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DOA: Dead Or Alive (2006)

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Overall Rating 50%
Overall Rating
Ranked #2,483
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Genres / Traits: Action Martial Arts Video Games

A number of fighters are invited to DOA, an invitational martial arts contest. They travel to the tournament island by plane, until they have to jump out mid-flight with parachutes, and then have until sundown to reach the main island to be entered into the tournament. Fighters are then pooled against one another in a knock-out style tournament, with the loser of a battle sent home, and the winner progressing to the subsequent round. The plot revolves around four female fighters who begin as rivals, but subsequently find themselves teaming up against another force. --IMDb
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Review by cky2kendall
Added: December 20, 2006
After about fifteen years, you'd have thought movie studios would have got the whole "video-game based films" nailed down by now. But it seems no matter what happens, they always find a way to ruin it both as an individual movie and for the hardcore games such as myself. DOA: Dead Or Alive sadly doesn't stray from this tradition, and offers one of the finest pieces of bad movie-making I've ever seen.

It starts off by introducing three main characters; Kasumi the warrior princess who leaves her clan to find her long-lost brother, Tina the pro-wrestler out to prove she is more than just a so-called actor, and finally Christie, the sexy but deadly trained assassin and professional thief. Each of these, along with other characters taken from the series, are invited to the DOA tournament to try and win $10 million by beating out their competition enough to win the final round. Think of this as pretty much the movie of Mortal Kombat, but with no blood and lots more CGI. The first half of the movie is very much clips of different competitors fighting, with a little bonding between the main characters (Read: the girls) and a little humour added into the mix as well. It's so very discomforting as a set-up to the actual plot, which I'd hate to give away here as to ruin your movie-going experience.

It reminds me of the style of movie Resident Evil was actually, using lots of edgy and speedy shots and loud aggressive music to accompany the fight scenes. To be far, it includes the same producer, so maybe that has something to do with it. I can't say I hate them all, but there are times when it's unnecessary. When two people are standing at a computer, and the camera does all this 360-somersault stuff over the actors, I just don't need it. I get it, they are typing on a computer. There is no way to make this cooler with some modern film-making. The soundtrack I can't really fault, although at times they do make it too over-dramatic. This goes especially for the Japanese-style fight scenes, say if something gets cut apart and the music will stop, and everyone is standing silent while it falls to the ground. I'm not really a fan of that to be honest, but that's just my thing.

Now, I can't fault them much for the cast because I think the main girls do a good job. This movie was promoted highlighting only the girls, which to their credit, is pretty much Dead Or Alive. Hell, there's a volleyball scene with 3 main characters and another of the girls on the island! I can't take that away from a fighting series which made a volleyball game spin-off really though. Yes, the lovely ladies are very much the highlights of the movie, and they pull off that strong feminine type wonderfully. Jamie Pressley and Holly Valance are obviously the two most known on the credits, and some of their fight scenes are quite creative. Holly's with fellow female Sarah Carter (Playing the young and cheery Helena) is definitely my favourite fight of the movie. A lot of slow-mo shots, rain pouring all around the sand, and some nice cuts between the holds on each other make it somewhat entertaining in this dismal of a movie.

Other than the occasionally good fight scene and the eye candy cast, there really is nothing much to be said on this movie's good side. The plot is so incredibly retarded and half-arsed that I did consider turning it off, the setting while very nice and beautiful doesn't leave much to be desired for the fight scenes, which are too short for such a huge cast, and it doesn't give much in either way for DOA newcomers or longtime fans of the game series. This movie very much challenged Street Fighter, only losing because of Bison's blow-up muscle suit. The only reason I can suggest to see this movie is if you are doing it for the women. After all, that is what made the video game series so popular. But still, that is a very long stretch to pay money for this film. 2/10.
Chad #1: Chad - added March 7, 2007 at 3:46am
I can't disagree with the review itself, but I did enjoy the movie. Yes, the story is minimal, and yes, there's a lot of CGI action taking place throughout the running time; however, it's a movie based on a game which focused on scantily-clad women beating the hell out of one another. If that's the sort of thing that you want to see, you'll get it in spades with this release. 7/10 for the pure-cheese entertainment factor.
Crispy #2: Crispy - added January 28, 2010 at 1:10pm
I wanted braindead action and an endless parade of hot, nubile women. DOA delivered. 8/10
BuryMeAlive #3: BuryMeAlive - added June 29, 2010 at 4:54pm
I feel sorry for anyone that take this movie seriously, the movie itself doesn't, so why should you? Looking past the silliness this is a entertaining "Charlie's Angels" meets "Mortal Kombat" film...
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