The dominance of the anglosphere's politics by Thatcherism and Reaganism doesn't have a one-to-one relationship with the kind of movies being produced - there wasn't exactly a wave of anti-union propaganda or popcorn epics about supply-side economics - but both come from the same general impulse to slowing down and consolidating and trying really hard not to rock the boat. It is an exaggeratedly safe time in American cinema but then, it was an unusually conservative time in culturally, in both little-c and big-C senses. And it's perhaps not even the case, exactly, that the quality of the filmmaking in the '80s was at a particularly low ebb, but that it was an era of extreme caution and a level of conscious anti-creativity. Masterpieces can be found - masterpieces can be found in any era, of course - but the standard level of mainstream Hollywood filmmaking reached, I think, its lowest level during this period. But will Whoopi win the day and the middle-aged man? Smack your malfunctioning monitor and find out in this slapstick 80s romp.The first thing the writer on film must do is to confess to all biases, and here is the one that matters the most for me: the 1980s are my least-favorite decade in the history of American film. The British are coming, and Jim Belushi is armed with a tow truck and truth serum. Jumpin’ Jack Flash is a Whoopi Goldberg vehicle that goes off road with ridiculous disguises, villainous treachery, & plenty of wise cracks. Jack puts Terry’s feeble feminine brain to the test with coded messages alluding to the Rolling Stones Terry does some dancing, cracks the code, acquires a frying pan, and illicit undercover activities commence. #Bill murray stripes codeTerry stumbles into the world of espionage when English spy, code name Jumpin’ Jack Flash, reaches out to her with cryptic communications over her faulty bank computer. #Bill murray stripes professionalMeet Terry Doolittle (Goldberg), professional smartass and computer genius, also known as a bank chat specialist. In Penny Marshall’s directorial debut, it’s Whoopi Goldberg to the rescue for a British spy who just wants to get home. When you’re an under cover operative in a tough spot, who do you reach out to for help? James Bond? Ethan Hunt? Elon Musk? NOPE. But did 2-D Adam Brown have an opinion? More importantly, did Johnny off the governor? Tune in to find out! #Bill murray stripes movieIn Nick of Time, there are countless build-ups with zero follow-through, and despite the stakes and talent that fill this movie to busting, it presents like a TV movie that could have used a few extra commercial breaks. Johnny’s only allies are the veteran shoeshine and every single other hotel employee. You have Christopher Walken literally stalking that leading man every step of the way on his mission to kill a governor so liberal that everyone and their mom (including her own husband and the guys at the hotel bar) want her dead. You have a handsome leading man racing against the clock. And we have a movie! This film has everything going for it on paper. Smith (Walken) threatens to murder Gene Watson’s (Johnny Depp) little girl unless Watson pulls the trigger on Governor Eleanor Grant during a public speech in a downtown L.A. In one of those movies, Nick of Time, Mr. Darth was today years old when she discovered that Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken star in more than one movie together.
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