Firecracker

Firecracker (1981)

Runtime: 78 minutes

Directed by: Cirio H. Santiago

Starring: Jillian Kesner, Darby Hinton, Rey Malonzo, Ken Metcalfe, Peter Cooper

From: New World Pictures

What a fun B-movie I saw last night. I explain why below:

In my last review I referenced famed Filipino B-movie director Cirio H. Santiago; it only made sense to see another one of his movies. T.N.T. Jackson I thought wasn't too good, but The Muthers was so wacky it was fun. Thankfully I thought this film was also entertaining, even if it's pretty much a remake of T.N.T. Jackson. A young blonde who is also a black belt in karate goes to The Philippines to try and find out what happened to her sister. It involves a crime syndicate of which Darby Hinton is a member of. Some may know him best as the kid from the 60's Daniel Boone TV show; others may be like me and think of his starring role in Andy Sidaris' Malibu Express! As there's feuding in that syndicate, it's a subplot which adds intrigue.

The film is pretty ridiculous, and yet ridiculously entertaining also. Thankfully the lead (Jillian Kesner) looks convincing-enough doing the martial arts, which was not the case with T.N.T. Jackson and was a big problem I had with that film. Sure, Kesner's double is sometimes apparent, but at least it was not glaringly obvious. There's no shortage of action; that and a brisk 78 minute runtime means that this is never dull. Things are not too complex; as it's exploitation, it's preferable for that kind of crown.

I know they would have especially liked the most bravura scene in the picture, when a pair of guys go after her... first off, they may just be random dudes that are like Harvey Weinstein or Brett Ratner and looking to sexually assault our heroine instead of the villain's henchmen, but it doesn't really matter. As a tremendous piece of 80's synth plays, she fights off the pair (who are like Weinstein and Ratner in being persistent) and it's incredibly gratuitous as she has more and more clothes ripped off of her, before she ends up fighting while topless. It's too over the top to really be offended by the scene.

The movie has everything from an “Arena of Death” to Filipino exploitation legend Vic Diaz (playing a character named GRIP), eskrima (referred to in the movie as arnis, which is simply another name for Filipino stick fighting), Hinton's character loving clothing featuring lions on the back-and there's some other threads that made me chortle-over the top deaths and synth tracks borrowed from distributor New World Pictures' musical library. The only tracks I recognized were from Shogun Assassin; several were used. The one I imagine most people will recognize is Lone Wolf's Theme, which was the end credits song in Assassin. Here, that was used several times, which is fine by me as it's a dope AF tune. Anyhow, if you like the old B-action films of old, this is well worth seeing.