Sorry, this movie sucks

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Walter Matthau must have been the world's No.1 box office draw in 1980 because I fail to see any other reason why this movie would get made. Granted, it doesn't insult my intelligence or wish I had stayed home instead of going to the movies, like most 21st-century movies do. But it's also one of the least-challenging films aimed, presumably, at adults that I've seen in a long time. It takes not a single chance with anything - photography, script, acting, comedy, drama. The only thing to recommend it would be the wonderful classical music soundtrack. That's thin gruel for two hours of watching.

In Netflix's recent TV adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS an Uncle of three children explains that, like books, movies have an outer layer of entertainment, but an inner layer of philosophical brilliance. This best applies to Ronald Neame's HOPSCOTCH which, while truly delightful, is less consciously more about getting old and having one last bit of fun before the latter part of your life gets the better of you. All these moments are organized to the music of Mozart, and, ironically, the screenplay is like a symphony. Director Neame and writer Garfield crafted a film so suspenseful, so hilarious, and so intellectually wise that it is hard to believe critics dismissed it as just another okay comedy. They seemed to have missed what was hidden in a shallow layer of sand — the message of Shakespeare's "undiscovered country," or more commonly known as death. This is usually conveyed through images, but with this film, satire is the choice. You actually never see a word of Kendig's revelations about the CIA. Could it be so truthful that it's terrifying? Full of such lies that the agency could be ruined for nothing? We don't know. 10/10.

I found this one on streaming Netflix, a real gem of a movie, every scene was absolutely interesting.Walter Matthau was almost 60, and that seems to be the age of his character, Miles Kendig, seemingly considered the best of the CIA agents. In the opening scene, to establish his character, he is in Germany and notices some interesting encounters in the crowd during an Octoberfest celebration. As the Russian spy exits the venue, Kendig confronts him, explains that he has photos, and demands the microfilm spy photo cartridge, in return he will "overlook" his being there.But Ned Beatty as Myerson is the younger, ambitious, division chief back in Washington. He isn't happy that the Russian spy is let go. So he sentences Kendig to a desk job, a menial filing job, until his retirement. But Myerson has skeletons in his own closet.Kendig decides not to get mad, but to get even. He basically fails to report to work and after a few days they begin to wonder where he was. In fact he was in Salzburg, Austria, visiting his girlfriend, rich widow Glenda Jackson as Isobel. Kendig decides to write a tell-all book about the CIA and in particular about the few he wants revenge against. He copies and sends the first chapter to a number of places, including Moscow and Washington.So most of the movie is about slick, calm Kendig always staying one or two steps ahead of the CIA who are trying to hunt him down. At each new location in hiding he writes another chapter and mails it to all the same places.Good movie, good story, good characters.SPOILERS: As the story is getting to its conclusion Kendig, also a pilot, buys an old plane outside London and tells one of the agents he will fly it to mainland Europe, because he knows all the normal exits from England are being monitored. They end up chasing him in a helicopter, and arrive over the cliffs of Dover. Then the airplane explodes over the water, Kendig is presumed dead. But we see that he was actually on land, flying by remote and had set off the explosives. At the very end we see him in a disguise, in a book store, his book "Hopscotch" is a best seller. He is with his girlfriend, whom he had given power of attorney before he disappeared, so they are set to live the good life.

This guy did more funny pictures than anyone. He should be in film class in the very first introduction. The Class title? Comedy 101.You wanna laugh? You wanna laugh again? Watch Hopscotch. This one is a keeper. You can't go wrong when Walter Matthau is an aging CIA man put out to pasture and he doesn't take kindly to it. That's OK though, he'll get his revenge. The way he makes fools of his former co-workers is just classic.I can't say enough about Mr. Matthau as a comedic actor. He just brought the goods. Maybe it's his "looks and acts like someone you know" way or he was just talented as hell. I think maybe it's both.