Stealing Candy

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.

I recently watched Stealing Candy (2003) on Tubi. The story follows two convicts who team up with a third-a tech-savvy fellow inmate-to kidnap a famous movie star. Their plan? Force her into a livestreamed sex act and collect money from viewers. But once the kidnapping takes place, it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.

Directed by Mark L. Lester (Commando), the film stars Daniel Baldwin (Vampires), Coolio (Daredevil), Alex McArthur (Kiss the Girls), and Jenya Lano (Charmed).

The concept had some promise and could have worked with a Wild Things-style execution. The opening pool scene and shootout are over-the-top and amusing in a ridiculous way. Unfortunately, that's where the fun ends. The writing, acting, and dialogue are painfully bad throughout. Coolio, in particular, becomes increasingly over-the-top and grating as the film goes on. The female lead is undeniably attractive, and her sex scene is probably the most polished element of the film-but that's about the only highlight.

In conclusion, Stealing Candy is just as bad as you'd expect. I'd give it a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

A movie I found on Tubi with Daniel Baldwin (The "Wish" Baldwin brother), Coolio (yes, that guy from "Gangsters Paradise" and a blonde actress with great tits that I've never seen before and I'll probably never see again.

The story is quite sleazy. Three blokes kidnap an actress who refuses to do sex scenes. They organise an online web cam service to take money from people wanting to see this actress have sex on cam....lol.

It is actually a better movie than it ever has a right to be. While the acting is what you'd expect from a movie, the actual star of the movie is.....believe it or not, the story. I actually enjoyed it. The production values stop it from being a higher than a 5 but a 5 is definitely fine for this.

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

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.