The story set-up starts as you would expect little Annie (no longer referred to as an orphan but rather a foster child) is waiting for her parents to return, living in a girl’s home run by the drunk and disillusioned Miss. Hannigan (Cameron Diaz – more on her later). One day she literally runs into Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) the re-imagined Daddy Warbucks, who is an OCD cell phone giant, running for Mayor of New York. And before you can say Leaping Lizards, Annie moves in with him to make him a more relatable figure and to create some great photo opportunities.  Hands up then, I am a huge fan of the original Annie and I was looking forward to watching this re-imagining but sadly it was missing genuine imagination, which leaves the movie itself being a limp, ghost like version of the original. Starting with the songs. Any musical is only as strong as the songs it contains and the original version of Annie is filled with plenty of catchy tunes. The remake starts off well with pleasantly updated versions of Tomorrow Maybe and It’s A Hard Knock Life, accompanied by some slick and clever choreography. Then there are the stars themselves. Unfortunately, the majority of them – including Rose Byrne and Cameron Diaz – struggle with the singing. Which is something of a significant flaw for a movie musical. Furthermore, Miss Hannigan is a fantastic musical villain, she is a drunk who cares only for herself and what she can get out of life and in the 1982 version Carol Burnett played her with such brilliant comedy you can’t help but think it must be the performance all others aspire to.  Diaz, however, did not get the memo on subtle comedy as her Hannigan is a parody of itself, one that’s completely over the top (and not in a good way). Jamie Foxx doesn’t fare much better as his Will Stacks remains one dimensional and feels like he is just going from A to B because he needs to – the emotional connection between himself and Annie is pretty weak. Where in the original when we get to I Don’t Need Anything But You, you feel that bond, in the new version well, it had to be put in so that’s what they did. It isn’t all bad news though. There are some really lovely little nods to the original movie scattered through the film and the movie they go and see (in what used to be Let’s Go to The Movies, Annie) is fantastically sarcastic and funny and has some great cameos. Unfortunately the bad does outweigh the good and this Christmas you might find you need to go elsewhere for that festive feel good feeling. Annie is out tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya… [Stop that – Ed.] Sorry. Annie is out in UK cinemas on the 26th December. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.