TNT Jackson
directed by Cirio Santiago
directed by Cirio Santiago
And by ambitious I mean that this movie was ambitious in exactly the same way someone pedaling a go-cart thinks that he's going to win the Daytona 500.
It's okay to dream big but if you don't have the basic tools for success you're just wasting your time.
This movie ran for a little over an hour but that was too long.
With a better screenplay, better budget, better direction, and better special effects, this would have been more entertaining but then it wouldn't be the movie that it is.
Diana "TNT" Jackson (Jeanne Bell, one of the earliest African-American Playboy centerfolds) learns that her brother is missing and presumed dead.
Discovering that her sibling was mixed up in the drug importation business, TNT (so called because of her dynamite looks and her kung-fu skills) traces her brother to Hong-Kong.
Well, at least they were going to do that before TNT arrived and complicated their plans.
The other problem the syndicate has is that someone has ripped off their previous two shipments.
One suave criminal, Charlie (Stan Shaw, Shaw, the son of Howling Wolf saxophonist Eddie Shaw, has expertise in karate and judo. Shaw also appeared in Roots and The Great Santini.) doesn't think TNT is behind the robberies, perhaps in part because he would like to get to know her that way.
Charlie also is an American with interest in East Asian martial arts, just like TNT. Charlie also has a big afro just like TNT. Charlie and TNT may know some of the same people.
The other gangsters have exactly zero interest in assisting Charlie's romantic plans.
There are the usual number of poorly foreshadowed surprises and double crosses. There is also a tremendous amount of cleavage and toplessness, mostly provided by TNT and Elaine (Pat Anderson), an attractive woman who could be Sid's clueless mistress or a smart DEA agent, but either way, just like TNT, has a serious disdain for bras and loose fitting clothing.
I have a soft spot for kung-fu and blaxploitation films of the seventies, but even by the often low standard in those genres, TNT Jackson fails. The fights are poorly choreographed, the dialogue stinks, plot holes multiply as the film progresses, and much of the acting would have to greatly improve to be called pedestrian. TNT Jackson had impressive eye candy going for it and little else. Shaw did his best with a limited and obvious role.
