Stealing Candy (2003) Online

Some movies have what I call a 'killer premise' - a core concept that's so intriguing and original that it's fool-proof. Any movie built around it is almost certain to entertain.

Examples would include SPEED (if a bus goes under 50 mph, a bomb on board will detonate), S.W.A.T. (the police have to transport a mega-rich criminal across town - after he's publicly announced he'll give $100 million to whoever frees him) and PHONE BOOTH (man answers ringing public phone, only to be told he's in a sniper's sights and if he hangs up, he's dead).

STEALING CANDY also boasts a killer premise, only in this case it's also dark, twisted, and ever so kinky. Namely, a group of criminals plan to make a fortune by kidnapping a world famous, glamorous, Hollywood movie star. Only they don't intend demanding any ransom - instead they're going to force her to have sex live on the pay-for- view website they've set up. But needless to say, things don't quite go as planned, resulting in some twists and turns that you probably won't see coming.

Directed, produced and co-written by Mark L. Lester, who's best known for helming the Arnie action movie COMMANDO, and the sci-fi flick CLASS OF 1999, for most of it's running time STEALING CANDY is effectively a one set play with only four characters, and all of the principle cast deliver solid performances. Daniel Baldwin excels as the group's computer wizard, estranged from his wife & son and only involved in the scheme because his boy needs costly medical treatment. Rapper turned actor Coolio is surprisingly okay as the thuggish, untrusting and violence-prone member of the gang, while Alex McArthur - playing the mastermind - has proved in the past to be a reliable actor, but isn't too impressive here, perhaps because his role is less showy than his co-stars. As abducted movie goddess Candy Taylor (the Candy of the title) relatively unknown actress Jenya Lano is never less than utterly convincing, her stand-out scenes being those in which the gang want her to broadcast a message to her fans via the internet, and she has to immediately switch from terrified hostage to confident and alluring sex symbol.

I would highly recommend STEALING CANDY to anyone looking for an intelligent adult movie or a dark, non-mainstream thriller. However, if you watch this film expecting a skin-fest you'll be disappointed. There are only three scenes featuring either nudity or partial nudity, and they're all relatively brief. However, the sequence in which Candy finally has sex on camera is very impressive: it's intense, genuinely erotic and sizzlingly hot. Some would say that it's over too quickly, but I'd disagree: sometimes less is more. It's certainly better than many of the sex scenes that appear in the majority of low budget erotic thrillers and vanilla porn flicks that litter the late night cable schedules.

STEALING CANDY went straight to DVD, but considering how fond Hollywood is of recycling tried-and-tested concepts, I won't be surprised if a big budget movie revisits this idea in the next several years, in much the same way that the premise of LIBERTY STANDS STILL was given the studio treatment in PHONE BOOTH. It would be intriguing to see a genuine Hollywood goddess - someone like Nicole Kidman, Scarlet Johannsen or Jessica Alba - in the Candy role. Unlikely? Perhaps. But Meg Ryan shed her clothes a couple of years ago, in an attempt to revive her career with the adult movie IN THE CUT, so anything's possible.

This wasn't a good movie, it wasn't a bad movie either. Definitely a rental. The concept of the movie was decent and I think it had a lot of potential. A couple of plot twists and a good looking girl like Jenya made it watchable. This could have been a great movie if it had a bigger budget and better stars.

The premise of the movie is that three ex-cons kidnap a movie actress who has a "no nudity" clause in her contract, and persuade her to perform for the internet for some quick cash to be made for all three, only, you guessed it, something goes wrong.

The award for best actor in the movie goes to Daniel Baldwin (purely coincidental, but I've seen a lot of his movies recently). He's the only character that had any depth put into it.

I liked Jenya Lano and would like to see if she has some more range as an actress. She has appeared in S.W.A.T. and Blade but nothing else I have heard of. Hopefully, she'll put out some more meaningful movies in the future... And while I'm at it, I gotta say I love that name Jenya.

Alex McArthur played the mastermind and did a mediocre job. No complaints, no compliments, just OK. It might have been fun to see Kelsey Grammer in this role in sort of a Sideshow Bob kind of way. It could have made it more interesting.

Coolio, on the other hand, should get a Razzie. As far as rapper-actors go, he's on the bottom of that list, and the list itself is pretty much a bad list to be on anyways. Let's just say he's no LL Cool J. More than once he reminded me of a very unfunny Marlon Wayans and tried too hard to be the scary villain. He didn't succeed. Samuel L. Jackson seems a natural to play this part. Stick with what works. If anything, Coolio should have watched a Samuel L. Jackson movie to prepare. Typical rapper, they're all actors anyways but not many have any range past playing a thug. Enough said on that I suppose.

Overall, the movie was another one in the middle of the road. I gave it a 6 out of 10 because I liked the idea of the movie and a few decent scenes but nothing more. Try to catch it on cable somewhere if possible.

Stealing Candy certainly isn't a "perfect" film, but for what it is, it's not at all bad--it kept me more than entertained, it was both sexy and thrilling, filled with tension, and the twists were done well.

The most obvious flaws are technical, but this is clearly a low budget film. Either the original film or the DVD transfer is "low definition" rather than high, and too many times it's obvious that the cinematography goes a bit out of focus. It has almost a home video texture--for a moment, I was afraid that this was going to be a no-budget stinker.

But the script is good, the performances are fun (if a bit campy, but I like that), and Mark Lester is a capable director. It helps that Jenya Lano is incredibly sexy in this, but the thrust of Stealing Candy is a crime-thriller film with a twist--in ways reminiscent of the superior Suicide Kings (1997), but without the black comedy.

That might seem to suggest that Stealing Candy is derivative, and that wouldn't be wrong--aside from Suicide Kings, it has similarities to many other films, including another excellent heist-gone-wrong flick, Killing Zoe (1994). Most oddly on this end is that scorer Dana Kaproff must have been commanded by Lester to, "Write something that sounds like Bernard Herrmann here", and you could swear that the result doesn't just sound Herrmannian, but that it was actually lifted from a Hitchcock film. That's one of many things that telegraphs some twists to come, but Lester pretty skillfully "misdirects" us from expecting particular twists, too.

At any rate, if you're someone who subtracts major points for derivativeness and lack of technical polish, approach Stealing Candy with caution, but if you're like me--you do not demand that films belong to the cult of originality and you enjoy a bit of cheese in your thrillers (we even get the cheesiest Baldwin brother here, Daniel--I'm a big fan of the Baldwin brothers' work), then this is worth a watch.

"Stealing Candy" is another modest budget crime thriller with a twist at the end. These twists are becoming so obligatory that it is about time one of these movies tried the unexpected and did not include a twist. That would truly be a shocking ending.

Whatever budget they had for this did not translate into anything interesting from a production design perspective. A group of friends could have shot this one weekend at their homes. Technically it is a solid production although very little is attempted. The gun play looks realistic enough.

Despite having talents as enormous as Pamela Anderson's, Jenya Lano is actually a very good actress. Her scenes in "Stealing Candy" are entertaining. Lano is my all time favorite "Xena" bad girl and now has a fairly regular part on "Charmed". Unfortunately she is only on screen for about a third of the movie. Daniel Baldwin, Coolio, and Alex McArthur seem very awkward with each other.

Don't rush out to buy or rent this but it's an OK diversion.

three ex-cons (chubby nerd Danny Baldwin, untalented rapper Coolio, and "Kiss the Girl"'s Alex McArthur hatch a ridiculous scheme to kidnap b-movie starlet Candi (Jenya Leno, who frankly looked much hotter in her memorable guest spot on 'The Shield') Not a bad mover, per say, but the leaps in logic are just too much too sustain it. Furthermore shouldn't the movie be called "Stealing Candi" with an I instead of a Y?? C'mon now.

Eye Candy: Jenya Leno shows her ample bosom twice

My Grade: C+

Where I saw it: Showtime

It's sleazy. It's nasty. It's also got Coolio in it. But despite a few drawbacks, Stealing Candy just about delivers the goods... if you're looking for an erotic thriller with a bit more to it than T & A. Don't expect deep psychological drama of a girl taken prisoner and forced to do an X rated Internet clip. There is however, a decent enough set-up, a pretty good twist halfway through (although I would have saved it till the end) and reasonable performances from a cast that could charitably be described as B list, and on that subject...

The 'world renowned ' actress at the centre of this plot is simply awful in the bit of movie-making we see her do, so the chances of her earning a multi-million pound deal from a major studio seem... well, impossible. Even if she did get her thrupenny bits out for thousands of web geeks. And while we're discussing unlikely scenarios, I'm getting a little tired of scenes where pretty young females fell the men who are trying to kill them, having more than ample time to finish them off... and then choosing to leg it instead, so the chase may resume. DO YOU WANNA LIVE OR NOT?

It ain't a film for the discerning. If it's playing at 2 am on some obscure cable channel though... why not? 5/10

Not a badly acted thriller: unlike other reviewers I didn't think Coolio's acting was so bad, but ... more and more I felt there were these questions raised within the story, often quite important ones, that never got resolved. Not just why, when Brad was disabled, didn't Walt or Candy grab his gun, but - why didn't he become suspicious when the lovemaking between Fred and Candy seemed so intense; why, in fact, was she so easy with it when she claimed to be a prude earlier; how could she be sure that they would all cancel each other out, and the sheriff would shoot Fred. Also, the fact that she was secretly in on the plot was let out too early. Finally, neither she nor anyone else in the film said a word about protection!

This film is a porno. Dress it up however you like, it will always be a porno. But its a porno with a sniff of a plot, and while it's about as far fetched as you can get, its still a fair effort. A trio of crooks need money, and to do this they decide to kidnap a Hollywood actress. She doesn't normally do sex scenes, so they film her doing one of them and post it on the internet as pay per view.

Daniel Baldwin and Coolio excepted, the acting is frankly laughable. Jenya Lano and the other guy whose name I can't remember are poor to say the least. It's the two guys I mentioned before that turn this movie from "Oh God No" to "Meh, it's OK I guess". Just about worth a rent, so give it a shot if you must. If you're a porno person, this might actually be the jump you need to start watching real movies.

Willing to get rich very fast, three ex-convicts join forces to accomplish the perfect crime: kidnapping a famous movie-star and forcing her to play the main role in a pornographic movie which will be broadcasted live over the internet. They set up an elaborate plan and start executing it but as you might expect, deviations will inevitable occur. Jealousy, pride, hunger for money and self- pleasure might end their plan early. Will they be able to stick to it till the end?

Contrary to what you might think, this movie isn't a pornographic one. Except from 2 sequences which together take about two minutes and in which nothing very explicit is shown, it's everything but erotic. It feels cheap from one end to the other but that doesn't necessary make it a bad movie. It has some essence in its story but nothing elevated. You really get to see what people are ready to do for money, but that's about it. Despite its mediocrity, you will be presented with a really unexpected finale. I have to say I wasn't expecting it, by any means.

I can't actually recommended it but if you get your hands on it, you might want to take a look, at least for its ending.

Real B Movies always have a certain amount of fantasy and credibility within, that's why someone in a network or an indie studio decides to buy rights for TV or video. Actually a lot of folks seem to enjoy this type of flicks because we get millions everyday. Whenever they make profits all of them is a true Mystery that could be used as a Plot for another B Movie, but enough already. Stealing Candy is a movie that desperate needs help, maybe the cast itself could have been better, examples:

a) Daniel Baldwin (the fat one) plays a computer "geek" who has a family and a big money problem, his child is dying and needs hospital treatment and his wife is tired of his money schemes that do not deliver money in the end

B) The once upon a time rap artist turned actor Coolio (as a gansta type mob robber up to any new plan to make money fast, he is supposed to be the expert in getting into anywhere without being caught)

C) the Master mind of the Plan (an actor that probably is famous, who knows. I do not know his name (sorry no offense), who puts the three of them at work

The Plot Kidnap a movie star that also has some problems of her own and make her do a porn movie that will broadcast on the Internet for one night only, on a live transmission that is (remember a Turbulence movie that also does something like this) The result

A mix of comedy (common Coolio acting dramatically is asking too much), drama (the big house of the actress has no security cameras, funny, just a very simple alarm that could have been tempered by an eight year old, of course the *Team* knows how to switch it off just like that, I guess the actress was not really *Famous* after all. anyways what do I know.

I keep wondering who to consider this, perhaps comedy, drama, action.? Probably this is what the director understand about filming, mix genres, put a couple of *stars*, and have a good climax, folks will love it, I'm not so sure.

Give students more projects like this, probably at least they will learn more in the process and actually make a decent flick someday. This movie has some sense, but doesn't deliver the goods for anyone with a couple of brain cells.