Jumpin Jack Flash

Somewhere between Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor lies Whoopi Goldberg.

I’m saying this in regards to her movie career in the 1980s. It feels like Eddie Murphy was on top of the world and they wanted to replicate that success.  Richard Pryor would have been the obvious choice, as a matter of fact, I’m sure Richard was the 1st thought. It would be just continuing his stardom from the 70s into the 80s, but from everything I herd would state Richard did not want it and fucked it up. I could be wrong but I would not be surprise if this had something to do  with the leading lady roles Whoopi was getting. Someone in Hollywood was attempting to replicate Eddie Murphy and ride the wave of his success with another  black comedian. From what I understand Jumpin Jack Flash and her other attempts Burglar and Fatal Beauty did not replicate what Eddie was doing so Whoopi had to settle for winning an Oscar for her supporting role in Ghost.

Whoopi plays a single woman who is a computer expert for a bank who basically had nothing better to do than help a British spy she met on the internet. Wonder how well a movie like this would do today? The premise seems to work even better during a time when everyone understands far better that she is talking to a person through a computer. Plus they can make way better visual effects for the computer other than just type on the screen.

A lot of funny people in the movie. A few Saturday night live Alums (who I think were on the show at the time) Jon Lovitz and the late great Phil Hartman, both of which had small roles in the film. Carol Cane is in it and so is Jim Jim Belushi  and Gary Marshal made a cameo in the movie in support of his daughter Penny who starts her career as a director here. A bunch of other funny 80s people who seem to be looking for a job other than being hired to be funny.

I wonder who much it cost to call the movie Jumpin Jack Flash? The plot of the movie revolves around the song, but smartly the entire song is not herd in the movie. That would cost too much I’m sure. that’s why  Aretha Franklin  had to remake it for the end credits.