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Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Every avid movie fan has a few films that are their "secret gems" - movies that not everyone knows about but ones you will recommend they see with great enthusiasm...."You really have to see this...you will love it. House Calls is just such a film and the reasons are two- fold...Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson.This is one of two films the pair made together....the other is a second of my 'secret gems," called Hopscotch and again, it clicks because of the chemistry between the two, coupled with wonderful supporting casts and great dialogue.The tragedy is that there weren't more movies involving these two. It is hard to imagine, on paper, a romantic comedy that matches Matthau and Jackson. Matthau has the looks of a basset hound, but incredible comedic flair. Jackson has played so many roles but romantic comedy doesn't come immediately to mind when her name is mentioned....until people see these films.Like so many here, I can watch either of these movies over and over and still love them both deeply. You really HAVE to see both. You won't be disappointed.

Late one night on Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" Show, I watched Tom ask his guest Henry Morgan what he considered to be 'perfect.' Morgan responded, "Anything with Glenda Jackson." And although I wouldn't consider this film to be perfect, it does bear out that notion very well. I was about to use the cliché' about Hollywood not making pictures like this anymore, but then I just saw, "Up in the Air," another intelligent film about 2 people over the age of 35 who fall in love. That's where the similarities end, though. "House Calls" is just sheer fun watching 2 pros like Matthau and Jackson hit it off and seem completely natural while they're at it. I saw this film in the theater in 1978 (at the ripe old age of 18) and it took me another 20 years to get all of the jokes. Any film that can make punch lines out of 1920's tennis great Bill Tilden, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain wouldn't play too well at the megaplex these days. One other thought: the original theatrical release featured a 'walk on the beach / fall in love' montage set to The Beatles/George Harrison tune, "Something." It seemed a bit forced at the time, but that song has since been swapped out for a rather generic Henry Mancini music cue for subsequent home video and cable release. Too bad, because that scene just lays there now, another victim of music licensing Hell.

Matthau is a widowed hospital doctor enjoying his single status and the footloose and available nurses on the staff whilst colleague and friend Richard Benjamin looks on with amusement and amazement. Their boss is hard-of-hearing going on senile Chief of Staff Art Carney who is up for re-election to that post.Matthau is content playing the field without commitment until he meets single mother Glenda Jackson who insists upon being the only woman in his life while she is in his life. At the same time, he comes under pressure to respond to the amorous advances of a potential litigant in a malpractice suit, and to support the shambolic and incompetent Carney in his attempt to be re-elected Chief of Staff.This is a superior old-fashioned romantic comedy graced by four Grade-A actors and an excellent supporting cast working with a first-rate dry, caustic and sarcastic script. Carney steals every scene he's in and, in the parlance of IMDb, has us rolling on the floor laughing out loud whenever he appears on screen. We are otherwise entertained by the on-off relationship of the two leads and various sub-plots.Lacks the ambition to be a great film, but remains one of the best of its kind and watchable and re-watchable for its comedic value alone. Deserves more attention than it seems to have received and well worth the cost of the DVD or video cassette.

A tediously unfunny, thoroughly predictable (complete with the two leads arguing-and-making-up for a "happy ending" in crowded city streets) romantic comedy, which can't be saved even by Matthau's unforced likability. Uninspired script, almost no laughs delivered.