A friend who attended an Annie screening last Thursday afternoon confides that a more-or-less easygoing, well-positioned film journalist left at the halfway point, muttering that “life is too short.” The tagline for David Rooney‘s Hollywood Reporter review assures that “the sun’ll come out tomorrow, by which time this toxic mess should be forgotten.” Variety‘s Ronnie Scheib has written that “while there are several possible good reasons to remake the Depression-set musical Annie in 2014, none of them seem to have informed [director] Will Gluck’s overblown yet undernourished treatment.” In a review titled “Barf, Says Sandy,” Stephen J. Whitty writes that after the film ended he overheard a little girl complain to her mother that there “wasn’t enough of the dog in the movie.” Whitty’s comment: “Oh, I don’t know. I saw a dog, all right.” I tried like hell to make Thursday’s 5 pm screening (held a bit earlier to accommodate the family crowd) but I couldn’t get there in time. Now I might have to pay to see it. I do feel it’s important to do that, reactions notwithstanding.