Naked Fist aka Firecracker (1981)

Tagline:

She'll blow you away!

Back of VHS:

A young American woman travels to the Orient to find her sister. Don't under-estimate her powers... she's seductive, she's beautiful and she'll make you think you're in heaven... but if you stand in her way, she'll use her best weapon against you... her NAKED FIST.

Movie Review:

A few days ago I picked up a large haul of tapes on eBay from a dottery old guy that didn't know what he was selling. There was a lot of junk in there (Wild Things 2, Dracula 2000, and some Tom Hanks movies) but among the trash was some actual good trash. PM Entertainment movies, war action movies, bad horror and this little gem. I hadn't heard of it before but the cover sold me straight away. The title alone will get me added to 'not safe for the workplace' lists.

The story is basic. Jillian Kesner travels to the Philippines to find out what has happened to her sister who went missing when writing a report on the local drug cartel (In fact she was at an underground fight shown at the beginning of the movie and taking snaps of the brutality before getting hauled off by some Filipino's). No sooner than Kesner gets off the plane and arrives at her motel then she is attacked by robbers in her room. Luckily she is in her underwear at this point which makes it easy to dispatch the would be villains with some of her level-five black belt Karate training.

Kesner leaves to look for her sister at a bar. The bar man hasn't seen her in weeks and has been holding a message for her. As he goes to get it a bar fight breaks out to which Kesner feels obbliged to involve herself in. This movie may have come out in 1981 but it's more like 1974 with the Hong Kong style martial arts on display, complete with chop-sockey sound effects. Kesner is a great fighter and is aided in this battle with the beefcake bar man and a random Bruce Lee clone. There is no rhyme or reason to this fight but it's hilarious all the same. The bar man shares the message with Kesner and develops photos she had taken, identifying a local bad guy Chuck Donner (played by Darby Hinton with a great moustache).

Ken Metcalfe, a recurring name in Filipino exploitation movies, both writes and stars in Naked Fist, though his role isn't huge. He plays the part of the drug overlord and underground fight club owner Erik who orders Chuck around and gets angry at failed attempts to get his stolen drugs back. Kesner fakes interest in joining his tournaments in the hope of finding out more about her sister but gets in various troubles along the way, all resulting in fighting. She even beats up a snake.

There's so much gold in Naked Fist and at 77 minutes run time it never really goes bad. We get a bit of gun play as well but the fights rule supreme here. The highlight of the movie is when Kesner in a long dress and high heels is on the street and gets attacked by thugs (of course). The fight goes on as usual until one thug tears her dress off and she keeps fighting in her lingerie again! Just when you think it couldn't get better, one of the thugs cuts her bra off from the front and in a very Carry On moment, the twins pop out - and yet still she keeps fighting! Naked Fist was seriously made for sixteen year old boys and I thank the director for that. Pay special attention in the background of the 'bra removal' scene in the warehouse to a box with the label "Rack Master". Bahaha!

And would you take a look at that cover. I thought I was in for some kind of Conquest style fantasy movie, what with the vulture perched on a concrete fist and the wall of fire. I get that they are trying to symbolise that Kesner will take you to hell with the pummelling she dishes out but still, they need not have gone to the effort. The title Naked Fist and the gratuitous side-boob artwork suckers you in enough as it is.

I only just realised now that Jillian Kesner was in Inferno aka Operation Cobra playing the blonde bombshell cougar Jasmine. I better go back and tag her in that. She's also been in Raw Force (1982) with Cameron Mitchell, one I will be checking out for sure. Finally, look out for the final payoff scene. Easily one of the best and most abrupt endings in cinema. No walking into the sunset for Kesner here. Highly recommended!

The Video:

Solid enough for VHS, though night time scenes were pretty garish with dark blue overtones. Also my tape was squeaking as it played; my cat was very interested in the noise. Still what do you expect for a 28 year old tape. Runtime 77 minutes.

Sourced From:

Roadshow PAL VHS for about 50c in a bulk lot off eBay.

Trailer:

More Screens:

Inferno aka Operation Cobra (1997)

Back of DVD:

An ex-interpol officer (Don "The Dragon" Wilson), now DEA Agent tracks the man who killed his former partner to India, where he finds himself on a one-man mission to clean up the criminal underworld. There he is forced to use his Interpol police training to deal with the most ancient customs in the underbelly of foreign culture.

Movie Review:

A 90's action movie filmed in India, directed by Fred Olen Ray, produced by Roger Corman and starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson. This is going to be special.

In a museum, Don "The Dragon" as Kyle Connors, and his partner Trevor are on a stakeout, hoping to stop an illegal trade from going ahead. Watching from a distance, Don spies a guy in a ponytail buying a CD from some chump who gets double crossed and his neck broken. Before he flees, the ponytail guy arms a suitcase bomb. Don's partner Trevor (Rick Hill, the Deathstalker!) goes to disarm the bomb even though Don says that he is the expert, while Don runs after the ponytail and gets a few shots in, a brief kickbox and then gets his arse handed to him. The museum explodes, Don's partner apparently dead, and Mr. Ponytail gets away.

The next day Don gets chewed out by his Captain (christ these movies are all sounding familiar...). He is thrown off the case but after some pleading and whining that "Trevor was my best friend", the Captain says Don can have a "holiday" and gives him the case files. Off Don goes to India to catch Mr. Ponytail (Evan Lurie if you are wondering, a minor veteran of 90's actioners like T-Force, American Ninja 2, Ring of Fire 2, wrote and produced Hologram Man and apparently was in Double Impact with JCVD). The whole movie takes place in India, with a 90% Indian cast. This was pretty refreshing. The scenery was different to the usual downtown LA (or Bulgaria on all the recent DTV efforts) and the acting more interesting, mostly due to the thick accents I guess, all speaking English.

Don arrives at the motel and makes eyes at the counter girl. This is a recurring theme in Inferno; Don the ladies man. When he leaves he is followed by some uniformed Indian thugs but he doubles back, and when one is struggling to find a lighter for his cigarette Don emerges from the shadows and lights it for him (champage comedy!). Then beats the crap out of him. They are at a market so fruit stands and pottery go flying. Don is arrested and told to return to the USA; an Indian officer is told to escort him to the airport. Along the way they nearly hit a girl who is fleeing more uniformed thugs and run into a monastery. Don kicks their arses (again another recurring theme. Don is the man!) but the girl knees the Indian cop in the balls and steals his car! That's gratitude.

Elsewhere, Mr. Ponytail enters a computer lab to see that his workers are running on schedule decrypting the CD he stole that night from the museum (apparently he intends to do bad things with it). When the team lead complains he needs more money to complete the job, Mr. Ponytail takes him into another room and slits his throat. It's very arty as it's all seen through a window only with no sound. Who ever said Fred Olen Ray couldn't direct? Well, everybody really. The second in charge is now promoted dead-mans-boots style and gets on with the decryption.

This is a very, very silly movie. The fights are pretty good but I was laughing throughout most them. Most of the Indian fighters are chubby or wearing floral shirts and obviously no match for Don. I mentioned Don is a ladies man in this; well the first time with a girl is when he returns to his motel with the other cop to make a phone call and the motel receptionist is waiting in his bed! He kicks her out and when the cop asks who that was Don very cleverly responds "Room service." Gold. Don also goes to a restaurant to meet up with a contact who can help him find Mr. Ponytail. She's a totally out-of-place blonde cougar in her 40's with absolutely MASSIVE cans (Jillian Kesner). The woman works for MI6 in England and is trying to get to Ponytail guys boss, Grayson (Michael Cavanaugh). Then for whatever reason they go back to Don's hotel and she gets her puppies out for Don to play with. Don really has no idea what to do in love scenes but it's fun to watch him squirm.

Some other highlights are the second love scenes with the Indian girl who stole the car earlier - complete with wet shirts under a waterfall - and Don's killing of a cobra let loose in his room. As the thing slowly slides under his covers Don shoots it through his pillow across the room and it splats against the wall. Don and his adopted cop partner go to a dodgy nightclub called The Dive (and it is) and we see the local Indian population grooving in their floral shirts to Bollywood-style electro. It's hilarious. Outside the club Don almost gets strangled by a noose hung from the roof by one of those uniformed thugs again, but then he has a fight in front of an elephant - just to really remind us we are in India. Don agrees to do an assassin job on Grayson for the MI6 cougar in exchange for help in getting Mr. Ponytail (his name is actually Davaad but I prefer Mr. Ponytail). Not is all as it seems and another player in this game is revealed.

Inferno is fun silliness with Don taking on half of india with fists and guns, all to avenge his dead partner. The alternate title Operation Cobra comes about because the bad guys are called the Cobra gang or something. It makes more sense than Inferno. I don't know what that is referring to; perhaps the disco inferno at The Dive? Doubtful.

Worth checking out for a laugh and would go down well at a movie night with beers and like-minded chums.

The Video:

Pretty respectable presentation on this cheap R4 DVD released by RAAM Multimedia (who I'm pretty sure are some affiliate of Payless). Adequate colour and sharpness and presented in (most likely) OAR 1.33:1. Runtime 88 minutes.

Sourced From:

Dick Smith bargain bins for $2 (I love RAAM, Payless and Flashback releases!)

Trailer:

More Screens: