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Buy This Item Candy by Starz / Anchor Bay  Available from Amazon  $14.98  on 11-16-2008     <I>Candy</I>, based on the naughty, notorious erotic satire by Terry Southern, whose wicked pen contributed to <I>Dr. Strangelove</I> and <I>Easy Rider</I> (among other '60s classics), and adapted for the screen by the sly Buck Henry (<I>The Graduate</I> and <I>Catch 22</I>), is a bizarre second-hand reconfiguration of <I>Candide</I> for the permissive '60s. Swedish teen beauty queen Ewa Aulin is Candy, all breathy, wide-eyed innocence as a curvy blond kewpie doll--think Lolita, Barbarella, and Baby Spice all rolled into one--whose naiveté lands her in the sack with one dirty old man after another on a sexual odyssey. Guest cads include Ringo Starr as an embarrassingly unconvincing Mexican gardener; James Coburn preening as a surgeon who puts the "theater" into his operating theater; Walter Matthau as a snarling, insane general; and French crooner Charles Aznavour as a humpbacked spider man. Richard Burton stands out as a soused, sex-mad poet with an ever-present wind machine dramatically blowing his hair, and Marlon Brando's phony guru with a seductive line of mystic patter is downright hysterical.<p> Despite luscious cinematography by longtime Fellini collaborator Guiseppe Rotunno and gorgeous opening and closing sequences of space flight by Douglas Trumbull, this clumsy misfire has all the cutting satire of a <i>Monkees</i> episode and only half the style. Director Christian Marquand lets the film ramble interminably while his cast mercilessly mugs their way through ill-conceived roles (except Aulin, who remains a passive, almost alien presence in the center of the chaos). The result is a sloppy all-star sex farce with blunt, misdirected attempts at social topicality buried in teasing peekaboo pinup photography and sexual romps, pleasing enough eye candy but hardly the erotic, satirical, transgressive portrait the picture promises. <I>--Sean Axmaker</I> Reader Reviews This film will be too dated and confusing for most, but if you are into the sixties you should understand it. Fans of the avant-garde should dig it as well. We follow a hot Nordic woman on a voyage of sexual discovery. Or so the blurb says, in reality it's pretty much just a drug influenced 60s post-modern avant-garde nihilistic... well whatever -- lets just say it rocks. Not too heavy on the nudity as you would expect, but it delivers. The music is great and the best thing about this movie is you never know what will happen next. It's actually not that dirty of a movie, especially by today's standards. This movie has an all-star cast. And speaking of stars, our pal Ringo Starr makes an appearance. If your into this sort of thing you're love it, but if your the kind of person that has trouble keeping up with the plots of today's' films, do yourself a favor and pass it by and rent "The Italian job" again.

Candy Available from Amazon Price: $14.98 Updated on 11-16-2008.

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