Hard Boiled Sweets

Hard Boiled Sweets rises above many other British gangland thrillers by sheer weight of the unexpected. It's filmed really well, and is well cast. Nor does it outstay it's welcome at around 80 minutes or so. It moves pretty quick, so much so, that when the surprises start to kick in, it's a very easy ride to the finish. Hard Boiled Sweets deserves to be on any recent list of competent British crime-land dramas.

In this lame-titled movie we are introduced for 30 minutes to the characters who are assigned some type of candy based on their personalities. There's the convict who's just released from jail. He doesn't walk more than a few steps outside when he's picked up by a corrupt cop who blackmails him into doing a job. The cop is pressured by the wife to have a child but they are unable and getting medical treatment for it.

The cop and ex-con go to a beach town and scout. The town is owned by some mobster who gets a take from everything that happens there. Every so often he has a briefcase with 250000 with him. There's the area's pimp and his newest employee, a young innocent girl. At home, the mobster has a gorgeous young wife, a former prostitute given to him by the pimp. She wishes nothing more for the old man to die. And she's involved with the mobster's driver. Then there's the boss. He's on his way to the pick up his part of the money from the mobster. He's being chauffeured around by a black kid, whom he teases and mocks and makes believe that his boss is sleeping with his girl.

The cop wants the ex-con to get close to the mobster to steal the briefcase with the money. Around the same time, the mobster's wife wants his driver to help her steal the briefcase when the boss comes, once the total sum of money is there, way more than 250k. The pimp also want the young girl to get close to the boss and steal the case.

When most of these people go back to the mobster's house after partying, the story unravels and we'll find out who gets to keep the money and who doesn't make it.

Hard Boiled Sweets is an enjoyable movie. The whole candy business is a waste of time though and adds nothing to the story. All the characters are unsavory and nasty and some of the dialogue is unnecessarily crude and for all the nastiness there isn't even any nudity. The way the resolution develops is quite surprising though. And while the ending isn't in the least satisfactory but somewhat predictable it still didn't ruin the movie for me. It is a different and interesting movie to watch.

The film was slow and dull. Unoriginal characters and a clichéd British hard-men nutter story. No where near the class and wit of Guy Ritchie's Masterpieces which some people seem to have the audacity to compare this to. I just couldn't follow it, felt bored out of my mind within 5 minutes. I can't believe it's received any of the decent reviews which it has; I'm guessing they're family and friends of those who were involved in the making of this diabolical film.

I would have hoped if they were ambitious enough to use the 5D Mark II to shoot this, they would have had the patience and desire to ensure the story was decent with imaginative characters and an engaging, colourful plot; this is where the film fell flat on it's face for me.

Much better than it's IMDB rating suggests. I enjoyed this whilst tolerating its limitations. Didn't really expect the story to unfold in the way it did.

Was this a tax write off?

Who green lighted and financed such a horrible film?

PLEASE let me script and write a UK gangster flick,I promise it will be 10,000 times better than this awful pile of steaming dog poop.

Whose idea was it to use those stupid signed candy nic-names for the characters every 10 minutes? The director's girlfriend? DUMB!

What a mess….poor script,weak acting,cliché after cliché,pathetic HACKNEYED gangster trope after cliché after played out trope.

The only bright spot of this abysmal mess is the cinematography. Other than that you might be more enthralled and entertained if YOU stuck you head in the toilet,as this is indeed a class "A" toilet clogging straight to DVD/dumper of a film.Honestly I couldn't finish it because I could care less about anyone or anything in this film,and that is being kind. AVOID!