"CATCH YOU FUCKERS AT A BAD TIME?"

Firecracker

tn_firecrackerPlease join me to discuss the 1981 Cirio H. Santiago martial arts and boobs picture FIRECRACKER in this week’s installment of JOURNEY TO BATTLE ISLAND (formerly VERN’S PUNCH-QUEST) over on Daily Grindhouse.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2013 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Action, Martial Arts, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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19 Responses to “Firecracker”

  1. Mouth

    April 23rd, 2013 at 12:37 am

    Yet another of the Films of Cinema so tantalizingly mentioned in the documentary MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED that I’ve yet to see. Good article, as usual.

    Next week I reckon the column will be “AD’Vern’TURES IN ASS-KICKING (formerly JOURNEY TO BATTLE ISLAND formerly VERN’S PUNCH-QUEST).” I’m for it.

  2. Griff

    April 23rd, 2013 at 12:52 am

    any movie that has a topless lady kung fu fighting is A-ok in my book

  3. pegsman

    April 23rd, 2013 at 3:22 am

    I see that it’s out on youtube, so I might check it out this weekend when the wife and kids are out of the way.

  4. Shoot McKay

    April 23rd, 2013 at 4:29 am

    “She impresses Chuck by accepting a half-joking suggestion to fight a martial arts master who takes on all challengers on stage at a restaurant.”

    I like that as well. Martial arts-entertainment while you eat? I´m down with that shit.

  5. Shoot McKay

    April 23rd, 2013 at 4:35 am

    Also, is T.N.T Jackson a good one? I have it on one of my 50 million movies on 12 discs kind-of-pack. But I never got around to watching it.

  6. Mr. Majestyk

    April 23rd, 2013 at 7:19 am

    Oh man, I fuckin’ love this one. Just an absolutely perfect exploitation movie. Gore, tits, kung fu, ridiculousness. Could maybe use a few epic car stunts but that’s about the only demerit I can give it.

    The thing about TNT JACKSON (written by Dick Miller, for some reason) is that FIRECRACKER is an almost scene-for-scene remake of it, even down to the topless karate. FIRECRACKER is a little better, though, so I guess I have to eat my words about remakes needing to blaze their own trail.

    It’s also strange to hear about Gary Graver in this review, since I watched two Fred Olen Ray movies last night and he shot both of them. I highly recommend CYCLONE, which also features sexy lady karate (with clothes, sadly). Jeffrey Coombs gets to play the love interest. He’s not a pervert or a weirdo or anything, just a dude who creates a pocket-size fusion reactor to greenly power the futuristic supercycle with lasers and rockets he built in his garage. You know, like you or I would do. The movie comes on this awesome four-pack I got got at Best Buy with ALIENATOR (Olen Ray TERMINATOR ripoff starring a female bodybuilder), EYE OF THE TIGER (Gary Busey gets his best hero role and Yahphet Kotto drop Molotov cocktails from a Sopwith Camel while listening to James Brown), and EXTERMINATOR 2 (I don’t have to tell you motherfuckers about EXTERMINATOR 2. Y’all know all about EXTERMINATOR 2) complete with Mario Van Peebles commentary track. Best $7.99 I ever spent.

    I hope that every week this column gets a new name. For next week, might I suggest VERN’S BLUDGEONOPOLY, (formerly JOURNEY TO BATTLELAND)?

  7. Mouth

    April 23rd, 2013 at 10:05 am

    Today YouTube helped me discover this exploitation/empowerment story of a hot blonde with a penchant for winning fights & losing clothes.
    Vern & Mr. Majestyk are right. FIRECRACKER is pretty goddamn glorious in my opinion. Strangely ambiguous, bittersweet ending, too, and at 76 minutes total runtime it didn’t come too late.

    Cirio Santiago loves us. He has a strange way of showing this love toward the female sex, but he loves us all.

  8. Shoot McKay

    April 23rd, 2013 at 10:17 am

    I´m watching it right now on YouTube. At this moment in time, I will not say a bad word on that websight.

  9. Shoot McKay

    April 23rd, 2013 at 10:20 am

    about that website.

  10. Griff

    April 23rd, 2013 at 12:58 pm

    I noticed it’s on youtube as well

  11. Shoot McKay

    April 23rd, 2013 at 3:00 pm

    A subtle suggestion of a soothing mind: Go watch this shit on YouTube before it´s taken down!

  12. Shoot McKay

    April 23rd, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    Also, the catjumpingscare part before the lovemaking between her and Chuck threw me off. What the hell was that about?

  13. CrustaceanHate

    April 23rd, 2013 at 4:16 pm

    Man, I’ve seen a million of these shot-in-the-Phillipines action cheapies, but scanning Cirio H. Santiago’s imdb page it looks like I’ve only seen a fraction of his filmography.

  14. Vern

    April 24th, 2013 at 12:59 am

    Damn, I meant to mention the black cat breaking the mirror. That was a good one. Cat jumping scare combined with two superstitions. A triple whammy!

  15. pegsman

    April 24th, 2013 at 2:14 am

    I had to sign in to get to a X-Rated side of youtube I didn’t even know existed. Plenty of sleaze and violence and pirsted versions of big movies. Lovely.

  16. pegsman

    April 24th, 2013 at 2:15 am

    pirsted = pirated

  17. Shoot McKay

    April 24th, 2013 at 4:36 am

    Oh man, I just watched the trailer for TNT JACKSON and suddenly that movie went straight to the top of my ShitToSee-list. I mean some of the taglines are incredible:

    “TNT Jackson! She´ll put you in traction”

    “This hit-ladys charm will break both your arm!”

    Its not uncommon to hear the trailer narrator use rhyming when it comes to 70´s blacksploitation, but it never fails to amuse me.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZ3dsHEPPI

  18. Ancient Romans

    June 4th, 2013 at 10:35 pm

    It’s a been six weeks and no one has requested that Journey to Battle Island be turned into a film…until now! Journey to Battle Island: The Movie!

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