Customer Reviews

T.N.T. Jackson [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jeannie Bell is TNT Jackson! She's on the trail of the scum-suckin' pigs who killed her brother! Watch out! TNT's not just beautiful, she's a martial arts master (mistress?) w/ vengeance on her mind! Yes, this movie does contain our heroine's topless kung-fu battle! Ms. Bell is semi-convincing in her role, talking tough while allowing her stunt-double to jump and fly through the air. Still, there is a nice butterfly-knife sequence and enough nudity and charm to make things bearable. Not bad...

Roger Corman's New World Pictures combines blaxploitation with chop-sockey in this 1975 exploitation film that was directed by Cirio Santiago, a Filipino director who did a number of films for Corman. The plot is simple; Diana "TNT" Jackson avenges her brother's murder and becomes involved with drug dealers, including Stan Shaw, who sports a huge Afro and wears a 70s era pimp wardrobe throughout the film. Jeanne Bell portrays TNT Jackson . . . she can't act and her kung-fu moves are laughable as she chops and kicks various Filipino and Chinese extras. In fact, almost all of the kung-fu scenes are among the worst choreographed fight scenes ever filmed. Viewed today, this film is unitentionally funny and might make a good party DVD, though there is some nudity and coarse language, reflecting the film's exploitation roots.

The running time listed on this Brentwood Communications release says 90 minutes, but the film runs just over 70 minutes. Unfortunately, the print used by Brentwood is not good . . . numerous scratches and artifacts are found throughout the film and the soundtrack is poorly recorded; you'll have to crank your volume up to hear the dialog. Brentwood also includes a few extras on their budget DVDs, including a "Casper, the Friendly Ghost" cartoon, an interactive movie trivia game, a dictionary of DVD terms, 6 chapter stops for the film, and a special internet connection for those viewers having a DVD-ROM equipped on their computer. Not a bad deal for five bucks.

I won't say much here, Many Others have basically described this DVD properly, the Film Transfer is Poor, but watchable, the Acting and Plot is CAMP at its finest! The Best Scene involves a Karate attack Main Character Jeanne Bell imparts on 2 Fillipinos, after telling One "I've never Made It with a Chink before"....During the Struggle, Jeanne Bell appears in White and then Black Panties, an amusing Error in the editing process; at this Price, TNT Jackson is a MUST for Your Library....

This blaxtoiplation film is par for the course; very comical these days, and great for the "so bad its good" crowd. Although a film like this is good for the Dolemite crowd, the DVD's poor authoring make this a problem. For starters, the DVD has a very diffuse, poorly recorded soundtrack. Instead of keeping the film in mono and the center channel, it sounds like the authors thought it would be clever to spread the sound over all five speakers. The net result is an odd diffuse sound that is only corrected when you turn Dolby encoding off. The video quality is watchable - but scratched and with muted colors. Lesser titles have gotten much better treatment then this.

I don't mind the minimal extras, and a title like this doesn't deserve restoration and all that jazz. But the transfer of the film is so below par, I'd say skip the film unless you really need to spend $... that bad.

This movie really lives up to its billing. Jackson is one mean Mo Fo and don't take no ... from No honkey! What is great about this movie is the dialogue, i have never in my many years of watching films heard one smooth cat talk so much jive to so many sucka ... turkeys! Its a great film with wonderfully funky acting in it. You'd have to be crazy or white not to like this film.

I Dug The Action in this Film.Non-stop.Great Karate&Action Scenes.Jeanne Bell was Looking Super Fine.Stan Shaw has been in Coutless Films Such as His Grand Performance in Roots.The Fros&Action are Non-Stop here.

I liked this movie I had ever heard of this before but I am trying to buy at lot of movies from the 70's and this was worth the price and a good movie. Overall I enjoyed the movie and I will continue to add to my collection of 1970 movies.

I'm not rating this movie based on the acting. I knew going into it that this wasn't going to be a piece of 'high-art' film-making.

I am giving this movie a 2-star rating , however, because the transfer is very poor quality. The producers of the DVD made no attempts to clean up the film and it is riddled with scratches from the original filmstock. Also, the sound quality is extremely bad. I have to practically turn the volume all the way up just to hear what the actors are saying, but then I also get a lot of 'hiss' from the speakers for doing that.

As a 70's era Blaxploitation movie it's adequate. Not one of the best examples certainly, but I've seen worse.

It's probably not going to get a better release than this, so if you're into these types of movies just be advised that this DVD transfer is very inferior quality.

The movie is okay. It has it's good points; Jeanne Bell, who is very attractive and has a topless karate fight at one point in the movie and the character Charlie who is one of the coolest characters ever in motion pictures! It has it's moments of great dialog and some pretty humorous attempts at kung-fu fighting. The sets and wardrobe are great!

And some bad points, but I wont get into those here. If youre familiar with exploitation movies from the 70's, you know not to expect cinematic genius in most cases.

This is not a Jack Hill/Pam Grier/Sid Haig flick, so dont expect the greatness present in Coffy or Foxy Brown. Its not as cool or quirky as those movies, but it's not as bad as some I've seen either.

The presentation is not too great; a sometimes too dark print in widescreen but again it's not as bad as some I've seen. I only paid a dollar for mine, so I'm okay with it.

Jeanne (Jeannie) Bell is Diana "TNT" Jackson, a karate expert on a mission to avenge her brother's death amidst the gangs and drug dealers of Hong Kong. TNT arrives and realizes that she will need to go undercover to penetrate the drug gang that's responsible for her brother's death. Naturally, being that Bell was the October 1969 Playboy Playmate of the Month, she agrees to pose as a prostitute and quickly finds herself involved with a very young Stan Shaw. Shaw (Toomer from "The Great Santini"), who is an extremely gifted actor, is seen here in an absolutely stupendous afro and unreal polyester clothes that are half the entertainment of the film. Shaw is aiming to become big in the mob and sees TNT as an asset. There is disagreement about her value within the organization when heroin shipments start getting hijacked, leading to no end of dramatic confrontations.

The film is an excuse to show Bell doing karate on mobsters and tons of Asian extras. Probably half the running time is taken up with karate scenes of dubious quality. Bell is a pretty woman, but not exceptionally talented in martial arts. The fight scenes are amusingly choreographed and lack a certain amount of credibility. OK, who am I fooling? They are laughable and ridiculous, but they provide the other half of the entertainment value the film yields.

The story is straightforward and predictable, the acting is sub par (Shaw does well with questionable material), and the quality of the DVD recording is not very good, as it has a lot of surface flaws and poor color balance. Still, the fight scenes are entertaining (albeit not in the intended way), and the film does have a satisfying (if predictable) conclusion after Bell and Shaw engage in fisticuffs for an exceedingly long time. It's only 72 minutes long, so there's not enough time to get too bored (although the native dancing toward the end started to approach the boredom threshold), making it a brainless, fun flashback to the 1970's.