Reviews

Interestingly enough, the director of Firewall (Richard Loncraine) made a very similar movie with a different cast way back in 1987. Bellman and True, starring Bernard Hill in the Harrison Ford role (can't you imagine him as a middle-aged computer geek?), and a lot of good English characters as the bad guys.

Hill's step-son, referred to as "The Boy" all the way through the film, is an important, integral, mouthy character, as opposed to being a weepy, frightened little hostage. What violence there is in this movie is minimal but shocking. No surprise that the computer geek is a pretty timid, easily cowed guy, generally not the most physical of people.

The bad guy characters are WAY more interesting, and certainly just as menacing. It's also a fascinating look into the mind of the working British gangster in the late 80s.

You can find the VHS for sale (as a bargain-basement sale on Half.com), but this has never made it to DVD. Hopefully, Handmade Films will eventually give this wonderful movie the format it deserves.

Essentially, this little movie is a series of headshots of people (mostly children) trying to keep a very nasty candy in their mouths for as long as possible. For some it's simply an interesting experience; for others, it's THE worst thing they've EVER tasted. Some kind of Chinese sour/salty plum thing, I think.

The music is delightful, a kind of sleazy fifties tango with a long, drawling trumpet.

Not one child liked this candy as far as I can tell. Especially love the image of a little girl wearing a paper crown and a necklace made of rings of construction paper, with an absolutely disgusted look on her face. Kind of a "But I'm a PRINCESS" look. The adults range from the sort of confused "why would anyone eat this?" to the "Oh. My. GOD." kind of thing.