Hopscotch (1980)

IMDb plot summary: Grounded with a desk job by incompetent superiors, a clever CIA agent retires and writes a tell all memoir that will embarrass his bosses, prompting him to go on the run and elude them.
Directed by Ronald Neame. Starring Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston, and Ned Beatty.

I had never heard of this movie at all before it was assigned to me for my ongoing movie challenge. Overall, it's a pretty lighthearted action comedy starring Walter Matthau as a demoted CIA agent who starts writing a memoir about his time in the agency and goes on the run because of the secrets his book reveals. This plot could easily belong to a much more crime thriller-y movie, but the tone here is jaunty heist more than anything, and it works. It's light and fun and it's fun seeing Matthau one step ahead of his chasers. (I especially loved when he audaciously rented out his former boss's vacation home under an assumed name and wrote a memoir chapter there while said boss was looking for him all over the world.) I am not sure I'll necessarily remember it for long -- its overall narrative arc is not as strong as individual episodes, and arc is what tends to stick with me -- but it's an enjoyable one.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hopscotch > Gifted

Hopscotch < The Front

Hopscotch > Lo

Hopscotch < The Ladykillers (2004)

Hopscotch < The Wicker Man (1973)

Hopscotch < Frank

Hopscotch < Starship Troopers

Hopscotch > The Killing

Hopscotch < City Lights

Hopscotch > Stage Fright (2014)

Hopscotch > Unbroken

Final spot: #1015 out of 2748.