Piège sur Internet

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

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

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.

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.

(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.