D.O.A. - Dead or Alive
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Movie Reviews of D.O.A. - Dead or Alive
Movie Review: "Girl Power" collides with "Mortal Kombat"..A FUN Watch!
Summary: 4 Stars
"D.O.A.: Dead or Alive" as everyone knows is based on the Video game franchise of the same name. This film was released in mid-2006 in Asia before in the U.S. possibly because of the larger market for video game inspired movies. For this reason, I managed to own the region-3 Asian release (image by S. L. Bledsoe in Amazon) even before the movie hit U.S. theaters. Directed by Corey Yuen (Transporter, So Close) an acclaimed Martial arts choreographer, (although Corey's not as renowned as the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping) D.O.A. looks promising. After all, Jet Li quoted Corey Yuen In Black Belt magazine as "..if I need something fresh, I go to Corey Yuen."
A tournament called D.O.A. is being held in a remote Island by a man named Donovan (Eric Roberts). Three beautiful but lethal women are invited to compete. Tina (Jaime Pressley), Kasumi (Devon Aoki), and Christie (Holly Valance). Each of the three female leads have their own motivation and has their own baggage to carry. Once there, they must battle their way up the fighter rankings through a bunch of other seasoned fighters to reach the finals. Once in the final phase, the women uncover a hidden "sinister" secret that is the true reason for the competition. Aided by Helena (hottie Sarah Carter) and Hayabusa (Kane Kosuji), they must either join forces or perish...
Since the movie is based on the video game, expect something with a simple plot with scantily-clad women engaging in fisticuffs and, ahem, volleyball (which is a nice touch, there is a game called "D.O.A. Beach Volleyball"). What can we expect? The game itself is renowned for its hard-hitting fights and titillation factor ("bouncing b--bs" and skimpy outfits) so the film just exploits those factors.
It is fairly obvious that Corey Yuen has a limited budget to work with. Still, he manages to pull off an accelerated fast-paced action film that is both hard-hitting and visually stylish. While the plot is lacking and with almost no decent character development, Corey goes for the throat with a lot of mano-o-mano fights and as much "PG-13" brutality(no blood) he can spare to compensate for the lackluster plot. The extensive fight choreography is the true "lure" of the film. The film is based on a video game so reality is out the door.
D.O.A. remains true to its roots (gimmicks), as there is enough tease (but not explicit) to make a male(like me) excited, shots of a few tanned skin and sexy curves to satisfy the raw sex appeal of the games. While it does have its goofy moments, (the nerdy guy is so annoying), there is enough action to divert our attention that it does avoid the screenplay from becoming "cheesy" nor "campy". Eric Roberts is definitely miscast as the bad guy, he didn't have the "raw appeal" for a baddie. Wrestler Kevin Nash even makes an appearance as Tina's wrestler Dad. The film is short, and the ending gives you a little tease of the possibility of a sequel.
Since I am 90% certain that the U.S. release will have the same transfer, I will give you my take on the dvd quality...
VIDEO/AUDIO: Anamorphic widescreen. The PQ is excellent. Colors are vibrant, clean and extremely sharp. Black levels are solid and strong when needed. 5.1 Dolby digital/DTS-ES English track. The DTS track is the way to go if your equipped since it is very powerful and crisp. The 5.1 Dolby isn't too shabby either.
OVERALL:
Corey Yuen made every effort to bring the video game to life. "D.O.A." is a hyper-accelerated-kinetic stylish action film that gets the fight sequences (for a Hollywood film) just right and that's the best anyone can hope for given its source material. Its' a video game with hot chicks, what can we expect?
RECOMMENDED! For fans of the game and the action genre, a good rental for everybody else. (3 ½ stars)
Movie Review: Suprisingly Fun and Entertaining Action Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
I know the movie is based on a video game, but that usually isn't a good sign for a film. But not only did this have good action scenes, but also pretty good characterization and quality acting - at least one that is fitting for this type of film. Not that the movie is realistic, but my only gripe would be the suspension of belief required for the escape scene.
The movie focuses on four women, and a couple of men who tag along to some undiscovered East Asian island for a fight tournament that has been taking place annually for 21 years. The winner to get 10 million dollars (US dollars, HK dollars, we don't know.
Three of the women, played by Jaime Pressley, Holly Valance, Devon Aoki become friends. Sarah Carter plays the daughter of the man who sponsored the tournament until his untimely death preceding this current one. The current organizer, played by Eric Roberts, turns out to have some devious ideas.
Each of the women have ulterior motives. Jaimie Pressly plays a women's wrestler and daughter of another wrestler played by Kevin Nash (also invited to the tournament). She needs to prove to herself that she is also a warrior despite professional wrestling's reputation as a fake sport. Holly Valance plays a thief who is there to steal the $100 million in the vault, Devon Aoki plays a ninja clan princess there to find her brother who had disappeared at the previous year's tournament - she is being chased by Natassia Malthe, who is sent to assassinate her for leaving the clan. Meanwhile, she is being guarded by Kane Kosugi (who was also invited to the tournament).
Each actress is into character and does a good job displaying the motivations behind her character. There is a good chemistry between the actresses on screen, and it's very believable that they become friends despite being rivals. And the chemistry is there among all the cast, between Valance and Matthew Marsden, who plays Valance's partner in crime and romance, and Aoki and Kosugi, who share an unsaid fondness for each other. The action scenes are fun and varied, some ranging from the comdedic Jackie Chan style and some straight-forward fights. Male viewers get a bonus of eye candy, escpecially with the women's beach volleyball scene.
The dvd extras deserve special mention with the cast interviews, which complement the film very well. Of course, this is B movie, but one that stands out - not only does it do action well, but characters I cared for, good characterization, good acting all-around anc good direction.
Movie Review: Gamer review
Summary: 4 Stars
The rundown is I agree with all the currently posted reviews 100%. The reason I'm adding my two cents is this was actually a video game to movie I really enjoyed and for people with fan favorites I'm basically just writing a character breakdown (no 'plot' spoilers, not that there's much too spoil). The dialog can drive you nutty, the choreography is fun, and the extras are worth checking out.
Negatives for fans of the following:
If you're a hardcore Ayane fan, sorry, you'll have to wait for a Ninja Gaiden movie because she comes across as an Elecktra knockoff who doesn't have a fight scene to do her justice.
If you're a Ryu fan, he's a pansy with one good fight sequence.
No Ein, but Hayate brings a touch of "Kiss of the Dragon" kicked up a notch.
No Hitomi, super brief cameos to Gen Fu, Brad Wong, Lei Fang, Bayman, and Jann Lee.
Positives for fans of the following:
Christie (no longer an assassin, she's a professional thief who has 'loner' lines and is always working with somebody), Tina, and Kasumi are the triple threat heroines of the film. So for fans of these characters you're in for a treat.
Zack, Leon, Donovan, and Bass have well dispersed interactions along with some good fights (bearing in mind the film is about 90 minutes, which is a blessing and curse). Kudos to the roles of Zack and Bass, for me they were just what the movie needed.
Epilogue:
The one thing that bugged me was that with the exception of Kasumi and Tina, there wasn't a whole lot of exposition about why they were there. The game wasn't too deep either, but if this movie was described as a pie, the ending would be the fluffy top part of the pie with the least amount of substance (in the game this was reversed).
As a final side note the movie incorporates a lot of nods to its genre and to the game. It was a blast watching some signature moves make it into the movie and although I would've liked to have seen a lot more it was more than enough to keep me entertained. Was so surprised I ended up watching it twice because I had a hard time believing how much I enjoyed it, but it was still a blast through round 2.
Movie Review: Need time to let it sink in
Summary: 4 Stars
My initial reaction to this movie was give it 2 stars just for finishing it. Then I thought, "Hey, this is based on the game. Did it deliver what you expected?" And there, it got me. There is no attempt here to make a great movie. This is a way to divert yourself for roughly an hour and a half. If you give it the benefit of the doubt, you can say the plot is pretty thin. Practically non-existent in fact, but then have you ever played the DOA game? I own one of them. In fact, I only own one video game and it's DOA Hardcore. My favorite character is Lei Fang so I was kind of disapointed with her lack of screen time in this movie, but they didn't ask me so I settle for what I get. Anyway, enough meandering and back to the movie. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it pretty much delivers on what one would expect from a movie based on the DOA characters. Lots of pretty spectacular unbelievable fighting, and a lot of cute ladies in cool outfits. Kasumi and her fighting coustume were disapointments, Ayane I liked, Helena was --well, different, Tina was better than I expected, and Christie was far better than I anticipated. And Weatherbee: How could you not love Weatherbee? While the male fighters in this film were pretty much in it just to play the roles of punching bags for the girls, they seemed to have fun with their parts and were good sports about playing under
achieving characters. I give this film 4 stars for presenting an hour and a half of what you would pretty much expect but no more. I could have been better but it also could have been much worse. If you are a fan of any of the games you should at least be able to say you saw it.
Movie Review: Knows What it Is
Summary: 4 Stars
Unlike the similarly themed "Tournament", "D.O.A." knows what it is and plays it's cards to the hilt. "Tournament" was ridiculous and tried to take itself seriously. "D.O.A." is an over-the-top comic book and doesn't try to be anything else.
Here's the scoop. Fighters/assassins are invited to compete in an elimination challenge on a private resort type Island. The winner gets a cool ten million dollars. What they don't know is that the proprietor (an uber-sleazy Eric Roberts) is programming their skills into a gizmo that allows him to create the ultimate army which he can market to other countries. There are other sub-plots but that's pretty much it in a nutshell.
The producers/director make this sort of a James Bond type flick. Over-sized sets, cool devices, a megalomaniac who wants to rule the world (or at least profit from others who want to) and some very 007 type music. There are a lot of well choreographed fight scenes as well. They are well directed and well shot (as is the entire movie). It's all a lot of fun. Everybody involved gets what's going on and plays it as such.
As for the actors: I know Jaime Pressly, Devon Aoki and, of course, Eric Roberts. All the others were new to me but they do a decent enough job to move things along. This is all about the fun and action. It's strictly a beer and pizza kind of flick, but as long as you know that going in you shouldn't be disappointed. And, at a trim 87 minutes (that must include the previews and closing credits) it won't tax your time or attention span.
Crack one open, throw some Tabasco on that pizza and have at it.