Secuestro

(2002) Stealing Candy THRILLER/ DRAMA

Straight to rental with simplistic plot that has three or four men plotting and then succeeding to kidnap a supposedly well known actress, and then exploit this for the intention of making money out of her by forcing her to do short make out videos online, while wearing masks to conceal their identities! I must confess much of the plot is inexplicably explained at the back of the DVD case motivating me to use a 'fast forward' button while playing, so basically this film didn't have any new surprises until the very end which is supposed to be a twist that can be seen a mile away or already leaked out on the synopsis. Much of the film also consist of the robbers arguing with each other about when to release her and who gets the money blah blah blah... Low budget with the only highlight I can see is to all the testosterone males, this actress by the name of Jenya Lano doesn't look too bad appears to be the only person who gets naked in this.

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

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.

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.

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.