Salve-me Quem Puder

Plot: Terry works for a bank, and uses computers to communicate with clients all over the world. One day she gets a coded message from an unknown source. After decoding the message, Terry becomes embroiled in an espionage ring. People are killed, and Terry is chased. Throughout she remains in contact with this unknown person, who needs Terry to help save his life.

This is easily my favorite Whoopi Goldberg film, it has the best story that is very interesting and very well told by director Penny Marshall. Each character is interesting in their own ways. Every actor does their character justice and serve their purpose to the story.

The film is well paced, never boring, and is unpredictable. If only comedies these days would be more like this, then they would be a lot easier to sit through. If you can find this film give it a chance, it's definitely worth it.

This is a fast-paced and to-the-point crime comedy starring Whoopi Goldberg as banker Terry Doolittle who communicates with clients electronically on her computer throughout the world. One day, she receives a coded message from an unknown man who is pleading for help, as he is stuck in limbo in an unknown country. The suspense builds as an espionage case is revealed to be involved and culprits are after Terry.

Goldberg delivers her unique brand of humor (especially liked the scene where her cocktail dress got caught in the shredder) and her fast-talking and no-nonsense attitude. Stephen Collins plays Terry's newly-hired co-worker Marty Phillips, who seems to be caught in places where Terry is in trouble. Carol Kane plays Terry's sassy and high-pitched voice co-worker Cynthia, and Annie Potts plays the mysterious Liz Carlson, who seems to be the only person Terry can trust in the espionage case.

It's a somewhat classic-style spy genre film, which I thought could have used a bit more action and suspense. However, the plot was well-paced and the acting was pretty good, giving us a pretty entertaining feature.

Grade B

28 July 2009. At times Whoopi Godberg goes too far and becomes weird and at other times brings her own unique, frolicking fresh comedy that outshines most traditional comic gaps. Sometimes the plot is convoluted from logical belief and at other times grips with a sizzling suspenseful twist. This movie is a mixed bag, but has a nice espionage storyline that holds up well especially considering this is an early mix of both serious spy drama with comic humor, a usually impossibly difficult blend to get right. There are some old new young faces here. The main plot point of rarely actually seeing one of the main characters is intriguing and unique to this movie, one of its claim of fame. Repeated viewing isn't recommended very often, as part of the compelling nature of this movie is its mystery action theme which gets somewhat old and helps to keep the movie going along with the usually balance drama-comic high points.

Undercooked, but ribald, enjoyable espionage-themed comedy about a computer programmer for a national bank in New York City who gets her own "Mission: Impossible" when a government agent taps into her system. Whoopi Goldberg really has no character to play here, so she wings it; tossing off one-liners and impersonations, she's a stitch, a true original. The production designer has decorated Whoopi's pad with offbeat movie posters, memorabilia and over-sized toys, but couldn't do much with the rest of this scenario, which dog-paddles along until we get to the predictable (though satisfying) conclusion. Some of the supporting characters (like Jim Belushi's mysterious heavy or Annie Potts' wife of a secret agent) come, go, and vanish completely, and the flick is held together with the barest minimum of tape. Still, it's a lot of fun anyway, which is completely due to Goldberg's sass. *** from ****

There aren't not that many female directors around and Penny Marshall is one of the few who scored some hits with her movies in the eighties ("She's having a baby", "The hard way") and of course "Jumpin' Jack Flash", one of those delicious comedies from the eighties that aren't dated, and that aren't silly. Whoopi Goldberg who was a bit the hot "strange" spot from Hollywood since her appearance in "The color purple" did some nice comedies from which this one must be one of the finest. She plays the role of Teresa aka Terry, a weirdo who is obsessed by movies and books, and during daytime she spend eight hours in a bank behind a computer (a must for pcfreaks to see how dated they are!!!). Her hilarious boss Mr James Page (Peter Michael Goetz) forbids her to chat, she obeys till Jumpin Jack Flash knocks. She can't resist the power not to respond and soon she discovers that Jumpin Jack Flash is a CIA-agent who is somewhere in East Europe (it was still a cold war) and he begs him to help. Sooner as Teresa thinks she has become a target from the KGB as well and as you can guess she ends up in dangerous hilarious situations (or are you kidnapped any day in a phone booth?). Absolutely do not to try to understand the plot, there isn't one and if there should be some it has no meaning...it's just a CIA-agent who runs for the KGB, that's all but that's not the reason why you should watch this, it's just to see a fine comedy that stands for 90 minutes of entertainment.