1st Testament: CIA Vengeance (2001)

BAD DVD...poor movie.

In recent years some of the best films have come out of Korea so I had middle-high hopes for this Korean American film. (It's a small budget so of course my hopes weren't Oscar high). But the writing, pacing, and acting is all sub-par. Some of the dialogue doesn't make any sense at all so I watched it twice. I guess the script was written too fast to make sense? It's obviously a DV feature. Very dark and lots of gray areas. Muted colors abound. I've seen worse though so I'll give a few points for the fact that I can see anything.

Overall this film is a failure. The action is pretty tame. The writing is pretty lame. And the acting is just okay....but how can I fault them for not understanding what they are saying? Don't watch unless you've got a lot of patience and just love student films.

WARNING!!! I returned the first DVD because it wouldn't play. The second DVD didn't play either until I got a new player. So it wouldn't work on a Toshiba, 2 PCs, laptop & desktop MAC, Toshiba, Xbox but it worked on a new cheap multi-region player. Not sure why....it should be region 1...but it just won't work. I'd say wait for a better release. The video actually has great color for a DV feature...but it shakes a lot. I can't tell if it's someone hitting the camera or a problem with authoring. The sound goes from normal to over-modulated. It's so screwed up at the beginning that the voices crackle.

It's great for a college film, poor for a professional feature, and the DVD just plain doesn't work very well. May 27, 2004

Puply, escapist entertainment

This is a nifty little spy thriller, loaded with an infectious sense of fun and characters that recall the glory days of low-rent/high-entertainment B-Movies and the page-turning excitement of classic pulp paperback novels. The plot is quite a hoot but much of the success with "1st Testament: CIA Vengeance" is derived from the wonderful cast, leading off with Ron Becks as the CIA agent in the center of the action. Becks, who also wrote the screenplay, creates a genuine action character who is mercifully free of the endless wisecracking and stunt-excessive shenanigans generally associated with spy thrillers...

The best part is that the film is literally overflowing with beautiful women. I cannot recall any film which has brought together so many knockout gorgeous ladies together...it seems as if each new scene brings yet another hot babe in front of the camera especially Kimmarie Johnson as a disillusioned nightclub singer, This film will send die-hard girl-watchers into a cold shower to calm down. It is a shame that casting agents don't receive Oscars...whoever cast this film would be guaranteed the golden statuette.

This is a pure energy film kick which offers plenty of diversion, amusement and style. January 16, 2004

Review

Actor Ron Becks acted as star and writer of this fascinating B-grade hybrid certain to enthrall exploitation film fans everywhere. A spy thriller/actioner about a CIA agent who wants out, but instead gets reassigned to train a deadly South Korean female assassin with the aim of killing North Korea's Kim Jong-Il. Ripped from the headlines? Not exactly, but for people who recall the glory days of such Cold War exploitation films back in the '80s, this is a fun throwback. It's also a throwback to the days when black cinema and Asian cinema flirted closely with each other -- long before Jet Li and DMX were making movies together. Produced and directed by South Korean filmmaker Young Man Kang, "1st Testament" is supposed to be the first of a trilogy -- and while its credentials are definitely on the B-level, it has enough natural verve and tongue-in-cheek humor to suggest that more outings are not out of the question. November 13, 2003

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