Memorable, crazy movie

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

"Time Served" is a cartoon-like women in prison movie that has little going for it. The plot is ridiculous, a work release program at a strip club, a judge with a very dim view of women is the club's best customer, the warden, Louise Fletcher, gets a piece of the action, and finally, the wrongly imprisoned Catherine Oxenberg pole dances about as well as my goldfish. All is forgiven however whenever Bo Hopkins is on the screen. With his hair dyed blonde, the corpulent Hopkins as "Mr.D", the strip club owner, plays his part in a bizarre, overacting stupor. My suggestion for viewing "Time Served" is to hit the fast forward button anytime a pole appears, and it's almost watchable. A couple stiff drinks wouldn't hurt either. - MERK

I do like them in general but if you think Blake Picket was bad as an anguished stripper in "Confessions of a Lap dancer," check out Catherine Oxenberg in this low budget semi soft core pic. Some of the other dancing is pretty good though. The plot is ludicrous and there is one really distasteful scene where Catherine gets beat up by a sadistic guard.

I liked the movie for light watching. Although I thought C. Oxenberg was very stiff and not very believable. I thought the other stars did a good job. I especially like Lourdes Colon who I believe is doing her first film. She seemed to me to be playing herself in this movie, and her acting seemed very natural. I found I watched her when she was on screen mor than the other actors/actresses. I wonder how the movie would have looked if Lourdes Colon and C. Oxenberg switched roles.... I will watch for other movies she appears in and will rent or purchase them.

The best thing I can say about this film is that the production values (cinematography, lighting, and sound) are respectable. A not too original variation on the old women-in-prison formula: Woman shoots man, goes to jail, forced to strip, is freed by forgettable hero; this film manages to fail as either sleazy exploitation or tolerable story. The acting is flat, Catherine Oxenburg (the heroine) never really believable in her reluctance, humiliation, or any other emotion for that fact. It's hard to blame her, though, as this movie is clearly nothing more then window dressing for the extended strip preformances by the several dancers, only one of whom is memorable. In fact, this feels more like an audition tape for these dancers, with a plot slapped on at the last minute. All in all, if you're looking for a story or a guilty pleasure, this film is neither.