D.O.A.: Dead or Alive (2006) - Devon Aoki, Jamie Presley, Sarah Carter, Holly Valance, Natassia Malthe, Kane Kosugi

[AlbertV]

Corey Yuen tackles the video game genre with this live action adaptation of the Tecmo video game series with female fighters and other martial arts fighters from all over the world in a competition.

One word can describe this: "Campy"

I have a guilty pleasure of campy films, and this was by far a very campy martial arts movie. The film has plenty of eye candy in the forms of Devon Aoki, Natassia Malthe, Sarah Carter, Jamie Pressly, and Holly Valance as Kasumi, Ayane (purple hair included), Helena, Tina, and Christie. The only one of these characters that went through a major change was Helena, who in the video game was an opera singer and here is she an extreme sports enthusiast. Yet, they kept the fact that her father Fame Douglas founded DOA.

The supporting fighters include two of my favorites, Kane Kosugi and Collin Chou as Ninja warriors Ryu Hayabusa and Hayate. I wished that they would have used the "Ein" storyline where Hayate lost his memory and became the fighter known as Ein before he regains his memory. That would have made Hayate's part of the plot more crucial. As for Kane, he has some excellent fight scenes and even pulls off (with wires) the trademark Hayabusa floor sweep moves.

TNA wrestler Kevin Nash and former football player Brian J. White provide the comic relief of the film as Tina's wrestler dad Bass and muay thai fighter Zack (White keeps a goatee unlike the Zack in the video games). A very funny scene includes Bass walking in on Tina and Christie chatting in bed with Bass thinking the inevitable "wink wink".

Martial arts ace Silvio Simac (Leon) and strongman Derek Boyer (Bayman) round out the cast but their relationship in the video game does not come about in the movie.

I can understand that if they followed a majority of the storylines in the video game and transferred it to the big screen, it may have defeated the purposes of the fights. However, the storylines would have been key if there were more used.

Yuen and stunt coordinator Gao Jianyong did a pretty good job with the fights, combining wirework with martial arts action.

Some people don't like Eric Roberts, and he made quite a villain for this campy film and because it is campy, it fits. But if this was a film that was more good, Eric's role would have ruined the film.

There are nice cameos from the other fighters of the game and Robin Shou made for a nice cameo as a pirate leader who tries to hijack Tina's boat only to get his butt handed to him.

So on the Impact Richter Scale of 10, DOA: Dead or Alive gets a 7 for exciting martial arts action and being faithful somewhat to some of the storylines, but there could have been much more to offer than just eye candy and fights.

Edited May 20, 2021 by AlbertV

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Yeah that pretty much sums it up. Nice review. I don't know anything about the game so i can't comment on that, but it's always nice to read a gamer's review. I liked that fight between Jamie Pressley and the black guy, and I love Kosugi's 2 fights. The Collin Chou Eric Roberts fight ruined the movie for me.

[venoms5]

I've been tempted to check this out for some time now mostly because Jamie Pressley is in it. Didn't know Kane Kosugi was in this as well.

[Guest Markgway]

It's Mortal Kombat with better tits.

[ironfistedmonk]

That sums it up nicely Mark, I saw this on its UK cinema release and was hugely entertained. I wasn't expecting anything resembling a decent plot as the trailer had pretty much summed up what the film was gonna be like and I'm not familiar with the video game so I didn't have any knowledge of the story behind the game, when movies are made based on games/books etc they often deviate from the original work which is distracting if you are a fan and often takes away from the movie but as I didn't know the back story there were no problems here. The girls all did a great job I thought, it was a pretty tongue in cheek movie but they never seemed to take the piss and they handled their action scenes well, more Ngai Sing and the Kosugi bloke would have been good but this was a movie all about the girls.

I love you Holly Valance

[Cognoscente]

It's interesting to note that some of the choreography borrows from Naked Weapon.

[AlbertV]

I had long thought about this, but I know the character of Hayabusa was originally from another game from the same company, Ninja Gaiden,  and as crazy as this sounds, I would love to see Kane Kosugi reprise the role in a Ninja Gaiden live-action film. He may be 46 now, but he still looks and moves like he's in his 20's. 

[DrNgor]

Has this film developed a cult following in the years since its release?