User reviews

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.

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!

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.

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.

"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".

A young woman nicknamed "T.N.T." for being virtual dynamite in a fight and a knockout in terms of looks to boot, goes to the most lawless part of Hong Kong in search of her missing brother Stag Jackson. When she learns he has been murdered, she decides she will bring the killer to justice in a fashion only she can.

Sounds good, doesn't it. Well, there's really nothing wrong with the basic premise as a starting base for a martial arts/blaxploitation action thriller, which is what this aims to be. The leads actually prove pretty good too with Jeanne Bell fitting nicely into the role of "T.N.T." and Stan Shaw doing well as the ambitious, power-hungry Charlie. Where this fails miserably is in terms of the fighting action it offers up. The fight scenes are totally and completely unconvincing and/or sometimes so completely over the top it reaches the point of ridiculousness which doesn't at all help when the basic focus of your movie is a Kung Fu action heroine. Also the poor lighting, actors sporting accents making them hard to understand, the confusing camera-work and the sometimes poor sound doesn't help this obvious low budget effort out either any. This does deliver in one area which may delight some fans, it does offer up plenty of the T in "T & A", in fact practically every fight scene in the film is proceeded by some type of nude scene and Jeanne Bell actually does have one extended fight scene in which she is completely topless.

In the end, this fails to be something you want to revisit because the fight scenes are so pathetically, laughingly bad.

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. (**)

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.

This blaxploitation classic about a kung fu mama who travels to Hong Kong to avenge her brother's death offers everything you learned to expect from the genre. Playmate Jeannie Bell (with a giant afro) really kicks ass and usually loses her clothes very quickly. If you don't take it all too seriously, the movie is great fun to watch. Stan Shaw gives a solid performance, Jeannie Bell is a little less convincing. Pam Grier she ain't.

This is where Quentin Tarantino got his idea for the light switch scene in "Jackie Brown" from.

The soundtrack by Don Julian is a gem and is frequently used in rap songs.

TNT Jackson (1974) is currently available on Tubi. The storyline follows a young lady who is a martial arts expert out for the revenge of her murdered brother. Her investigation takes her to Hong Kong where she finds gangsters, drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes. Seems like a good place to continue her investigation.

This movie is directed by Cirio H. Santiago (Firecracker) and stars Jeannie Bell (Mean Streets), Stan Shaw (Rising Sun), Pat Anderson (Summer School Teachers) and Ken Metcalfe (Apocalypse Now).

The storyline for this is fairly straightforward and cliché. Shaw was actually pretty awesome in this and his outfits were bomb. Bell was smoking hot and her fight scenes were more fun than good. The topless fight scene in the apartment room was excellent. Some of the fights were random, like Bell vs Anderson, which seemed just for entertainment rather than to fit the storyline. The ending final fight was awesome.

Overall this is a very average addition to the blaxploitation genre that I would still strongly recommend watching. I would score this a 5.5/10 and recommend see it once.

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.

A very feeble cross between a kung fu film and a blaxploitation movie, aimed squarely in the middle of both markets and yet failing as a vehicle for each genre. This is a Filipino-shot movie with the Philippines standing in for Hong Kong, directed by old hand Cirio H. Santiago. Believe it or not, I'm a fan of Santiago's movies – call me a masochist if you will – but even I'll be the first to admit this is one of his worst efforts.

The problem is that the film is boring, despite best efforts otherwise. The plot is slim and of the standard revenge format, but most of the production values are terrible. The fight choreography is very poor and there never appears to be any genuine skill on the part of most of the performers. In particular, Jeannie Bell is terrible, completely failing to cut it as both a fighter and a leading actress; it's painfully obvious that her career background is as a model. Best of the actors is Stan Shaw, later a Hollywood mainstay, who's a pleasure to watch whenever he's on screen.

Unfortunately, TNT JACKSON has to be considered a failure at the end of it all purely because it's so badly made. Sure, there are a handful of decent scenes in here, and one or two scenes that are memorable for all the wrong reasons, but it's not enough to make this come close to resembling a decent movie in any way, shape or form.

After a young black man is killed in a drug transaction in Hong Kong a young black woman named "TNT Jackson" (Jeannie Bell) arrives at the airport and asks the taxi driver to take her to the "Yellow District" of the city. The taxi driver refuses because he believes it is too dangerous. So she then asks to be taken as close to that area as possible and decides to walk the rest of the way. In no time she is attacked by several thugs but manages to fight them off with her skill at martial arts. Eventually she arrives at her destination and meets a man named "Joe" (Chiquito) who takes her under his wing and gives her guidance and information that she needs in order to survive in the strange world she has just entered. Now, rather than divulge too much of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is both a "blaxploitation" film and a "martial arts" film rolled into one. Unfortunately, it doesn't honestly rank up there in either category because of the less-than-stellar acting and the rather low-grade fight scenes. Still, Pat Anderson (as "Elaine"), Imelda Ilanan (as "Joe's Assistant") and the aforementioned Jeannie Bell were all somewhat attractive and I suppose that should count for something. But even so the movie still seemed kind of cheap and shoddy. Below average.

Alright, well I got the chance to sit down and watch "TNT Jackson" now, late in 2019, and this is the first time I have ever seen it, or actually even heard about it. Given the movie's cover/poster, I sort of figured what I would be in for here, so hopes weren't all that high.

"TNT Jackson" definitely had some good enough ideas and a fair enough storyline, but it was just poorly executed on the screen. So what was the reason for that? Well, first of all, the acting in the movie was questionable at best. Let's just be honest, it wasn't Shakespearian acting performances that were delivered in this 1974 movie from writers Dick Miller and Ken Metcalfe. And secondly, the action sequences were just awfully staged and choreographed, and it was clear that the majority of the people had little or no martial arts training at all.

For a movie in this genre, then "TNT Jackson" wasn't a particularly outstanding movie, and there are far better movies in this genre, if you happen to enjoy these kind of movies.

The fighting sequences in the movie, as I mentioned above, were horribly staged and poorly executed on the screen. And when you put people with little or no fighting training to do martial arts on the screen, it shows. Trust me, it shows. Some of the scenes the hands and feet were miles away from hitting an opponent, yet people went flying. And the sounds. Oh my god. And you just got to love that Charlie (played by Stan Shaw) sounds like a rip-off Bruce Lee, it was just hilarious.

Well, I managed to sit through the movie, nonetheless. But was I entertained? Not overly so. And as such, then I am rating "TNT Jackson" a four out of ten stars.

T.N.T. Jackson (1975)

** (out of 4)

Cult classic blaxploitation film about a kung fu fighting sister (Jeannie Bell) from Harlem who travels to Hong Kong to locate her missing brother. Once there the black, white and Chinese mob wants her out but thankfully she knows how to kick ass. This was my first of the blaxploitation/kung fun genre, which led to several films during the 1970s. I'm not going to lie and say this is a good film or even a fair one but it was mildly entertaining due in large part to former Playmate Bell. Her acting isn't really that good but her breasts are quite nice and thankfully they get several minutes of screen time. The violence and action is pretty much non-stop so if you don't mind the childish nature of the film then you might find yourself with a smile. The best scene happens when a Chinese guy wants to exchange sex with T.N.T. and she says: If you want black you got black!. She then strips down and turns the lights off so no one can see her (a homage in Tarantino's Jackie Brown as well). Politically incorrect? Hey, it's blaxploitation. Co-written by Roger Corman favorite Dick Miller.

TNT Jackson's brother has been knocked off in Hong Kong and TNT heads there undercover to kick ass and find her brother's killer. It all kicks off in this action packed, and afro packed film from Cirio H Santiago. Also, that's the plot.

TNT sure gets into some scrapes here. Almost immediately she's set upon by goons trying to steal her bag (one guy gets a gory arm snapping for his troubles) and then she shacks up at a bar run by Joe while being hit upon by a dude called Charlie, who has an amazing afro and is quite the Russell Brand type when it comes to the ladies. Trouble is, he also killed TNT's brother, but she doesn't find that out until after he's gotten into her pants like the fanny rat he is.

Loads of kung fu fighting (including a topless kung fu fight!), double crosses, and even a bit of gore (turns out that the 'thrusting your hand into an enemies midriff' might be a legitimate kung fu move – I've seen it a few times now) make this film very enjoyable. It's about 70 minutes long too. If Tarantino paid homage to it, it'd be three hours long (and don't doubt that he hasn't watched this one).

If the movie didn't have Stan it would be a 3. Worth a watch because of him.

T.N.T. JACKSON sets aside the other "blaxplo" movies from the era because of the fact this was made somewhere in the Filipino region. In other words, this isn't the U.S.A., but the scenery is a change of heart. Sort of like another martial arts picture with scratchy print quality and a plain "THE END" screen. It does deliver some fun, and you won't want to miss former PLAYBOY playmate Jeanne Bell do some topless kung-fu in her undies. All said and done, the pleasure best compares to a Mighty Mouse cartoon. I've seen many action movies with female leads before, and there isn't a whole lot they can do. Bell's moves, while high flying, aren't choreographed very well and they look as if they're fragile. It's a good combo of the two classic 70s genres wrapped up in one single outing. There could have been more to prevent this from being your totally average movie, though.

Her name is Diana Jackson, but you can call her T.N.T. When T.N.T.'s brother is killed by ruthless drug dealers, the beautiful young karate expert goes to the most dangerous part of Chinatown to find the killer. In trouble with the law since she was 13, T.N.T. wants no help from the pigs; but she does befriend a Chinaman named Joe, whose impressive martial arts skills prove useful more than once. In her quest for the killer, she'll meet the white drug lord, Sid; Elaine, his bitchy girlfriend; his suspicious Chinese assistant, Ming; and Charlie, his handsome black assistant with criminal ambitions of his own. Before her search is over, she'll find herself making love to Charlie, trading insults with Elaine, and fighting criminals while nude and in the dark.

This movie made relatively early in the Blaxplotation days is quite simply horrible.. There's no real plot, at least nothing to hold your attention, and it's made more in the lines of those Bruce Lee Bruce Li karate movies than any thing else.

The print that is running on World Worth Watching looks like it was lifted off a TV.

From Roger Corman's New World Pictures, the script was co-written by actor Dick Miller (a frequent player in Corman's films). Director Santiago worked (uncredited) on many Corman flicks, three of which starred Pam Grier. Shapely Jeanne Bell (a former "Playboy" Playmate) is just one of many Grier lookalikes Santiago would put in his later films.

This is an ultra-cheap chop-socky martial arts flick with a slight twist. In what could be called "Foxy Brown in Hong Kong", the casting of two black actors, Bell and Stan Shaw, give it the appearance of a Blaxpoitation film. But the two genres never blend. The result is an awkward, implausible fish-out-of-water feeling.

The derivative revenge plot unfolds with Diana "TNT" Jackson, a foxy, karate-kicking babe, roaming the mean streets of Hong Kong after her brother is killed in a drug deal. And before you know it, everybody is Kung Fu fighting -- but these cats are not "fast as lightning". In fact, this has some of the slowest and least convincing fight scenes ever filmed. It looks more like rehearsal footage. Jackson is supposedly so skilled that she routinely pummels half a dozen Chinese thugs at a time. Plus, her fighting style also includes frequent acrobatic back- flips that just look silly.

Posing as a bad-ass looking for action, she infiltrates a powerful heroin smuggling ring with absurd ease. This is incongruously led by two Americans -- Sid (Ken Metcalf), a dapper white dude who looks and behaves more like a college professor, and his black henchman Charlie (Shaw). Jackson seduces Charlie, and some dated jive-talk dialog ensues -- along with several shoot-outs, fights, and a totally predictable ending.

Watching Bell's flat, featureless performance, one appreciates Pam Grier all the more. Grier generated a charisma and sex appeal that jumped off the screen, even when the scripts were terrible (and they usually were). Although Bell is lovely to look at, especially in her two obligatory nude scenes, her personality and acting skills are as bland as steamed rice.

Although this movie is consistently awful with nothing to recommend it, there is one scene that is hard to forget (though poorly filmed and executed). In a dark bedroom, Jackson, nude except for a pair of black bikini briefs, kicks the crap out of a gang of goons who have abducted her. An almost iconic scene. Don't be surprised if Tarantino does an homage to it some day.