Firecracker

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paul g Huge fun! martial arts of the 80's .. and a very familiar soundtrack! budget and terrific! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Another Cirio Santiago film that actually surprises by living beyond the corny checklist of movie cliches that it seems hellbent on ticking off as it goes along! A martial arts expect goes to investigate the death of her sister, leading into mob conflicts and a delightfully sleazy topless fight scene, because it's *that kind of movie*, y'know? Lord knows it's not a GOOD film, but dammit, I was entertained. Rental! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member The moral of this story? If you ever find out a sibling has been murdered, immediately seek rough sex. But, there a few more things you should know before viewing: Like a spaghetti western, no dialogue or natural sound seems to have been recorded on set. It's all overdubbed. This would not be a problem if we had hired a foley artist to work more than a couple days. You're going to hear punches, kicks, dubbed voices and a schizophrenic score. And that's about it. Also... Go ahead and assume everyone in this movie is a kung fu expert. And finally... There are a few moments which seem to be guest-directed by, like...a German art filmmaker. Now, that you know these things, you can enjoy this flick. Director/Co-Writer Cirio Santiago is a guy who is all about crazy, fantastic moments. And there are quite a few here. He ain't no Jack Hill. But he'll do. You'll find yourself surprisingly invested in the final showdown. Oh, there's one more thing. The ending is...abrupt. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member A female karate master infiltrates an underground mixed-martial arts tournament in the Philippians, where her journalist sister when missing. Semi-remake of Santiago's own 'T.N.T. Jackson' that succeeds where 'T.N.T' failed. A kung fu-camp classic with some surprisingly good action scenes. See it on VHS as the DVD cuts out some of the cheesy gore. Rated: R Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member When a film's trailer ends with the tagline "the first erotic martial arts thriller", I will admit as a guy it perked my interest. And what do you know, "Firecracker" lived up the narrator's statement as I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable seemingly unknown martial arts film from the trashtastic film factory in the Philippines run by B-movie maestro Cirio H. Santiago. As expected the plot comes secondary and is basically a complete copy of Santiago's early Blaxploitation martial arts film "TNT Jackson", substituting the black lead with a white woman and moving the films location to the Philippines. I wouldn't doubt if Santiago ripped off the title sheet to the "TNT Jackson" script and replaced it with one that read "Firecracker", that's how much the plot of these films is alike! Here we have a sexy martial artist arriving in the Philippines to find her missing sister (instead of brother in "TNT"). She tries to work her way into a drug ring and ends up working with some undercover DEA agents (again, just like "TNT"). The absolute best part of this cheap martial arts thriller is Jillian Kesner as our sexy and deadly lead actress. Unlike the lead in "TNT Jackson" who had no martial arts abilities and was hired solely for her 'assets', Kesner not only has the looks but is an accomplished martial artist as well. Due to this she holds her own in plenty of violent fight scenes. I shit you not it's about ten in total with the first occurring in the first 2 minutes! Schlock director Cirio H. Santiago knows exactly the type of film he's making so he pulls no punches in showing off Kesner's beautiful body. In her first fight scene, she fights some guys that busted into her hotel room only clad in panties and a bra. One long fight sequence has her loose her dress (yes, that is unintentionally funny) and ends up fighting her enemies topless ! Silly and exploitative? Yes. Memorable? YOU BET! Cirio also peppers the film with some gory scenes, including a nights guardsman getting impaled by a tool and even some eye gouging. Scenes of gratuitous violence are always nice addition to spice up a B-movie. The choreography is also decent here making the fight scenes far more believable than those so-called fights in "TNT Jackson". "Firecracker" is bad but enjoyably so. The acting, editing and overall plot flow is laugh enducing but the fight scenes and sexy heroine makes this oh so enjoyable. A definite guilty pleasure of mine and hands down my favorite schlock film from cult director Cirio H. Santiago. It's just a damn shame Kesner didn't go on to do more films of this nature. "Firecracker" got it's long awaited DVD release from Shout! Factory in a triple feature tiled "Lethal Ladies" packaged alongside partner in crime "TNT Jackson" and "Too Hot to Handle". This set is worth checking out for fans of trash cinema. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Guilty pleasure viewing! Fun in a so bad it's great kind of way. Equal parts cheese and gore. The (striptease) fight with two thugs where the heroine looses her clothing and a foreplay scene involving knives are highlights. Between all of the eye-gouging, snake-fighting, upskirt shots and uptempo electronic soundtrack there's the barest (no pun intended) of plots which is perfunctory in the extreme and only serves to string along the action. The acting is laughably bad and likened to that of a porn film, talking of which the lead actor sports waves in his hair and a porn moustache. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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