Ah, Dustin! If you've only been exposed to the latter-day, comic Dustin Hoffman (Meet the Fockers, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium) or the better-known, showy Dustin (Rain Man, Tootsie), then Straight Time will be a pleasant revelation. It's of a piece with his work in All the President's Men, which came a little before this film, and Kramer vs. Kramer, which came a little after, in that he plays a character who feels true to life, someone you might meet on the street and recognize as a kindred soul. Really, his character harkens back to Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate, albeit a Benjamin Braddock who has been shaped for a life in crime rather than a career in plastics.

Hoffman inhabits Max Dembo like a well-worn shoe. Max has been released from prison after six years. He rides a bus to Los Angeles, gets off with his tiny paper bag of possessions, eats a hot dog. It's only the next day, when he visits his parole officer (M. Emmet Walsh), that it's revealed he did something wrong: he didn't report to the halfway house as ordered, which makes him immediately suspect in the eyes of the parole officer. Max's mood changes swiftly from genial respect to rebellious belligerence to resigned subservience as the parole officer questions him. He knows how the game is supposed to be played. He's been in and out of criminal institutions since he was a kid. That doesn't make it any easier for him.

Max reaches an agreement with the parole officer to find a job and rent a room within the week. He promptly heads to an employment agency, where he meets Jenny (Theresa Russell). She is very young and beautiful; she locks eyes with Max and doesn't look away when he tells her that he's a convict. He convinces her that he is desperate for a job, even as he flirts with her. He gets the job in a canning factory and rents a tiny room. So far, so good. Then he makes a big mistake.

A few days ago, we reported that actress Teresa Russell had been cast in an as-yet-unnamed wife role in Spiderman Three, playing the better half of Flint Marko aka The Sandman (aka William Baker, for you True Believers). Well, Rich Johnston over at CBR says the character will indeed have a name...a very high profile name. While Rich doesn't divulge his source(s), he boldly states that the wife of Flint Marko is none other than Felicia Hardy. That's right, the Black Cat*. One time partner and love interest of Spider-Man himself, and on the short (but ever growing) list of people who know Spider-Man's true identity.

Okay so let's see...we are bringing Gwen Stacy, MJ, and Felicia Hardy all into the same two-hour movie. Can there possibly be time enough to reasonably give all three of the characters the attention they will deserve? And beyond that...Sandman and the Black Cat? I don't even have a snide comment to make about that one, because frankly, my brain refuses to allow this news to exist.

*Rich notes that maybe the character is the Cat's mother, or something, and just happens to have the same name, as right now the name is the only information he has on the character. This, however, would put  too great of an age disparity between Spider-Man and the Cat for it to make much sense, either.