Aug 11-17 Whoopi Goldberg Week: She’s become a corny tv lady these days, but let’s not forget that at her peak Whoopi was one of the funniest people alive.

This is one of Becca’s favorite movies and she may have seen it hundreds of times.

Living up to its title, it has not just one but two versions of the theme: the Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin.

Directed by Penny Marshall and written by David H. Franzoni, J. W. Melville, Patricia Irving and Christopher Thompson, this has Whoopi Goldberg as Terry Doolittle, a computer operator working for First National Bank. This is one of those very much The Net films where computers can do everything, including things they still can’t handle forty years later.

She talks to people all over the world and one of them ends up being “Jumping Jack Flash,” a British superspy who needs her help to deliver coded messages.

I loved this because so many SNL stars are in it: Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Jim Belushi and Michael McKean, as well as Tracey Ullman. Sam Kinison was going to be Jack at the end, but Whoppi said no to this, ending the friendship between Kinison and Marshall and starting a feud between him and Goldberg. Supposedly, Kinison was dating Marshall! Plus, you get pre-cancelled Stephen Collins, Carol Kane, Annie Potts as a CIA agent, Jonathan Pryce and Teagan Clive as a Russian workout woman. Yes, the star of Alienator. How haven’t I made a Teagan Clive Letterboxd list yet? This would be the last of her films that I’ve covered.

Initially, this was to star Shelley Long, but she was problematic. Then, director Howard Zieff (Private Benjamin, My Girl) directed the New York footage. He and producer Marvin Worth left, replaced by Marshall and Joel Silver.