TNT Jackson - La furia di Harlem

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.

I managed to pick this up in a sale for one pound; thought it looked like a laugh and bought it.

Just finished watching it and would thoroughly recommend it to blaxploitation/kung fu/trash movie fans. The dialogue is frequently laughable, the plot is predictable, and there are some bad editing and post-production flaws in dubbing. Effects are generally pants, except for one slow motion sequence with butterfly knives; which I particularly liked. You also have a dodgy sex scene.

But on the other hand, the action scenes are pretty good with some innovative sequences and 'special moves'. The music is also great especially for fans of groove/funk.

This movie has everything you'd expect from a trashy kung fu movie- crime lords, Afros, revenge, flares and of course EVERYONE knows a bit of kung fu. It's only about 60 minutes long and if you can pick it up on the cheap then do so!

Movies from the 1970's were different and much not to the norm and true they had plenty of action and the skin scenes and nudity combined with violence made most of them a real eye candy treat to watch. This low budget 1974 film "TNT Jackson" fits all of those themes. It featured "Playboy" playmate Jeanne Bell as TNT Jackson in this blaxploitation take which has her to travel from Harlem to Hong Kong to look for her missing brother who has gotten himself in trouble with the mob and this world involves the mob and plenty of violence. Miss Jackson poses and goes undercover as a prostitute in order to find out some information along the way this film is a fun eye candy treat of sex, nudity and action which includes topless karate. Good watch to pass a little time a nice fun independent film that gets right into it and doesn't take itself to serious.

"TNT Jackson" isn't completely unwatchable. But either the version I saw on DVD was edited with a weed-whacker, or the screenplay itself is the lowest level of grind-house/blaxploitation sausage. Or maybe both.

Jeanne Bell is supposed to have been a Playmate at one point in her career,and the movie makes the most of the connection by displaying her breasts at least two times more than was really necessary (including a hilarious topless fight scene that I am pretty sure was meant to be funny). I will admit, they are quite nice. Still, she's sort of average looking and doesn't have the charisma of a Foxy Brown, or a Cleopatra Jones. She does have her moments as an actress in the film, though, but it would have been nice if the director had pushed her a little harder or the screenplay had given her a chance to do more than emote "attitude" and kick people.

Speaking of kicking people, the fight scenes (the other putative reason to watch a film like this) are pretty poorly done.There's no real choreography to speak of here, just people posing and sticking feet and fists in the general direction of their opponents. One minor exception is a nice moment with an opponent equipped with butterfly folding knives; another is a sequence near the very end where an obvious stunt double for Bell (and maybe for Stan Shaw) leap around and do some decent sweeps and groundwork for a minute or two before Bell/"Jackson" punches her enemy's liver out, Shaw collapses and the screenplay just stops. (Again, I will admit that this is very much in the tradition of Shaw Brother quickies since time immemorial).

There are a couple of supporting actors who are actually better than the film deserves (I'm thinking of "Joe" and the fellow playing the drug lord's right hand man). There's a halfway decent funk laden soundtrack that complements the action on the screen and add a star to the rating by itself. There's a semi-dodgy sex scene that manages to be effective almost in spite of itself.

This one is strictly for hardcore fans of blaxploitation. I saw it out of sheer curiosity, and I'm not sorry I took the time. But I can't imagine wanting to take the time to see it again unless I decide to write a dissertation on the pop culture intersections of "Kung Fu Theater" and "Foxy Brown".

Now any Blaxploiation fan will recognise the ingredients: big Afros, topless babes, surreally bad fashions and some 'jive' talk. In this case add in a lead who can't act, a plot that makes little sense, editing by someone with no hands who has been blindfolded and the most god-awful fight scenes and you have 'TNT Jackson'. Not quite bad enough to be good, but not good enough to be bad, this is a wonderful mess from start to finish. I especially loved the endless continuity errors and the lead's white stunt double.

This is so '70s bad Far Eastern martial arts meets black power that it hurts, but boy it hurts so good! I am ashamed to admit that I almost enjoyed it.