T.N.T. Jackson (1974)

Blaxploitation? Check.
Karate? Check.
Funk music? Awwww yeah.
Bad plot? Check.
Topless karate scene? You bet your honkey ass.

I love cheesy movies. I think it's because of this that I love blaxploitation movies so much. I don't necessarily like what the stand for, but I do for the most part enjoy the genre as a whole.

T.N.T. Jackson is awesome. You have a woman seeking revenge, karate, nudity, bad '70s music all rolled into one awful and cheesy plot. Diane "T.N.T." Jackson is searching for the man who killed her brother in Hong Kong. Did I mention she knows karate? Oh yeah, she knows karate. EVERYONE knows karate. Teamed with Dynamite Wong (played by a dude named Chiquito... that's his full name, like Cher) they battle the underworld crime bosses... At least I think they do.

Of course Chiquito knows karate

To be honest the plot seems to jump all over the place. TNT Jackson seems to be working with, though possibly somewhat against the crime bosses. The whole issue of who killed her brother? I guess it was resolved, though I wasn't 100% sure who even did it in the first place. Also there's a whole subplot about heroin and undercover cops that seems to somewhat take center stage about halfway through the movie.

There's a problem with watching the Mill Creek Entertainment version of movies. They tend to not only have horrible transfers but also have a tendency to be edited versions. Maybe they cut out parts that made T.N.T. Jackson make sense. Maybe there's a scene that would have made me understand everything... but that's not what I saw, I saw the version that was completely batshit insane, but still somehow awesome.

The karate in this movie is hilarious. When the people who it appears actually know karate go to attack T.N.T. you can tell they slow down their movements so that she can block them. And occasionally her movements are super sped up, which is not only horribly noticeable it's also super hilarious. I unfortunately can't seem to put you at a certain time in embedded youtube video but skip to 1:00 into this video and watch about two and half minutes of the video for an amazing display of martial arts.


It's like when I first saw Citizen Kane

Even though its plot is confusing and garbled it still manages to be awesome to watch (though I will say I wish there was more action and less plot... not often I say that). Everything about this movie reeks of cheesiness, from the bad acting to the bad fight scenes. Sure it's not the best blaxploitation movie I've ever seen, but it's certainly worth a watch... even if it's just for the topless karate scene.

2 Birthday Fish out of 5

Squid.