Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 21
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 11
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 4.3/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 876
An actor trying to keep the truth about his love life under wraps discovers feelings he doesn't want to hide in this frothy comedy. It's the mid-'50s, and Guy Stone (Matt Letscher) is a very successful movie star. Tall, good-looking, and boyishly charming, Stone has a reputation as a ladies' man with a very active love life. However, the truth is a bit different: while Stone is indeed enjoying more romantic misadventures than he can keep track of, he happens to prefer the company of men. When a
Mar 4, 2004 Wide
Jun 21, 2005
Regent Releasing
All Critics (26) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (11) | DVD (2)
It has verve, color and energy, but there's something fundamentally bogus about it, and whenever it takes a turn into seriousness, entire moments fall apart.
Day's pyrotechnic dialogue and instinctive comic timing make Straight-Jacket a delight.
A fey and frisky farce with a fabulous fashion sense.
Wastes its promising premise with a wavering tone that veers uneasily between camp humor and, pardon the expression, straightness.
This featherweight spoof of closeted, Red-baiting Hollywood in the mid-1950's is played as such an exaggerated cartoon that its political outrage is dissipated by its stridency.
Save your money and rent one of those old Hudson-Doris Day comedies instead.
On film, things play as flatly as any failed soufflé.
Until it tries to mean something, Straight-Jacket is an enjoyably manic little farce whose wit far exceeds its production budget.
At its best when it's sending up '50s-era Hollywood and it's at its worst when trying to make a serious point.
As satire, it is often deliciously barbed and catty, the jokes flying fast and furious ... but when it tries to make its points seriously, it immediately loses me.
Some of it is smart, much clever, most funny and all entertaining.
It's a shame, then, that Straight-Jacket turns dour and melodramatic ... The light-hearted fun seeps out of the movie, replaced by trite interludes of coming-out angst, McCarthy-era persecution and even gay-bashing.
The perkiness with a capital P, gorgeous set and great color can't completely salvage an occasionally strong cast and middling story (and don't forget a lousy, if literal, title).
Movies can never again be so corny, campy and PC clumsy as some of the howlers of the 1950s and '60s. But Straight-Jacket has a spiffy and gay (both senses) time joining the party.
Very fun, campy film with some great moments and lead actors that throw themselves into the film with gusto and a lot of self-deprecating humour. The timing wasn't always perfect and the hilarity was unfortunately not sustained throughout the whole movie. But overall an entertaining, well-meaning comedy with just a
October 2, 2008Super Reviewer
A cute movie based on a gay movie star in the 1950's faking a marriage while he loves another guy. Cute and clever at times, but a little over the top at times also. campy fun for some, and lame for others. But more camp than lame.
February 5, 2010
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