Stealing Candy (2003)

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.

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.

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 endB) 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 workThe 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 resultA 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.