TNT Jackson

Recently found a series of DVDs called Women Who Kick Ass. I've seen a few kung fu films over the years. Some were superb, some were ok and some were lousy. The common denominator in all being the action scenes were pretty good. The acting, writing and general filmaking in this film is terrible plus the fight scenes really suck. It looks like most the action scenes were done by stunt people and the actresses didn't know much about martial arts.

All this taken into account it is still a fun film to watch.

In a giant sea of blaxploitation films, "TNT Jackson" doesn't stand out from the crowd other than its setting and gender of the protagonist..and its copious nudity. Otherwise, it's a standard cheap action film of the 70s and not a lot more.

Ex-playboy model Jeannie Bell stars as TNT Jackson, a lovely lady from Harlem who has ventured to the worst part of Hong Kong in order to discover what's happened to her brother. Apparently, he got on the bad side of a organized drug ring...and she soon gets their attention. To help her is a local Chinese man as well as an undercover federal agent.

The martial arts are spotty...though the double who does all the acrobatics for TNT was very good and it's very hard to tell that a double was used...so kudos for the director for this. Unfortunately, in the close combat scenes, they are spotty...from pretty good to pretty bad. As for the story...it's all pretty tandard stuff apart from the setting (Hong Kong). For fans of the genre, this one in't bad but it certainly won't convert anyone to the genres of blaxploitation or martial arts.

This extremely bargain-basement Blaxploitation/Kung-Fu hybrid was in my country released by a questionable DVD label that usually speaking just occupies with the transfer of pure crap onto disc, so that wasn't exactly a favorable herald. Several other titles were released in the same series, like "The Black Six", "The Black Gestapo" and "The Black Godfather" and judging by all their low ratings and negative reviews none of these belong to the elite of the 70's Blaxploitation hype, neither. "TNT Jackson" is a pretty lousy film, completely lacking a significant plot but featuring far too many laughable fighting scenes and horrible acting to compensate. Apparently Roger Corman – never too embarrassed to make some easy money – assigned two of his most loyal acolytes to rapidly invent a simplistic story that would appeal to fans of both oriental Kung-Fu movies and contemporary trendy Blaxploitation flicks. The result Cirio H. Santiago and Dick Miller came up with was "TNT Jackson"; the tale of an arse-whooping black babe traveling to Hong Kong in search of her missing brother. She quickly discovers he was killed by a criminal network of drug-smugglers and swears to avenge him. Mrs. Jackson smoothly infiltrates into the underground and encounters macho pimps, helpful undercover agents, loads of vicious Kung-Fu fighters. Only one thing's for sure; they all want a piece of TNT's ravishing body in one way or another. I sincerely doubt movie concepts get any more elementary than this, but – unfortunately - all the other aspects suck too. The battle scenes are overlong and moreover pathetically staged. Jeannie Bell and the other poor suckers try really hard to stare menacingly and assume a tough position, but eventually all they ever do is kick in the air and stupidly leap across rooms. The cinematography is horrid, the soundtrack is vastly disappointing (whatever happened to soul music?), the few dialogs are poorly written and the acting performances are inferior. Speaking of which, Jeannie Bell is undeniably a beautiful woman, but still she can't hold a candle to Tamara Dobson or Pam Grier. There's only one really good and memorable scene in "TNT Jackson", namely the famous hotel room battle where Bell, entirely naked except for panties, repeatedly switches the light on and off whilst kicking the hell out of some goons. Amusing scene ... I just haven't figured out yet whether it's thanks to the light switch ingenuity or Bell's perfectly shaped breasts.

The stimulating concepts: T.N.T fights 10 men in the streets of Hong Kong; 4 men in her room while she is topless; an attractive blonde woman (Pat Anderson, who is a major hottie and kicks a lot of butt herself). The poor execution: the (occasionally sped-up) fight scenes range from clumsy to REALLY clumsy. Sometimes they look more like playfights; you can HEAR the sound of a hit but you don't SEE any contact. For a former Playboy Playmate, Jeanne Bell is an average-looking woman and her acting is stiff. But at least she's tall, she looks fit and she has the right attitude for this role down pat. As her love interest / main target, Stan Shaw adds the only touch of class to the film, and has all the best lines as well. The production values are dreadful, and the DVD picture quality is on the level of a bad VHS. For a better execution of the same story, I suggest you seek out the same director's "Naked Fist" / "Firecracker", made in 1981. The female lead in that one, Jillian Kesner, actually has some real-life martial arts background, so the fight scenes are much better. (**)

I'd been warned off 'T.N.T. Jackson' but couldn't resist as I'm a sucker for 1970s trash like this. Directed by Cirio H. Santiago, one of the producers of the classic Jack Hill chick in chains movies 'The Big Doll House' and 'The Big Bird Cage' which co-starred Pam Grier, with Roger Corman as executive producer, and a script co-written by b-grade legend Dick Miller(!), how could this go wrong? Well it does. Kinda. Jeanne Bell, who I vaguely remembered from bit parts in 'The Klansman' and 'Mean Streets', is beautiful and is a reasonable actress, but lacks the charisma of Pam Grier, or closer to home, Tamara Dobson ('Cleopatra Jones'). Despite being mainly filmed in the Philippines it lacks the grittiness of the aforementioned Pam Grier vehicles and is closer to the fantasy of the Dobson Cleopatra Jones movies. Only it isn't anywhere near as good. On the other hand it isn't as downright silly as say, 'Black Samurai' starring Jim Kelly (a guilty pleasure of mine), so I can't say it's a complete stinker either. Bell is supported by Stan Shaw ('Truck Turner'), and Ken Metcalfe, who co-wrote the script with Dick Miller, and both actors were better than the movie itself. One thing that really lets the movie down is the fight scenes which just don't convince. In one of them Bell is topless, and that is certainly a novelty, but on the whole they just don't work. 'T.N.T. Jackson' is neither the best nor the worst blaxploitation movie I've ever seen. It's one of those movies that you won't regret watching once, but you are very unlikely to rush to watch twice.