For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The Plot. Her name is Diana Jackson, but you can call her T.N.T. When T.N.T.'s brother is killed by ruthless drug dealers, the beautiful young karate expert goes to the most dangerous part of Chinatown to find the killer. In trouble with the law since she was 13, T.N.T. wants no help from the pigs; but she does befriend a guy named Joe, whose impressive martial arts skills prove useful more than once. In her quest for the killer, she'll meet the white drug lord, Sid; Elaine, his bitchy girlfriend; his suspicious Chinese assistant, Ming; and Charlie, his handsome black assistant with criminal ambitions of his own. Before her search is over, she'll find herself making love to Charlie, trading insults with Elaine, and fighting criminals while nude and in the dark. Just call her T.N.T.This amounts to one of the worst exploration films ever made. And it's not "good" bad. It's just bad.The story-line is random and impossible to follow. The actions scenes are horrible and unreal.There is no direction to speak of and the locales are crumbling.Oh, and it goes without saying that the acting is horrendous.

TNT Jackson's brother has been knocked off in Hong Kong and TNT heads there undercover to kick ass and find her brother's killer. It all kicks off in this action packed, and afro packed film from Cirio H Santiago. Also, that's the plot.TNT sure gets into some scrapes here. Almost immediately she's set upon by goons trying to steal her bag (one guy gets a gory arm snapping for his troubles) and then she shacks up at a bar run by Joe while being hit upon by a dude called Charlie, who has an amazing afro and is quite the Russell Brand type when it comes to the ladies. Trouble is, he also killed TNT's brother, but she doesn't find that out until after he's gotten into her pants like the fanny rat he is.Loads of kung fu fighting (including a topless kung fu fight!), double crosses, and even a bit of gore (turns out that the 'thrusting your hand into an enemies midriff' might be a legitimate kung fu move – I've seen it a few times now) make this film very enjoyable. It's about 70 minutes long too. If Tarantino paid homage to it, it'd be three hours long (and don't doubt that he hasn't watched this one).

A very feeble cross between a kung fu film and a blaxploitation movie, aimed squarely in the middle of both markets and yet failing as a vehicle for each genre. This is a Filipino-shot movie with the Philippines standing in for Hong Kong, directed by old hand Cirio H. Santiago. Believe it or not, I'm a fan of Santiago's movies – call me a masochist if you will – but even I'll be the first to admit this is one of his worst efforts.The problem is that the film is boring, despite best efforts otherwise. The plot is slim and of the standard revenge format, but most of the production values are terrible. The fight choreography is very poor and there never appears to be any genuine skill on the part of most of the performers. In particular, Jeannie Bell is terrible, completely failing to cut it as both a fighter and a leading actress; it's painfully obvious that her career background is as a model. Best of the actors is Stan Shaw, later a Hollywood mainstay, who's a pleasure to watch whenever he's on screen.Unfortunately, TNT JACKSON has to be considered a failure at the end of it all purely because it's so badly made. Sure, there are a handful of decent scenes in here, and one or two scenes that are memorable for all the wrong reasons, but it's not enough to make this come close to resembling a decent movie in any way, shape or form.

"TNT Jackson" isn't completely unwatchable. But either the version I saw on DVD was edited with a weed-whacker, or the screenplay itself is the lowest level of grind-house/blaxploitation sausage. Or maybe both.Jeanne Bell is supposed to have been a Playmate at one point in her career,and the movie makes the most of the connection by displaying her breasts at least two times more than was really necessary (including a hilarious topless fight scene that I am pretty sure was meant to be funny). I will admit, they are quite nice. Still, she's sort of average looking and doesn't have the charisma of a Foxy Brown, or a Cleopatra Jones. She does have her moments as an actress in the film, though, but it would have been nice if the director had pushed her a little harder or the screenplay had given her a chance to do more than emote "attitude" and kick people.Speaking of kicking people, the fight scenes (the other putative reason to watch a film like this) are pretty poorly done.There's no real choreography to speak of here, just people posing and sticking feet and fists in the general direction of their opponents. One minor exception is a nice moment with an opponent equipped with butterfly folding knives; another is a sequence near the very end where an obvious stunt double for Bell (and maybe for Stan Shaw) leap around and do some decent sweeps and groundwork for a minute or two before Bell/"Jackson" punches her enemy's liver out, Shaw collapses and the screenplay just stops. (Again, I will admit that this is very much in the tradition of Shaw Brother quickies since time immemorial).There are a couple of supporting actors who are actually better than the film deserves (I'm thinking of "Joe" and the fellow playing the drug lord's right hand man). There's a halfway decent funk laden soundtrack that complements the action on the screen and add a star to the rating by itself. There's a semi-dodgy sex scene that manages to be effective almost in spite of itself.This one is strictly for hardcore fans of blaxploitation. I saw it out of sheer curiosity, and I'm not sorry I took the time. But I can't imagine wanting to take the time to see it again unless I decide to write a dissertation on the pop culture intersections of "Kung Fu Theater" and "Foxy Brown".