youtube/watch?v=nasLuiP-1E0. Here is another rant of mine. I feel I need to say this before another insanely idiotic movie trend starts. What is the point of remaking musicals? In 1982, a film version of Annie was released in theatres. Not a perfect movie, but it sure was entertaining. In 1999, a new version of Annie was made for TV. It managed to be better than the first version by being more faithful to the play and eliminating the superfluous dark content. Now, we have a third version of Annie playing in theatres. Yes, a third Annie!! Although I have not seen the new Annie, there are plenty of reasons not to do so. For starters, theres the poor casting of Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan and the dumb decision to relocate the story from the Depression to the present. More importantly, Ive listened to the soundtrack, and I hate the way the classic songs have been sung and remixed. The new renditions of I Think Im Gonna Like It Here, Little Girls and Easy Street have had half of their lyrics removed and replaced by hip hop gibberish. Only three new songs were written and they sound a lot more competent than botching the old ones. Heres a better idea: why not create an original musical with those three songs? Its sad really. The first film version of Annie had a mixed critical reception with the makers of the stage play expressing their disappointment. At Rotten Tomatoes, it has 50%. There was room for improvement. Hence the 1999 TV movie, which received an Emmy nomination for Best Made-for-TV Movie. The 2014 movie has 27% at RT, implying that the filmmakers never learned from the mistakes of the 1982 version. Many critics have panned the film for its poor execution, bad casting, modern references, and for the fact that Will Gluck was not the right director to helm a musical. No wonder its on the Razzie shortlist for Worst Sequel/Remake. I really hope that the new Annie doesnt lead to a new trend in remaking musicals. Over the years, Ive heard rumours that remakes of My Fair Lady, West Side Story and Oliver are in development. WHY?! Those are Best Picture winners!! Surely a Best Picture Oscar is proof enough that no remake is necessary. Sony tried this with All the Kings Men and look what a disaster that was. Hell, Im still furious at MGM for going through with a remake of Ben-Hur. Thats a Pandoras Box waiting to be opened. I mean, do we need a remake of West Side Story with all the tunes converted to a hip hop sound? No we dont!!! What we need are film adaptations of stage musicals that havent been put on the big screen yet. Into the Woods is a good example. That movie is doing well both critically and commercially. 71% at RT!! I saw it and I loved it!! Why did I see Into the Woods and not Annie? Well, because no one had done a feature film version of the former. There was a taped production of the Broadway musical that aired on PBS in 1991, but that was just someone filming live theatre. Into the Woods was a story that deserved the benefits of being a real movie. There are also over a dozen stage musicals that could make really awesome movies. Id love to see movie versions of Wicked, Memphis, The Drowsy Chaperone, Cats, Miss Saigon, and The Book of Mormon. I do not want remakes of beloved movie musicals where all the songs are sung by Pierce Brosnan. We could also use musicals written directly for the big screen. Disney has made a fortune off of animated musicals. I mean, look how much money Frozen has made!! At the moment, Fox has green lit an original movie musical about P.T. Barnum called The Greatest Showman on Earth. Hugh Jackman will play Barnum himself. This is awesome because original movie musicals are rare these days. But Fox is willing to take the gamble because of Jackmans success in Les Miserables. The bottom line is that remaking movie musicals is a stupid way to waste money. I dont want to see the remake trend cripple musicals like it crippled the horror genre. Only now is horror starting to make a healthy comeback with new stories and ideas. The key to reviving a specific film genre is to give the audience something new, not something old.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 21:09:56 +0000