Hard Boiled Sweets

A great ensemble film with a strong cast and a punchy storyline. I really liked this film a lot. In the same vein as some brilliant modern British gangster classics, but freshened up - and really rich visually.

This is slick and stylish throughout with some gorgeous camera work and nice editing.

It's got a strong British theme running throughout, taking in some classic London / seaside town locations - seedy - but still with a faded charm!

The overall story follows a number of different characters, all rather shady and looking for shortcuts to improve their lot in life - at other people's expense. Everyone gets caught up in a roller-coaster of twists and turns. There is a nicely paced momentum to the story - the plot is just complicated enough to keep it gripping to the end, but not so much that you have to work hard to follow it.

The hard boiled sweets reference carries through the film and makes short work of introducing each new entrant and giving the audience a flavour of their personality by likening them to a different sweet. The characters are all very distinct and quirky and when they get together the combinations are variously funny, melancholic and dangerous.

Highly recommended

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.

"Hard Boiled Sweets" is yet another one of those indie crime thrillers that go for a Tarantino vibe and fail miserably. It bathes in a faux- cool atmosphere, I never thought you could squeeze so many embarrassing attempts at clever one-liners into just one movie. Every line needs to be a Mark Twain quote, because what else would you do with your dialogues? Explore your characters, shed some light on their motivations? That seems difficult, let's skip that part. It's kind of a shame really, because this movie does have a very crafty plot. There are several twists you genuinely do not see coming, and usually that's good enough for me to like a movie. But the clever plot is just drowned out with one groan-inducing line after the other, so this is a tough movie to rate. I don't think I've ever been this irritated by a movie I enjoyed so much. Make of that what you will.

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!

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.