BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Scott LeBrun One can tell by a few major set pieces that this is more than just your garden variety exploitation; veteran director Cirio H. Santiago definitely cooks with gas here. Having co- written the screenplay with actor Ken Metcalfe, he makes this a continuously snappy affair. The movie isn't wall to wall action, but there's still quite enough of it, as we get treated to many fine fight scenes that start almost right away. The feisty and fetching Jillian Kesner, may she rest in peace, is a delight to watch as she plays a karate champion & instructor, newly arrived in the Philippines, hellbent on finding out what happened to her missing sister. This makes "Firecracker" sound like something of a rehash of Santiago's "T.N.T. Jackson", where the plot was very similar, but "Firecracker" is even better, a fast paced, furious, bloody thrill ride highlighted by a shoot out staged in a striking location, a love making scene that is prefaced by the male CUTTING the clothes off of his partner (sex and violence are mingled in a memorable manner here), and the one scene that us fans of this movie will always have first and foremost in our minds, as Susanne Carter (Kesner) is pursued by two would be hit men and ways are constantly contrived to remove her clothing, until she's nearly nude (and showing off one extremely fine body) yet still very capable of defending herself. The supporting cast contains a few familiar faces that are very welcome to B movie lovers: Darby Hinton ("Without Warning", "Malibu Express") as male lead Chuck Donner, the understandably ubiquitous Vic Diaz as Grip, Metcalfe himself as crime boss Erik, and Chanda Romero ("The Last Reunion") as undercover cop Malow. A little slicker than your typical potboiler, "Firecracker" is exciting and enticing stuff, and the viewer can groove along to the funky electronic score courtesy of Nonong Buencamino. The movie always makes sure to get right to the point, and deliver what fans of the genre want, and it deserves respect in that regard - and once it's over, it's OVER. It's 78 straight minutes of no-fooling-around fun. Eight out of 10.

gridoon The plot is of secondary importance: something about a female karate champion who goes to the Phillipines to investigate her sister's disappearance and stumbles on a drug ring and a tournament of no-holds-barred fights to the death. The film is mainly a showcase for the beautiful, athletic, voluptuous woman and convincing, tough fighter Jillian Kesner - and I have no complaints there: she has about 10 fight scenes in this movie, the first one of which occurs after only 2 minutes! The production is very cheap, but the fight choreography is actually quite good - not exactly on the level of early Jackie Chan but certainly vastly preferable to the heavily wired, computer-enhanced crap that so often passes for martial arts today. The long scene in which Kesner ends up topless as she tries to fight off two attackers is not just exploitation, but almost a statement: here is this undressed, unarmed, completely feminine woman and these two men can't touch her, can't even go near her without getting hurt. I'm surprised this B-movie mini-classic is so little known today. (**1/2)

pro_crustes Yup, star Jillian Kesner does manage to combine a karate fight scene with a slow strip, and it actually is a bit sexy. She's not the most lovely woman who ever took her clothes off in a movie, but I thought she was attractive and there's something appealing to a certain sort of adolescent sexual mind (like mind) in the sequence. She gets her clothes ripped off, a bit at a time, while she's fighting for her life. It adds vulnerability to her physical allure, and that worked for me. Of course, that's because it's a movie, and not reality. Seeing women attacked for real is nothing I hope for. Hell, most of what happens in movies is nothing I hope for.There are other scenes in this movie, but I don't remember any of them from the one time I saw it, over 20 years ago. They're probably awful. But, who cares? There are many films that are worth seeing for one scene and, if you share my fondness for the sort of thing that makes teenaged boys snicker and rewind their VCRs, over and over, you'll think this is one of them.

pdf120 I remember seeing this film when I was young. It was being aired on cable, when it first came out. This was great because it was the un-cut version. I somehow was able to get a copy of this when it was aired on late night TV some years ago. I still have the copy with commercials (edited for television). I would like to get the full version. This film had some unforgettable scenes. I have to say that it turned me on to women in the martial arts.