DOA: Dead or Alive

DOA: Dead or Alive

Tailor-made for the boys. (I’m one of the boys. Ahem)

The Gist

Four girls who are the most skilled in their respective martial arts type are selected to enter a tournament where everyone fights one another to win the top prize of 10 million dollars. Based on the XBox video game of the same name.

What Do I Think?

Honestly, anyone who goes for this film is not there because of the story and moral values. This film is about the B-grade wonders, flesh and skin, violence and action! Not to mention, the paper-thin plot! The four ladies, Holly Valance (acting debut), Jaime Pressly, Avon Deoki and Sarah Carter dress to their skimpiest outfits possible when showing their kung-fu moves. And they are not bad in both departments too.

Cory Yuen has not improved his directorial skills yet. However he has done a good job choreographing non-martial artists to display a few legitimate kicks and punches.

While watching the film, I couldn’t help but to feel that this is actually a Hong Kong movie, masked by an international cast and a very generous budget. Y’know, with all the corny scripts and cheesy screenplay.


The film has so many loopholes in the storyline that you can just watch it again to spot them all.

The kung-fu kicks and punches are nicely executed but they are generically over-repeated to the feel of having say, 10 Snickers bars in a row.


Albeit all the bad comments, the whole outing was rather quite decently enjoyable.

Rating: 7/10
This is how a video-game to movie conversion supposed to be. If the disastrous Street Fighter was done in this manner, it would have been made a success.

Last updated: 2009-08-12 01:02:05 by joekhor

D.O.A.: Dead or Alive

This was recommended to me by a friend. This friend has, shall we say,  questionable tastes in movies, so I tread lightly when it comes to his  recommendations, but this one turned out to be a really good choice.
The best way I can describe tis film is that it is a mix of Mortal Kombat and  the Charlie’s Angels movies.
Apparently, this is based on a video game. I have never played it, so I can’t  tell you how close it stuck to the story and all that jazz, but it seems like it  played up the story more than the fighting, which was really a bummer for me,  since one of the reasons I decided to check this out was for some good,  old-fashioned acting.
Many times films with extremely hot female leads use them for one thing…sex  appeal. DOA: Dead or Alive does just this, as the actresses in the lead  roles spend a good chunk of the picture wearing next to nothing, showing off  their extremely taught bikini bodies.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a Sports Illustrated swimsuit  calendar photshoot, so their bodies aren’t enough to sell the flick. There has  to be some acting done.
The acting is ok, but could be leaps and bounds better. The worst culprit has  to be Devon Aoki, as well as Natassia Malthe. Their scenes together remind me of  a roach squirming around after its been sprayed with Raid…painful to watch, but  at the same time you can’t turn away. I think that has more to do with the fact  that Aoki is usually a silent martial arts expert of some sort in her films.
Women aren’t the only thing in this film, but much in the matter as Bow is  only there for quote purposes, the men in this picture exist only to add some  testosterone to this otherwise estrogen laden cast. The only exception, would be  Eric Roberts, who is the film’s major antagonist.
Let’s be honest here, of there’s a plot to this picture is virtually  non-existant. Sure, there is some sense of a plot in there somewhere, but it  doesn’t really matter. The focal point of this picture is the women in bikinis  and the fight scenes. If you take those out, then what is the point of even  bothering to watch? DOA: Dead or Alive is the kind of film that doesn’t  make you think, but rather just have fun. Isn’t that what movies are truly for  anyway?
5 out of 5 stars
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