Steineded How sad is this?

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

carbuff Maybe this isn't truly a ten, but I'm going with it, because I so badly wish they still made movies like this. An actual clever plot, no extraordinary malice or violence, and likable characters. Sure, this isn't Walter Matthau's strongest movie, but it is still solid and just leaves you feeling good in an uncomplicated way. Also, the chemistry between Matthau and Glenda Jackson works brilliantly and much of the movie is filmed i Europe. What's not to like? I don't have a lot more to add, except that if you are around 50 years or older, you might really enjoy this movie; however, if you are much younger, it may seem too slow and stilted, although I can vouch for the fact that that's really pretty much how life was back then. You young rapscallions probably wouldn't believe it anyhow that the world actually was a much nicer place not too long ago.

Robert J. Maxwell Matthau is one of the best field agents in the CIA. He's hated by his boss, Beatty, who humiliates him and assigns him to a desk job, to be replaced by the younger Waterston, who admires Matthau. Well, actually, everyone except Beatty admires Matthau, even his opposite number, Herbert Lom, in the Soviet intelligence apparat.In retaliation, Matthau cheerfully erases his identity and sets about writing a book that exposes all of the most secret operations of the CIA and the Soviets. Beatty is scandalized, and he and Waterston and Lom pursue Matthau and Jackson, his girl friend, all over Europe and the Southern United States. Matthau, being an exceptionally knowledgeable operative, remains one step ahead of them.He tricks everyone into believing he's been killed. The book is published and becomes a best seller. And Matthau, in a ludicrous disguise, insists on patronizing book stores and hearing his work praised.It's treated lightly, with trippingly elegant Mozart pieces used as the score. Matthau's spy is a big fan of Mozart. The scheme begins in Salzburg. Coincidentally, Bizet's "Carmen" provided the score for Matthau's later film, "The Bad News Bears." Twenty years earlier his character had hummed pieces of "Carmen" in "One, Two, Three." Twenty-three years before, he skipped down a hallway whistling a tune from Mozart's 41st symphony in "A Face In The Crowd." Should we be worried? He does well as the CIA agent, always his usual, slouching, unpretentious self. Glenda Jackson is strictly secondary, which is just as well. Her popularity always eluded me. She's so domineering and icy. Maybe if you're into bondage or something -- But Waterston is fine as the friend reluctantly drawn into the pursuit, which turns from comic to serious over time, with the threat of "termination" hanging in the air. In fact, as comedy, this is only moderately successful. There is some drollery in the script but little in the situations themselves. One of the reasons I saw it through to the end is that, with a few changes, this could easily have been a dramatic thriller with Matthau dying. The ridiculous turned into the tragic.Matthau gets to do a side-splitting imitation of Eleanor Roosevelt. Some nice location shooting, a few impressive aerial shots, and nice reactions from a balked and frustrated Ned Beatty tearing his hair out as his house is mistakenly shot to pieces.

cellmaker The great thing about this film is the nonchalant and natural way the actors have fun with the film. Matthau, Jackson, Waterston, and Beatty all play their parts with great ease and sense of a good time. The problem is that the story is simply too thin and the characters don't evolve. There are many scenes, but they fail to build up any sort of complexity; instead they are basically repeats of the same idea over and over. The characters are given no chance to move beyond their initial (albeit charming) characterizations.Do we know anything about any character after their first scenes? Not really. We're given delightful cartoons and then they are set to work on a plot. Anyway, the film showcases some great talent, but don't expect to remember much a couple of weeks later.

JoshuaDysart Completely ridiculous, though super endearing. We're asked to believe some serious absurdities, like that one can escape from an English country-side police station with a paper- clip, or that a handful of FBI agents, as opposed to a full swat team with aerial observation, would move in on a major CIA turncoat who's giving away national secrets and is holed up in a country house. But it does still manage to be a mock- solid satire of the intelligence game and the American perception of the CIA in the wake of the disillusioning 1970's. It's also a pretty engaging cat and mouse chase and of course, as always, Matthau gives us a hell of a likable central character to root for. If you dig real-world spy flicks and you don't mind rolling your eyes at a few logic burps, this is a really good time.