Review of I Want Candy (2007) by James S — 05 Jul 2009

Knock-about sex comedy that manages a fair few hits but ultimately goes down (no pun intended) in the final reel.

Two film students unwittingly finance their end of year project with money from porn running gangsters with the proviso their movie feature porn star Candy Fiveways. Hilarity ensues.

Actually for much of the first half of the film it does. The movie is peppered with plenty of film student referencing in jokes and a great turn from Mackenzie Crook as the atypical media lecturer. There aren't any belly laughs but you are comfortably chortling away as the many mishaps of DIY film making. Unfortunately the film reaches for the all too often played gross out card later on and then decides to develop a heart for the last act which brings everything down with a rather sharp bump.

The cast are adequate. Tom Riley is wooden but efficient. Tom Burke doesn't exhibit anywhere near the skill he did in Donkey Punch and Michelle Ryan phones it in delivering every line in exactly the same tone and Carmen Electra is essentially playing herself so it's no great shakes to her.

I Want Candy appears to have been written with a few good jokes in mind but these were all used up in the first thirty pages and then the makers realised that they half a film short so filled it with stuff which they weren't all that interested in and didn't really work. Some fun bits but overall a bit of a dud.