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.
Review of Straight Time
