Firecracker (1981), also known as Naked Fist, is another in a long line of 1970s and 1980s cheapies shot in the Philippines by producer Roger Corman. Directed by Corman regular Cirio H. Santiago—who also helmed one of the most memorable rape-revenge films of the ‘80s, Naked Vengeance (1985)—Firecracker mostly works as a starring vehicle for the stunningly sexy blonde bombshell Jillian Kesner, who played one of Fonzie’s girlfriends on Happy Days. As Los Angeles martial arts instructor Susanna Clarke, Kesner ventures to the Philippines to find her sister, a journalist who mysteriously disappeared. There, Susanna quickly runs afoul of a vicious Philippine drug cartel and various martial arts bad guys.
The plot is hardly important. What matters here is that, for roughly 80 minutes, Kesner brawls and high kicks her way through a series of attackers, often while wearing high heels and lingerie (more on that in a minute). When she’s not kicking ass all over Olongapo, she’s getting laid by untrustworthy martial arts stud Chuck Donner (Darby Hinton, sporting a glorious porn ‘stache). Their excruciatingly long sex scene is a jaw-dropping highlight (or lowlight?), thanks to it being unintentionally hilarious. Still, Kesner is naked again, and that’s never a bad thing!
Speaking of jaw-dropping scenes and Kesner’s beautiful, naked body! The movie’s most spectacular scene occurs during a long chase and fight between Susanna and a couple of evil henchmen. Susanna, dressed to the nines in a sexy dress and high heels, fights back like the one-woman wrecking crew she is, all while her dress is ripped to shreds throughout the confrontation. Eventually she’s stripped of it completely, left to duke it out in only her white bra (which she’s practically spilling out of anyway) and panties. Soon enough, she’s also stripped of the bra, leading to one of the rare, topless martial arts fights in movie history (that I’m aware of, at least). Kesner is a dynamo in the highly choreographed fight scenes, never more so than when her ta-tas are hanging out. It’s an impressive performance from that angle alone. Her acting is mediocre and stiff, at best, but the movie mostly calls on her to be HOT and to beat down fools, and she does both well enough to deserve an Academy Award, if such an award category existed.
From Jillian Kesner’s eye candy appeal to the propulsive, synth-heavy soundtrack, along with some truly insane kills (the table-saw to the face is definitely unexpected), Firecracker lives up to its name, and to the poster’s tagline, “She’ll blow you away!” It’s a lot of fun, even if you’ll be groaning at most of it. There are worse ways to spend 80 minutes than watching total babe Jillian Kesner jump from one insane fight scene to another, over and over again. Firecracker definitely delivers the action, whether it’s martial arts, foot chases, shootouts, or nudity aplenty. What more could you want from a Corman exploitation cheapie?
Firecracker is currently streaming on Tubi.
The Starfire Lounge 
Bad Movie Reviews did this movie, last year I think, so I checked it out on Tubi. It’s everything you say and more. She makes Katniss Everdeen look like a pus_, uh, she’s a much better fighter than Katniss.
Wonder if this flick inspired J-Law to do that naked fight scene in No Hard Feelings?
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Her fight scenes are a delight! I had such a blast with this movie.
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You can never go wrong with a blonde bombshell kicking ass and taking names, all with ease. Jillian Kasner has it all from the looks of things. Heard a lot about this flick, but never had the chance to see it, I’ll be checking out Tubi for sure.
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