Film Reviews

I Want Candy

• Rating:
• Director: Stephen Surjik.
• Starring: Tom Riley, Carmen Electra, Tom Burke, Mackenzie Crook.
• Details: UK / 85mins (16).

Joe (Riley) and Baggy (Burke) are two student filmmakers who think they have a killer script on their hands. Travelling to London to secure some finance, they encounter nothing but closed doors - that is until a desperate producer (Eddie Marsan) tells them that he'll only fund the picture if Candy Fiveways (Electra), the world's number one porn star, is cast. Against the odds, they land her, but shooting scenes of a sexual nature in a semi-detached in Leatherhead with your parents upstairs raises a lot of problems. The writers thought it would be a great idea if they took Boogie Nights, introduced it to any movie-making movie (say Living In Oblivion) and get a director who has had success with genre-splicing before (Surjik directed Wayne's World 2), it would make a great comedy. They were right. So what happened? Well, it looks like they fell down between two stools in trying to make a smarter-than-your-average-bear gross-out comedy (can the two really gel?). It does deliver some obvious gags (being forced to listen to his parents sexual exploits when trapped in a bathroom) and sometimes it twists what we expect (Candy is actually a serious film buff) - but only sometimes. It's fun, silly and stupid. Unfortunately, the silliness and the stupidity far outweigh the fun. The tag line goes: "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll tug yourself dry." That's all there really is to say about it.

Review by Gavin Burke