Susanne Carter (Kesner) is a beautiful female Martial Arts instructor (we're informed multiple times that she's a sixth-degree black belt) who travels alone to the Philippines in search of her missing sister. While on her quest, she runs afoul of a man named Chuck (Hinton) who not only fights in Karate tournaments himself, but is also involved in a variety of illegal doings with a man named Grip (Diaz). While Susanne has to navigate this treacherous world, she also finds time to enhance her Martial Arts studies, learning the Philippine art of stick fighting, known as Arnis - they even made a whole movie about it called Sticks of Death (1986). Will Susanne's beauty and brawn combination lead her to find her sister and win the day? Find out today! Jillian Kesner, of Operation Cobra (1997) fame was an ideal choice for the heroine of Firecracker: she's attractive, athletic, and was not only game for the many fight scenes, but also the Cirio standby of the nearly-nude girl fighting multiple attackers. It's one of the standout scenes in the movie, as it would be again in the future for Silk 2 (1989) and Angelfist (1993). Firecracker is classic Cirio. It has a thin plot about a woman trying to find her missing sister, there are plenty of shots of the beautiful Philippine countryside and other local cultural things, plenty of fight scenes, and a lot of 70's.early 80's fashions on display. Plus at an audience-considerate 77 minutes, it never overstays its welcome.Darby Hinton, who plays Chuck (did they try to get Chuck Norris for this role, fail to do so, then hope nobody would notice?) steals the (fashion) show with his multiple stylish outfits, not to mention his resemblance to basketball great Larry Bird. But it was a different time - a time when audiences would dress up nicely and go to a supper club to watch Martial Arts displays while they eat dinner by candlelight. A time when seemingly-random barfights could break out at a moment's notice, a time when Jillian Kesner could step in and save us all with her newly-acquired Arnis skills. Has the world really gotten better since then? Clearly not.With contributions by Philippine film legends Vic Diaz and Joe Mari Avellana, and a very cool main musical theme by Nonong Buencamino, Firecracker is an enjoyable gem that mixes two hot genres of the day: Martial Arts and exploitation. Now that it's on DVD with the three-movie "Lethal Ladies" collection, there's really no excuse not to check it out.

this has some of the worst choreography i have ever seen in a martial arts movie and believe me i have seen a lot.the not bad looking blond who stars in this cheese fest obviously doesn't know a thing about martial arts.cynthia rothrock would laugh so hard if she seen this woman's pathetic fight scenes.as other people have mentioned is the fight scene where her dress gets ripped off of her body and the a sickle gets swung at her cutting off her bra leaving her wearing only her panties.if you want to see women who know how to fight get a DVD with cynthia khan or michelle yeoh and cynthia rothrock and stay away from this badly acted and badly choreographed pile of b-movie cheese

Yup, star Jillian Kesner does manage to combine a karate fight scene with a slow strip, and it actually is a bit sexy. She's not the most lovely woman who ever took her clothes off in a movie, but I thought she was attractive and there's something appealing to a certain sort of adolescent sexual mind (like mind) in the sequence. She gets her clothes ripped off, a bit at a time, while she's fighting for her life. It adds vulnerability to her physical allure, and that worked for me. Of course, that's because it's a movie, and not reality. Seeing women attacked for real is nothing I hope for. Hell, most of what happens in movies is nothing I hope for.There are other scenes in this movie, but I don't remember any of them from the one time I saw it, over 20 years ago. They're probably awful. But, who cares? There are many films that are worth seeing for one scene and, if you share my fondness for the sort of thing that makes teenaged boys snicker and rewind their VCRs, over and over, you'll think this is one of them.

I remember seeing this film when I was young. It was being aired on cable, when it first came out. This was great because it was the un-cut version. I somehow was able to get a copy of this when it was aired on late night TV some years ago. I still have the copy with commercials (edited for television). I would like to get the full version. This film had some unforgettable scenes. I have to say that it turned me on to women in the martial arts.