CIA Code Name: Alexa

Lorenzo Lamas stars as some type of CIA agent, who captures some exotic beauty named Alexa, kidnaps her daughter and forces her to fight her former employers. O.J Simpson is also on board to provide a dash of acting credibility for the not so talented ensemble. I must admit i'm not a fan of Lorenzo Lamas, or his movies. He stinks. However when compared to O.J Simpson and Lamas' comatose wife Kinmont, Lamas seems like ah, Jean-Claude Van Damme. I only saw CIA because of the renewed interest around the O.J Simpson trial, you see because if your parents had cable and the extra channels, you couldn't escape this movie. in 1994 you could go to an Amish community and some moron would have this playing in their portable TV. The movie itself is a collection of lame action sequences and would be intrigue although the shock value of O.J Simpson jumping after fireballs and exchanging would be one liners do provide some unintentional humor. Also where was Bobby Knight and Kobe Bryant to make this a complete camp classic?

* out of 4-(Bad)

This is really really bad. Lamas shows just how a second rate actor does his job. But what makes it worth watching is the scene where OJ angrily grabs a fellow cop by the throat as if to kill them while the jukebox plays a song with the lyric "I got the evidence on you!". (Makes me want to hear the rest of the lyrics - attributed to David Gregoli and Leslie Oren but i couldn't find it on iTunes). Talk about seeing into the future...Too funny for words. The rest of the movie is forgettable. The score and songs are more interesting than the script. Ditto the sequel. Which begs the question of why they would do a sequel at all. My understanding was that foreign sales drives a lot of these B movies. Doesn't say much for the world's viewing habits.

"CIA Codename:Alexa" is an absolute horrible rip off of Luc Besson's classic film "La Femme Nikita"(1990). The film is basically about a woman who is taken in and trained by the CIA and is forced to do a secret mission for them. (Pretty much the same story structure of La Femme Nikita) The acting combo of Lorenzo Lamas and O.J. Simpson is perhaps the worst in cinema history. Lamas' "acting" is simply a bad Steven Segal impersonation. Watching Orenthal act in this film is an excruciating experience.

The writing and acting is so poor in this film at times it is laughable. There are so many action movie "conventions" in the film it is ridiculous: unnecessary car explosions, people flying thru glass windows, terrorists, bad ponytails, etc. The musical score resembles David Michael Frank's score for "Hard to Kill" (1990), which furthers the Steven Segal theme of this movie. There is plenty of martial arts in the film, and it is pretty well done for a low budget American production. The mindless action and over the top acting never lets up, and I have to admit I was mildly entertained.

Lorenzo Lamas had the look of an action star back in the early 90's but he is certainly no action star, that is why he is doing soap operas and not action blockbusters. My recommendation is that you skip "CIA Codename:Alexa" and check out "La Femme Nikita" instead.

PLOT OUTLINE: A gang of thieves break into a government building & steal a valuable computer chip. The group is killed, but not before the leader swallows the chip. His body is stolen by a group of terrorists working for arms dealer Victor Mahler. One of the terrorists, a woman named Alexa, is captured by the CIA. Mark Graver, a CIA agent, decides to try & turn Alexa against her boss.

This low budget actioner was one of the first films made by PM Entertainment, one of the major players in the DTV action genre during the 1990s. The film became a cult hit on cable television due to the fact that one of its stars, O. J. Simpson, was put on trial for the murder of his wife & her lover. This success turned PM into a successful B-film studio, enabling them to make dozens of similar films during the decade.

The trial has given the film a reputation it does not deserve. In fact, C. I. A. – Codename: Alexa is something of a poster boy for those who decry action films as being nothing but violent garbage. The film's script is poorly written; the action scenes consist of people standing out in the open firing at each other; the dialogue is cheesy & stupid & the plot, despite given a title like "C. I. A.", fails to feature the agency prominently.

That said, the film does prove to be something of a guilty pleasure. The action scenes, despite having the characters standing out in the open while shooting their weapons, do have an undeniable energy (the cinematographer for the film, PM honcho Richard Pepin, would later go on to direct a number of sci-fi / action hybrids).

The stars are a mixed bunch. Kathleen Kinmont & Lorenzo Lamas make a good pairing (they would later marry), Pamela Dixon gives the impression that she hates the film, judging by the contempt she gives it, while O. J. Simpson gives the usual idiotic surliness that he gave his other film roles.

CIA special agent Graver (Lorenzo Lamas) wants the killer Alexa (Kathleen Kinmont) to become a double agent and support him in his fight against the villain Mahler (veteran actor Alex Cord). Alexa only joins the fight against the bad guy after her daughter is taken hostage (by Graver, respectively the "good guys"!). Strange methods that agents working for the government are using these days - or is it just that movies don't carry conviction anymore? Anyhow, this average action movie has a few (violent) memorable moments after all, I vote 4/10.