It being the fourth of July and all, I thought it was appropriate to kick off my new recurring column with a Firecracker!
The idea behind this particular column will be to highlight unjustly overlooked action flicks of the past. Granted, not all of them will be diamonds in the rough- with some of them, the emphasis may be on the "rough" part, especially in these almost ridiculously overwrought PC times we live in- but that's kind of the point.
So, don't go looking for reviews of stuff like the Die Hard or Taken series here. This is strictly cult movie territory, though there may be the occasional action hybrid, which is to say action combined with something else, like horror or sci-fi, for instance. Either way, don't be surprised if there's some stuff here you've never heard of before. That's sort of the point.
We kick things off with Firecracker, which hails from the wonderfully warped world of Roger Corman, cult movie legend. If you don't know the name, I suggest you click on his name there, ASAP, because you really should.
Back in 2010, Corman's New Horizons Pictures and home video line Shout! Factory began a collaborative effort to release some of his many B-movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. The result was the so-called Roger Corman's Cult Classics collection, many of which featured double or even triple features.
Firecracker was part of the triple-feature "Lethal Ladies" collection, so I'll likely go on to cover the other two features, T.N.T. Jackson and Too Hot to Handle, at some point as well, just for convenience's sake. But given the holiday, it seemed to make sense to start things off with this particular film.
Firecracker, aka Naked Fist, tells the tale of Susanne Carter, who heads to the Philippines to search for her missing sister, who somehow got caught up in the local mafia/drug-running gangsters/martial arts death-match scene, as one does in action movies.
Unfortunately for the gangsters at hand, Carter is a ninety-degree black belt or whatever, and wastes no time in putting her considerable skills to use on taking out anyone and everyone who has the misfortune to cross her path.
With a little help from a massive bartender friend of her sister's and the local police, Carter gets to the bottom of what really happened, and gets her revenge on those responsible. That's about it, really, but what more do you need?
Needless to say, it's all just an excuse to stage a bunch of fighting sequences, and to show off the considerable talent of star Jillian Kesner- to say nothing of her other impressive assets. Turns out that alternate title, Naked Fist, wasn't a misnomer!
Yep, in one particularly memorable scene, a bunch of would-be rapists try to take advantage of Carter, ripping off her clothes in the process. Kesner does part of the scene clad in her skivvies, just a skimpy bra and panties, as she runs around, OG Charlie's Angels-style, only way more jiggly.
Then, slightly later on, the bra comes off, and she fights one of the guys completely topless, which is something to behold, let me tell you. I know some of the more PC people out there will cry foul, and it IS gratuitous, to be sure, but it is also glorious.
If you don't get that this sort of thing is common with the Grindhouse/B-Movie circuit of the time, then I don't know what to say to you- watch something else, because it isn't going to get any better for you if you keep watching stuff like this of that era, whose glory years ran from the late 60's to approximately the late 80's.
Perhaps needless to say, you would be hard-pressed to get something like this made today, though there are certainly no shortage of "Girl Power"-type movies to choose from. They just don't tend to fight their battles in lingerie, much less naked!
For the rest of us, who don't have such delicate sensibilities, this is one fun ride, filled to the brim with oft out-of-nowhere fighting that ends just as abruptly as it begins; bonkers, over-the-top violence; chainsaw-style, jump-cut editing; and iffy dialogue and porn-level acting all around. (Sample: "She wants to work here." "Screw her!" Long pause. "I intend to, but that's not the point.")
There's also a "love" scene- and I use that term WAY loosely- that has to be seen to be believed. After Carter comes to a fellow fighter working for the bad guys that she thinks to be helping her get to the bottom of things (newsflash: that was him participating in the above dialogue exchange, so he isn't), crying her eyes out after she finds out what really happened to her sister (spoiler alert- she's dead!), he takes advantage of the situation in a decidedly dubious way.
First, he pulls out two knives, and proceeds to use them to cut up the pants legs of the poor girl, then to cut off her panties and bra! Lest you think this is headed into rape-y territory, she grabs one of the knives and does the same thing with his pants and underwear! I guess this is just how they do things in the martial arts world- not. Fifty Shades of Grey hasn't got nothing on these two.
So, yeah, this won't be to everyone's taste, perhaps needless to say. But if you already dig this sort of thing, then you're in for a good time, to be sure. Adding to the fun is a hilarious synth-and-drum-machine driven score that could only have been made in the 80's, courtesy of Nonong Buencamino, a Filipino composer with nearly 200 credits to his name.
Buencamino's score is pitched somewhere between John Carpenter's hugely underrated Big Trouble in Little China and early New Wave, in the mid-period Devo mold, which is to say, completely awesome. In one blatant bit of ripping someone else off, one action scene is scored to a thinly-veiled copy of The B-52's "Planet Claire," of all things!
I can't say that I was familiar with his stuff before, but I may have to check it out now, as I was highly amused by nearly all of the music cues, especially the funky theme tune, which kicks in at key points of the movie, and is also wisely used as the background music for the menu screen of the DVD.
Most of Buencamino's stuff is for Filipino-based movies, but there are a few stray English titles in there which might be doable, including Hell Hole, Hot Summer, Grease Gun Gang, Beyond the Call of Duty, Kill Zone, Ultimatum, Stranglehold, Deadly Brothers, Urban Rangers, Old Skool and a few more English titles amongst all the Filipino ones. If this score is any indication, it should be worth the effort hunting them down.
Moving on the director, fellow Filipino Cirio H. Santiago did the honors, and to what should be no one's surprise, Quentin Tarantino is a huge fan. Santiago was one of the pioneers of the Blaxploitation movement, and especially liked female heroines, which is pretty cool and forward-thinking for the time, even if a lot of them undoubtedly ended up naked at some point. Hey, it was a different time, as they say.
He also went on to become the so-called "Master of the Vietnam War genre," typified by the movie Firehawk. Thanks to his partnership with producer/distributor Roger Corman, more of his movies made it to theaters State-side than would have under normal circumstances. Along with Corman, he also produced and gave early big breaks to such directing luminaries as Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante and Carl Franklin.
In addition, he started his own studio in the Philippines, Premiere Studios, which remains one of the biggest in the area, even after his death in 2008. Though not quite as prolific as Corman- who is?- he nonetheless has a still impressive list of credits to his name, including directing 100 films and producing over 80.
Some of his more notable titles include: The Big Doll House, Women in Cages, The Hot Box, The Big Bird Cage (the trailers for most of which are included on this DVD, I do believe), TNT Jackson, Cover Girl Models, She Devils in Chains, The Muthas, Vampire Hookers (blood is not all they suck, lol), Hell Hole, Up from the Depths, Stryker, Caged Fury, Final Mission, Naked Vengeance, the Bloodfist and Black Belt series, Kill Zone, Angelfist, Stranglehold, Angel of Destruction, Robo Warriors and plenty more where that came from.
Santiago co-wrote the film with actor Ken Metcalfe, who also helped him out with TNT Jackson and Hell Hole. He was also the casting assistant on no less a movie than Apocalypse Now. However, his bread and butter came from acting, including roles in such films as The Twilight People (as Kuzma, the Antelope Man!), Bamboo Gods and Iron Men (which he also wrote), The Boys in Company C, Enter the Ninja, Warriors of the Apocalypse, Savage Justice, Obsessed and most of the Santiago titles I mentioned, including this one, as the manager of the Arena, Erik.
Moving on to the cast, we start with, of course, star Jillian Kesner, who reminds me a bit of singer Tove Lo. I was somewhat familiar with her from roles in movies like Trick or Treats (not to be confused with Trick or Treat, the heavy metal horror flick) and Beverly Hills Vamp, in which she played a vampire, alongside the legendary Britt Ekland and Scream Queen supreme Michelle Bauer, but she sure didn't make an impression like she did here. Then again, it's hard to top topless karate.
Kesner got her start in modeling, before landing a few TV roles on the likes of S.W.A.T. and Barnaby Jones. She made her feature film debut in the Sexploitation flick The Student Body, then worked steadily in both TV and film throughout the 70's, 80's and well into the 90's, though she eventually shifted to production coordinator for her husband, director and cinematographer Gary Graver, who she met on Body.
Other notable credits include Evil Town, Starhops, Raw Force, Moon in Scorpio, Jaded, Roots of Evil, Subliminal Seduction and Inferno, plus guest shots on TV shows like Happy Days, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Rockford Files, Three's Company, Mork & Mindy and T.J. Hooker.
As Chuck Donner, Susanne Carter's main nemesis and erstwhile knife-wielding lover, we have Darby Hinton, who, like star Kesner, was an avid fan of the martial arts. He was also a child star, best-known for his starring role on TV's Daniel Boone, alongside the legendary Fess Parker, who became a sort-of surrogate father/acting mentor to him, as his own father sadly died when he was just a year old in a plane crash and his mother never remarried.
Other notable roles include Nightmare in the Sun, Black Oak Conspiracy, Goodbye Franklin High, Angels' Brigade, Without Warning, Wacko, The Return, Malibu Express (which I'll be reviewing here at some point for sure), Dark Future, Stargames, They Crawl, Texas Rising, Dead of Winter: The Donner Party and Home on the Range, as well as lots of TV, including turns on Magnum P.I., The Fall Guy, Hunter, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Beverly Hills 90210.
Next up, we have Rey Malonzo, as, um, the inventively-named Rey. He's the massive bartender's right-hand security man. Malonzo is an action movie regular, having appeared in the likes of Raging Fists, Shaolin Master, The Magnificent 3, Karate Kung Fu Shaolin Masters (now THERE'S a catch-all title, lol), Shanghai Joe, Showdown of Martial Arts, The Tiger and the Lady, They Call Him Bruce Lee, Deadly Fighter, Deadly Commando, Search for Vengeance, Grease Gun Brothers and Behind Enemy Lines, among many others.
Next up is Pete Cooper, as, you guessed it, Pete, the bartender. (I guess it saved the screenwriter some time, though I noticed he gave his own character a different name, so...) As you might guess, his bread and butter was also action flicks, including The Return of the Bionic Boy, The One-Armed Executioner, Stryker, Warriors of the Apocalypse and American Commandos. Cooper also worked on Coppola's Apocalypse Now, as a "marine coordinator," whatever that is.
As Malow, Erik's girlfriend, adviser and undercover police officer, there's prolific actress Chanda Romero, who's worked steadily from 1973 to this very year, amassing over 200 credits to her name. A lot of her credit titles are foreign (mostly Filipino), so I won't get into them here, but some of the others include Fortress in the Sun, Hold-Up, Beach House, Mr. One-Two-Three, The Last Reunion, In This Corner, Raw Force, Pretty Boy Charlie, Exploitation, Working Girls, Savage Justice and Campus Girls.
As the imposing Grip, Erik's other right-hand man and drug connection, there's Vic Diaz, another prolific Filipino actor, with over 150 credits to his name, most of them as a sinister heavy. They include: The Scavengers, Mister X, Bus to Bataan, Flight to Fury, Moro Witch Doctor, The Ravagers, The Passionate Strangers, Impasse, Blood Thirst, Beast of the Yellow Night, Night of the Cobra Woman, The Big Bird Cage, Superbeast, Daughters of Satan, Black Mama White Mama, Wonder Women, Beyond Atlantis, Bamboo Gods and Iron Men, Savage Sisters, The Thirsty Dead, Cover Girl Models, The Interceptors, She's Too Hot to Handle, Teh Boys in Company C, Vampire Hookers, Death Force, Raw Force, Spyder, Bloodfist and Black Belt II.
Finally, there's Tony Ferrer, as, yep, Tony. Ferrer is another actor with an impressive list of credits to their name, numbering over 200. He's perhaps best-known as Tony Falcon, aka Agent X-44, in an ongoing series of films that started in the mid-60's and have kept going up until 2007. Now that's a successful franchise! You can check out some of his many other credits here.
That about does it for notable actors, though I've no doubt many of the other supporting actors will be familiar faces to fans of Filipino cinema, or Santiago fans, specifically, as he tends to use the same people over and over.
Firecracker is silly fun that isn't exactly good, per se, but is entertaining to watch, especially if you like this sort of thing already. Granted, the Karate action isn't really up to snuff, particularly if, like me, you grew up watching a lot of the real deal, thanks to more serious-minded people (at least in terms of getting the action right) like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chow-Yun Fat.
But it's just engaging enough to be watchable, and it certainly doesn't hurt that star Kesner is such a cutie, making up for in looks and likability what she may lack in martial arts skills. Factor in the goofball dialogue, bad acting, hacksaw editing, catchy soundtrack and picturesque locales, and you have a neat little action flick worth at least a watch.
Firecracker is readily available on DVD and you can watch it right now here on YouTube, as of this writing, if you don't mind the somewhat sub-par quality.
Check it out!
Emoji Review: 👩💨💪💥💀
No comments:
Post a Comment