DOA: Dead or Alive

I love martial arts movies and in particular Cory Yuen films. No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers is a favourite. Having previously done great work with Jason Statham in The Transporter I had pretty high hopes. But I had reservations - this was a starring role for Holly Valance after all.

It wasn't everything I hoped it would be. Compared to the raw energy of Crank, DOA was committee film-making as usual. Colourful and featuring plentiful (reasonable) action DOA is only interesting in the opportunities it presents to draw comparison to others.

Borrowing stylistic and casting ideas from Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill, DOA is essentially Mortal Kombat and Streetfighter combined. Drawing parallels to Enter the Dragon too, there is nothing original or inventive.

Kane Kosugi benefits most from the choreography. He has a sequence on a flight of stairs which is brilliant and brutal - very similar to his scenes in his Japanese breakthrough vehicle Blood Heat. Elsewhere, while the film sexes up the concept of the tournament/video game movie, it's fatal flaw is that it's heroines don't convince. In Charlie's Angels they did.

Cory is notable for doing more than his share of fighting femme movies back in Hong Kong, including the recent So Close, but none are classic. DOA should have featured support from the likes of Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yeoh rather than Eric Roberts and Robin Shou. The girls are pure eye candy. Only Pressley comes close to credibility - because she has an impressive physique and attitude. Holly flutters her eyes at Coronation Street's Matthew Marsden while forcing an English accent. Devon Aoki lacks charisma.

The incorporation of the video game elements such as the character intros, K.O. freeze frames etc works really well and the costume design and production design brings the game to life brilliantly. You believe in the exaggerated world and that is key. But ultimately this is little more than a time waster.

A decent popcorn movie but nothing new for action fans.

Dead or Alive is a film that is so exploitative and atrociously bad, that somehow it ended up being a whole lot of fun. However to view this as a fun film, it must be viewed as intended: With brain switched off, and ol' Mr McDong taking control of your functions for 80 minutes. Yes, this may be a film with a predominantly female cast, but ladies need not turn up to watch this, cause they probably won't enjoy it, unless their sexual barometer is registering the opposite end from "hetero." This film is total gratuity in every regard, from the scantily clad, sexy ladies, to the barrage of testosterone pumping action. This is hot chicks doing high kicks! So with that, and having this the pre-conceived idea when I bought my ticket, I knew I'd enjoy it. Hell the film was marketed right. It's about a video game and has the subtlety of said game, which is in the button bashing, short attention span of the games spectrum. It's a simple movie for a simple movie going experience. IF anyone goes into this film and comes out having not enjoyed it, then they SHOULD have known better! I think only those who want to see this kind of film, who are in the mood, will watch, and they'll get a kick out of it like me. Critics will despise it cause it represents a film they have to watch, but probably don't want to.

So DOA is essentially a non-interactive video game, an FMV if you will. It's got an awful script, mediocre acting, and all the efforts of the filmmakers have gone into perfectly capturing, glistening, bouncing boobies amongst the martial arts mayhem. The plot essentially is nothing more than little set-ups to all the fights, taking place at a secret fighting tournament set up by Eric Roberts, in grade-A scenery chewing mode. Roberts to me is a tragic waste of talent, who in the early 80's looked a great prospect and to some, me included, has more talent than his over-rated sister Julia (who now of course takes all the plaudits). Roberts is consigned to doing DTV movies now, or TV movies and on the rare occasion he appears back in the multiplexes, it's in another B-movie that usually is awful. However at least Eric is enjoying himself here, relishing his return (somewhat) to the limelight. or to put it another way, to remind people Julia wasn't an only child! The rest of the main cast, who register any interest, are the hot ladies. There's the rather bizarre, yet strikingly attractive looking Devon Aoki and then there's also Holly Valance, Sarah Carter and Natassia Malthe too. However it's Jaime Pressley who steals the show, not only with her performance, that delivers the most laughs (intentional ones that is), but also she has a bod to die for and considering some stiff competition from Valances sculpted physique in particular, that's no mean feat.

Overall though this film will go down as a classic bad movie. The filmmakers never intended making anything beyond what they deliver. This is bad, it's cheesy and it's forgettable. But it's outrageously fun while it lasts and it most certainly requires the wearing of loose fitting underwear to allow for Sgt Schlong to stand to attention every now and again. I feel guilty having enjoyed it, but I had a good idea of the film that would be delivered and it was delivered as I imagined. ***

Here we have yet another video game movie that makes me embarrassed to play video games. One comment here claims, "Teenage boys are going to love it" because of the plentiful T&A and ample dose of action, and while yes, we do love our sex and violence, we live in a society where these things are the norm. Personally, I like the boobs and fighting to be handled with some sort of art. The script is laughable, the premise is incredibly derivative (although this is true of the game), and the talent of the actors is essentially irrelevant. The fights seem to be a loving tribute or rip-off to other, better fight movies. The camera work is frantic and overworked. This movie felt like a 90 minute pilot for a bad 90s TV show starring Pamela Anderson.

Yes, DOA is pretty weak source material, but if you're going to adapt a video game, try to put a little effort into it. If I just want tits and gore, I can watch porn and hobo fights.

This film is about a group of fighters getting invited to a fighting contest. Along the way, they find out there is a plot behind it and they work together to fight the bad guys.

There are quite a few problems with the movie. The plot is implausible. The DOA logo gets an on screen appearance too much that is very annoying. The love relationships seem so poorly built up that it exists just for the sake of existing. Not to mention the numerous soft porn scenes that make the film look cheap. Oh, and Devon Aokiwears the same facial expression on her face all the time, and her dialogs are spoken in such a plain and mundane way that is devoid of any emotion.

However, there are good things about the film. The film is pure brain-off entertainment. The fight scenes are very well thought out and rehearsed. This alone makes the film fun to watch.

Producer Paul W. S. Anderson had done a really acceptable job with the first adaptations of Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil, but with DOA the result was minimal. The curious thing is that the director was an expert choreographer in martial arts who had stood out quite a bit, but it seems that when directing a film things turn out differently. This adaptation was another failed attempt to adapt another well-known video game of the time and lacks good writing. It has a simple plot, but with a lack of depth and no character development. The script is just pretty bad. The digital effects are quite obvious and we could say that it is a B-series action movie, which is not strange considering the strong influence that Roger Corman had on Paul Anderson. The film has a childish and humorous tone, but the action is what stands out a lot. It really has good fight scenes, making the plot irrelevant and only the action matters, that is, it is a film that is enjoyed only for the action. Also what stands out the most in this film are the beautiful women in the cast. Another detail that cannot be ruled out is Junkie XL's soundtrack, which accompanies the combat scenes quite well. DOA as a film and adaptation is clearly bad, with a poorly written script, but it manages to remain enjoyable and entertaining thanks to the action scenes and the beautiful actresses. My final rating for this movie is a 6/10.