Hello fellow movie lovers, I am Torstein from Cinema Terror and this is my review of Firecracker,
or its alternative title Naked Fist.
Before I go into the plot of the film, I have to say that I was taken back as it start off
stealing the awesome music from Shogun Assassin for its opening scene.
It does not have the same guy credited doing the music either, so I am going to guess that
the score was straight up stolen here.
It is a cool enough of a score for me to be more happy that it is in this film than for
me to be mad about the fact that it probably had no rights being here.
Firecracker tells the story of Susanne Carter, a young female martial arts expert who are
going to the Philippines to find out what has happened to her missing sister.
During her investigations, she gets involved with some bad drug dealers that also puts
together underground death matches.
Susanne starts to believe that these bad guys are reponsible for her sisters disappearance
and the only way to get revenge is to participate in one of these underground fights that will
make either her of her opponents face death.
That's pretty much the story and its not something we haven't seen thousands of times before
in b-movie action flicks.
Firecracker has a different selling point to it though, and here's also why the alternative
title of Naked Fist suits the film much better.
Take a look at this quick trailer from the Shout Factory release.
If you didn't catch it, then the end line in the trailer is «the first erotic martial
arts thriller» and add to that that the leading role of Susanne is played by the lovely Jillian
Kesner and add to the top of that again that this is an American Phillipino co-production
with the Roger Corman company New World Pictures behind it then you should know what you are
getting into.
This is just another run of the mill action flick, but with some added nudity by the main
character in it.
There is a five minute long fighting scene in it where Kesner looses more and more clothes
by the most ridiculous reasons they could come up with.
This scene has nothing to do with the rest of the filmed and was actually shot later
by a different director just to spike up the nudity of the film.
Does it work though?
Is it enough to make this stand out from the countless of other action films out there?
No, I can't say that it does, but would I have even have heard about it if it wasn't
for this angle?
Probably not either as I first found out about this film by it being on the section 3 list
of the Video Nasties in the UK.
It actually had to be cut nearly four minutes later on to achieve an 18 certification.
Crazy stuff considering how silly this film is.
Surprisingly enough, they did actually get the right girl as Jillian Kesner not only
looks great, but also has some martial arts skills to her.
There are a few obvious scenes where they got a stunt double in a terrible wig to do
her scenes, but for like 80 percent of the time, it's her that is doing the fighting
scenes herself.
And there are plenty of them as the movie hardly goes on for ten minutes without having
some fighting going on.
Not saying that any of these are great or anything, but its people hitting each other.
It's more goofy than intense or thrilling.
Then there is the searching for the sister and the bad guys doing drug dealing things.
Oh, and Kesner's character also gets romantically involved with one of the baddies, a John Holmes
look a like played by Darby Hinton.
They have a love scene, if you can call it that, where he starts to cut off her clothes
piece by piece.
Very romantic indeed.
I couldn't help but wondering what they would do after they were done and she had to go
home.
Was she anticipating the knife to be involved in the love making and bring extra clothes?
Well, judging by the previous topless kung fu fight, then I guess you could say that
she isn't the shy type.
Firecracker is directed by the Filippino b-movie maestro Cirio H. Santiago.
He was behind the camera on a lot of the Corman produced b-movies shot in the Philippines
in the 80's like Naked Vengeance and a film I've also recently reviewed called Demon in
Paradise.
Santiago goes for shit happening instead of things developing and there is an odd charm
to his movies, regardless if they are good or not.
It's almost like he is comfortable balancing a thin line between entertaining and boring.
Firecracker is right on that very thin line, with a few highlights saving it from being
a drag to sit through.
Firecracker is a mostly forgettable low budget action film that has little new to offer,
except a female heroine who has no objections to taking off her clothes to create this piece
of trashy art.
If you like the Filippino action films or the late 70's and early 80's then this should
be on your watchlist, for the rest of the world though there isn't all that much interesting
stuff to be found here.
Even if it isn't a good movie, it did steer me away from becoming bored and ultimately
I am happy that I have seen the film.
I am going to give Firecracker, or Naked Fist as I much more prefer that title, the average
score of 2.5 out of 5.
Anyone out there that might be a fan of Firecracker or other Filippino action films of the past?
Feel free to go nuts with recommendations in the comment section below.
And if you enjoyed this review then there are plenty more to be found on my channel.
I also have a Patreon site, so you know, if you enjoy online begging then go ahead and
donate something to make me happy.
Hope to see you again and thank you for watching.
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