-worthy, and often distracts. Visually, the film is bubbly and bright, but otherwise unremarkable. The musical side of the film is presented as self-aware, during several songs characters often react with bemusement, astonishment and/or scorn when others launch into song, but this just invites the wish for more confused reaction shots of bystanders during these musical numbers. The songs themselves are apparently mildly updated versions from the stage-play, with some being dropped completely to meet pacing and narrative requirements. Also, the occasional remixing of a song can be pretty startling (Foxx's rendition of "The City's Yours" featuring an interminable R&B backing). The film certainly falters in the third act,  devolving into tying loose ends where character arcs should be, and a boring chase involving Twitter and Instagram. It actually makes you miss the archetypal end of second act break-up moment that appears in most childrens films, which is followed by a sweeping crescendo of a reunion. But hey, it's a hard knock life.

Annie is not a cinematic movie, but will be an enjoyable enough DVD to pop on for the kids on a lazy weekend. None of the songs will stick, and neither will the performances outside of Diaz, Canavale and especially Wallis. Not as bad as it deserves to be, but nothing work making a fuss over, really.

Sex Tape

Movies about sending an unwanted sex tape to the wrong people aren't exactly fresh and exciting. And this one is definitely neither fresh nor exciting.

The film begins with a long and largely unnecessary introduction to the relationship of Annie (Cameron Diaz) and Jay (Jason Segel). The reason it's unnecessary is because I couldn't really believe that these two people were in their twenties. After that, we finally get introduced to their adult married life, which is sexless, despite the fact that they love each other very much. In the spur of the moment, the decide to film each other having sex with each other. This soon turns bad when the video gets synced to every iPad that they've given as gifts (which is a lot apparently).

This movie misses the mark when it comes to most of the jokes. There is only little potential in the set ups that are there and these mostly fall flat, especially the jokes about the domestic lives these two characters have (again because the two leads aren't playing believable roles).

The film is buoyed up by some master direction from Jake Kasdan (Orange County) and the script written in part by Segel is passable, but to have two leads with as little chemistry as these two. The film is partially saved by the supporting cast. Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper and Rob Lowe all do their best to prop up Segel and Diaz. The best casting decision was probably putting Jack Black as a cameo role. His scene just entails him improvising the names of porn companies and is suitably hilarious.

Verdict: A mediocre comedy at the best of times. Road Trip did a better job.

The Counselor

The works of Cormac McCarthy have always served as interesting fodder for film adaptations. Indeed both No Country for Old Men and The Road translated his vision perfectly to the screen. However, The Counselor is an entirely original script from him and when you couple that with an immensely visual director, such as Ridley Scott, you get a beautiful film that also has extreme depth and meaning just underneath the surface.

The film is set in the southern United States and it follows The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) as he descends into the drug fuelled world of the Mexican cartels. After a shipment that he had a stake in is stolen, he ends up going on the run, as the cartel behind the other half of the investment believes he is responsible.

The film has many themes and they all seem to be complementary of one another. The largest ones are those of greed and actions and consequences. The Counselor is driven to do many of the things that he wants, primarily by greed. What he wants most is to please his girlfriend Laura (Penelope Cruz) and we can only assume that she is the reason he has driven himself toward this path. That greed also goes hand in hand with the consequences that are a direct result of the actions that he has taken.

All this depth and meaning stems from a superb script from McCarthy. Unlike the other adaptations that I mentioned earlier, whose screenplays had been written by other writers, The Counselor has the unique voice of McCarthy, who has written some wonderfully cryptic dialogue scenes that also appear in his literature.

This film is also spectacular to look at as well and that is largely due to Ridley Scott's amazing vision as a director. The landscapes in the film are amazing, showcasing Mexico and Texas on an intimate scale that I really appreciated.

Finally, the cast of this film is not be forgotten. I know looking at the poster, all you see are the big names and just think it's going to be an empty film. But all the actors are fantastic. I especially want to give praise to Cameron Diaz, as I have not seen her reach a level such as this since Being John Malkovich in 1999. There is also a scene that has cameos from Dean Norris (Hank in Breaking Bad) and John Leguizamo (Luigi in Super Mario Bros., and a ton of other stuff) that I found humourous for some reason.

Verdict: An intense and compelling crime drama that is sure to make you scared of cheetahs and girls on Ferraris.