You won't be disappointed!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Absolutely the worst movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Prison movies always score big with many of the viewers because it reveals what happens when things fail and what becomes of the men involved. Here we get to find out. Its a raw, hard-hitting reality movie of what it is like to be an ex-convict and how things line up against you quite fast if you don't get a handle on yourself. Hoffman delivers a fine performance along with an outstanding support cast. The way it ends is interesting and unconventional leaving the viewer to wonder. Good heist scenes and reminds us all that the best time in the world, free of stress, virtues and honesty that is easy to live and one can do is....

. . . American womenfolk against the Real Life threats posed by its lead actor? Some people will view STRAIGHT TIME as only that, seeing as how the beleaguered Dustin Hoffman's "Max Dembow" character man-handles the soft-hearted "Jenny," after drinking directly from the quart carton of milk in her refrigerator and just before stealing her baby blue Mustang convertible. An actor who would agree to play a misogynist doing all of this surely has a screw loose; no one would trust such a jerk with their own daughter in Real Life. However, many perceptive viewers have realized that Warner Bros. is extending a warning to we folks of the future that the white female voting demographic--such as STRAIGHT TIME's Jenny--cannot be trusted at the ballot box. In a country that has given this group Title IX, Choice, and ObamaCare, most of them will gravitate to the Max-like "bad boy" (the worse the better) in preference to one of their own, such as Elizabeth Warren, Jane Fonda, or Hillary Clinton. Just wait, Warner warns the USA, if you continue with this trial run of "Women's Suffrage," you'll surely wind up with a president like Hoffman, if not a twice-divorced self-proclaimed serial finger-raping paycheck welsher tax cheat Russian spy.

"Straight Time" demonstrates why the decade of the 1970s was one of the greatest in American cinema. The film was an indie project spearheaded by Dustin Hoffman, who was intending to direct the film, but passed the directorial chores on to Ulu Grosbard.From start to finish, there is a gritty realism in the film locations from the tawdry bars to the dowdy employment referral agency to the slovenly apartment to the prison scenes. The one contrasting scenic location was the sunny, cheerful, and sparkling apartment of Jenny, Max Dembo's erstwhile girlfriend.There is a scene where Dembo observes the sense of permanency apparent in Jenny's apartment. That feeling has undoubtedly been an absent commodity in the life of the convict. Of course, Dembo craves the comfort of that nurturing environment. But the film makes clear that he craves the thrill of crime more than the stable relationship that Jenny offers him.The secondary roles are well-crafted and superbly performed by M. Emmet Walsh as the sleazy parole officer; Theresa Russell as the naive Jenny who seems surprised that she is attracted to Dembo; Gary Busey as Willy, the drug-addicted friend of Dembo; Kathy Bates as the fiercely protective wife of Willy; and Harry Dean Stanton as Dembo's partner in crime, Jerry. There is an unforgettable moment when relaxing in the backyard of his suburban home in the San Fernando valley, Jerry starts strumming a guitar and singing a C&W song, then casually asserting that he is desperate to get out of that world and return to a life of crime.If "Straight Time" were made today, it would surpass almost any mainstream Hollywood film in acting, screenplay, atmosphere, and indepth character portraits. But in the "golden age" of the 1970s, it was only one example of gritty, realistic filmmaking at its finest.

Wow, I am reading all the glowing reviews and I am completely flummoxed. This film just did not take me to the place. Try as I did, I just couldn't imagine Hoffman as a true 'tough guy'. Maybe it's my familiarity with his person but all I could see was a soft spoken, intellectual type of guy trying to act tough. Didn't work. The parole officer M. Emmet Walsh, who typically comes across as cartoonish in films, ends up tied to a fence sans pants. Really? The scene is so unreal in a film that tries desperately to be real. Two key roles, friend Jerry and friend Willy never really get developed. Why is a fellow criminal such as Willy so incompetent. And why would Jerry risk so much when Max is also time and again shown to be incompetent at crime. Hoffman is miscast. Screenplay is porous and predictable.