This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

jumpinjack

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Jumpin’ Jack Flash

We all know that Whoopi Goldberg used to do movies, right? Like silly comedies, right? Before she went all legit with Ghost and The Color Purple. Jumpin’ Jack Flash is the story of bank computer technician Terry – the type of computer guru everybody depends on. One day, Terry gets an odd message on her servers and quickly becomes embroiled in an espionage ring as she works to assist her mysterious message sender – a spy in danger, and only Terry can save him! Whoopi shows why she became a star (she’s so charmingly energetic), and the spy caper plot is always a fun trope.

stonetape

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: The Stone Tape

The Stone Tape is a 1972 made-for-the-BBC film, and thus may take a little homework to find. However, it’s worth the work, because it’s written by Nigel Kneale, who brought us things like the Quatermass films.

The plot details the story of a research team who takes over an old mansion to revamp as a data center. Imagine their surprise when they find out that the server room is haunted! Well, what does a group of scientists and programmers do upon finding a bona fide ghost? Well, they throw science at it, of course!

The Stone Tape is full of Grade A technobabble, but it has a truly unique angle on haunted house stories, and it is an interesting time capsule of the brief period of computer technology where programmers were usually women. As I said, it’s worth tracking down.

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