Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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.

Lovely, but tough and lethal karate champion Susanne Carter (a winningly spunky performance by gorgeous blonde knockout Jillian Kesner) stumbles across a nefarious drug cartel and a ruthless to-the-death martial arts tournament while searching for her missing sister in the Philippines. Director Cirio H. Santiago, who also co-wrote the blithely low-grade script with Ken Metcalfe, relates the entertaining story at a brisk pace, delivers a sizable smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity (Kesner gets stripped down to her panties by two slimy thugs in one especially hot and thrilling set piece), stages the wall-to-wall no-holds-barred martial arts fights with a reasonable amount of flair and competence, and certainly doesn't skimp on the unflinchingly grisly violence. This movie further benefits from a solid cast of familiar B-pic regulars: hunky Darby Hinton as cocky ace karate fighter Chuck Donner, Metcalfe as smooth head villain Erik, the ubiquitous Vic Diaz as crude and short-tempered dope connection Grip, Chandra Romero as smart and sultry moll Malow, Tony Ferror as dogged narcotics cop Tony, and Peter Cooper as scruffy bartender Pete. Nonong Buencamino's throbbing synth score hits the get-down funky spot. Ricardo Remias' fairly polished cinematography likewise does the trick. The sex scene between Susanne and Chuck in which they cut off each other's clothes with knives is a sizzling doozy. A real blast.

yes this film was a typical b rated movie that I watched when I was nearly 11.It was bad but there was something which I could not forget and keep myself away and after years I still remember this film.Especially the love scene between Jillian and her boyfriend whom she later killed very brutally,at the last scene... I was child then and was affected too much of the violence.... I later learned she is not a fighter but was practicing sometimes anyway she was pretty good and fighting was OK for her... As I read the other peoples comments I found many similarities about my feelings and theirs.. WATCH THIS FILM....

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