DOA: Dead or Alive (2006) User Reviews

Teenage boys are going to love it

[filmnut1 · 6/10 · 17 August 2006]

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.

A Poor Excuse For A Plot, But Good Action, Really Not That Bad

[Quaay · 6/10 · 9 September 2006]

Wow. I never thought In my wildest dreams that I would be standing behind this film, sticking up for it opposed to slandering it with the rest. I actually went to see it for a laugh and so what if there were a half dozen beautiful girls flaunting there stuff right? well the first 10 minutes kinda made me think I was gonna be dead right, but not entirely. Sure it was a very poor excuse for a plot, but the action was really quite good. Before I get into that I need to make a remark, a lot of people have been slandering this movie because of it's story line, fair enough, but if you say that it doesn't make sense, you must be one thick chimpanzee, The story is so linear it hurts, and very, I repeat VERY easy to understand! Back to the movie. The acting was fine, I was especially pleased at Holly's Performance, A perfect role for her I would say, if Anyone's ever seen any of her film clips

Plot: Pro-wrestler Tina (Jaime Pressly), master thief Christie (Holly Valance), and ninja princess Kasumi (Devon Aoki) are competitors in a martial arts tournament with a $10 million prize.

That pretty much sums up the basis of the plot haha but yeah. Good Action, Hot Girls, a worth while watch. Oh and another thing, Sarah Carter who starred in 3 episodes of Smallville plays another butt kickin' Babe, very sexy. It was kind of refreshing be able to watch a movie where the plot wasn't really a problem at all, all you had to do was focus on what was going on, no having to think about how this person knows this person and why they want to kill each other. It was also good to see a 'Girl Power' Flick which wasn't cheesy in the way that Charlie's Angels was, yeah it was cheesy in other ways, but none of that, "come on angels, let's go get 'em" All in all a good watch, I just hope they don't try and do a sequel *sighs* and IF they do, I hope they get a damn script writer!!!!

7 Stars

A lot like the video games

[pin-head_xiii · 6/10 · 9 September 2006]

As a fan of the DOA video games, it was in my nature to go see this film. Even though I knew it was going to be shocking, I was surprised (a bit).

Following the storyline from the games, DOA is about a fighting tournament held on a secret island were all is not what it seems. Princess Kusami (Devon Aoki) joins the tournament to find her brother. Tina (jammie Pressley) a distinguished womens wrestler joins to prove to the world she's not fake, like her "fighting style". Christie (holly valance)playing a sultry thief joins in order to steal a vault full of money, hidden on the island. Over time they meet other characters and they learn to work together in order to stop the main villain, Donovan (Eric Roberts).

Like most fighting video game/movies the really isn't much of a story and a few of the actors are below par (espesially from Kane Kosugi), I was really impressed by Holly Valance and Sarah Carter.

Most reviews can tell you that this is strictly for teenage boys, and I can tell you there right, through some racy shots of Holly valance and Jamie Presley. But what Impressed me the most with DOA is the fight sequences. Kane Kosugi has one of the best I've seen In a while on a flight of stairs and Sarah Carter and Holly Valance battle it out in the rain making it an almost glorified wet t-shirt Competition.

If your looking for something innovating form this genre, keep walking, but if your looking for a great way to spend and hour and a half with some friends, then see DOA.

Brain off entertainment

[Gordon-11 · 24 September 2006]

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.

There's action ! There's bikinis! ..........and thats about it.

[Merklin · 3/10 · 25 September 2006]

With its one dimensional characters and convoluted story, dead or alive was never really the best game to bring to the big screen . But nevertheless thanks to cory yune and a dubious ensemble cast, we now have a dead or alive movie. But is it any better than the corny trailers suggests ? The answer is NO .

Like the games its based on there's plenty of scantily clad babes and over the top action but thats all there is. There's no sense of suspense, interesting characters or successful attempts at intentional humour- just over edited fights mixed with a healthy portion of T&A.

Will the fans like it ? I can safely bet that once again the answer is no. Much like 94's street fighter movie, the characters are brought to life through a horribly mismatched cast decked out in cheesy cosplay outfits- only the most die-hard fans will be completely happy with this one.

DOA isn't completely terrible. The few fights that aren't edited to death are pretty good , and there's lots of laughs to be had from the corny acting and dialogue- but its overall buffoonery doesn't raise it above trashy "midnight movie on cable" status.

Its one for horny teens and dead or alive completists only.

Paper-thin plot with terrible special effects

[odie5533 · 2/10 · 26 January 2007]

Imagine Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill. Now set the whole thing on fire. Not even close to DOA: Dead or Alive.

DOA: Dead or Alive has a thin and cliché plot with nothing original to offer. The plot contains no twists and the characters are two-dimensional. While great action scenes and special effects can sometimes make up for the utter lack of anything else, this movie fails at even its strongest point. The action scenes were often highly repetitive and did not move me to the "what is going to happen next" point, merely leaving me mindless watching the same thing that happened two minutes ago. The special effects were badly integrated and the matrix-style jump moves were pitiful at best. DOA: Dead or Alive is a failed attempt at an action movie and a sad excuse to show skin.

100% fun

[jfgibson73 · 4/10 · 3 December 2009]

Without ever having heard of the source material, it's pretty easy to tell that this movie was adapted from a video game. This basically consists of fighting matchups done tournament style. The costumes look as silly as Batman Forever, and the characters are more like cartoons than people. That said, I enjoyed the mindless action. If you don't care that adults who are supposedly disciplined enough to be the most skilled fighters in the world talk like 15-year olds, than you might be able to handle this. Visually, it evokes a shiny, candy-colored playground of fighting venues and employs some of the quickest editing I think you could ever find. It is very difficult to tell what you are watching much of the time because of how fast it moves, and even in slow motion, you can barely fill in the details. But it looks nice and takes no effort to digest. I actually wanted to see more from certain characters, particularly Kevin Nash, who only gets enough spoken lines to leave you wondering if he is playing a mentally challenged fighter. It shows a bit too much skin to recommend for teens, but that seems to be the intended audience. It would be hard for anyone else to take these people and their world seriously.

Good fun if you're in the right mood!

[supertom-3 · 7/10 · 19 September 2006]

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. ***

stupid beyond words

[Buddy-51 · 3/10 · 19 March 2008]

Three gorgeous women - a Japanese princess, a professional wrestler and an assassin/thief - travel to an island to compete in the world's greatest martial arts tournament in "DOA," a dumb-dumb karate-chopping extravaganza (derived from the video game "Dead or Alive") that has all the wit, credibility and intellectual heft of a lesser episode of "Charlie's Angels" (or the equally lame movies derived there from).

The women are portrayed by Jaime Pressly, Devon Aoki and Holly Valance, three no-talent actresses who do at least manage to kick up a storm in the movie's nonstop fight scenes - though, of course, in the post-"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" style of the day, all the martial arts moves pay little or no heed to even the most rudimentary laws of gravity and physics. It's all very stylized, self-knowing and tongue-in-cheek in style and tone, but none of it is in any way humorous or exciting.

The saddest sight is watching the once-promising Eric Roberts wallowing in the role of the contest's evil, power-hungry organizer. Ah, how the mighty have fallen.

Fan Service

[strange_antithesis · 6/10 · 3 February 2007]

I've been playing Dead or Alive since the Playstation release back in 1998 (I still do~~) and was shocked when I heard someone's gonna turn it into a movie. As a fan, the first thing, the major concern I had happens to be the actors playing the fighters. Not that it was a complete let down (especially since most of the attitudes of the characters in the game and movie were quite different), I had to anticipate it being (forgive the term) somewhat 'Americanized'. But ah, well. That's how it was. Don't know if Tomonobu Itagaki liked seeing Hayate not so often in the film, though (Hayate WAS modeled after him, the DOA creator). So when it was released, I avoided watching it, until now.

Corey Yuen did an amazing job directing this one. The choreography of the fight scenes were really good, but the script and the plot... those needed work. It was fun seeing Robin Shou and Collin Chou in this film. But props to Jaime Pressly for the amazing portrayal of Tina! She, in my opinion, stole the show from Devon Aoki.

But really, this is more of a fan service (in glorified kick-ass fights!) than a supposed movie in its own right. But it was better than most game adaptations and it was fun to watch.

One thing's certain- I didn't like the portrayal of Ayane.

Worse than I thought it would be

[tnzk · 2/10 · 16 September 2006]

---MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS---

What can I say? From the moment it was advertised that "Popstar/actress Holly Valance...", I knew it was desperate for some ratings.

This will NOT satisfy action/martial arts fans, and it will NOT satisfy DOA fans. So what has Corey Yuen tried to achieve? Absolutely nothing.

The DOA characters are bland and generic (How did Yuen screw up the source material?!). The actors can't act. Their story arcs (or lack thereof) do not help the audience sympathize with them.

Holly Valance acts as the sexy cat thief Christie. It hurts that the whole time she tries to act like that. Devon Aoki as Kasumi was a complete miscast. Sarah Carter as Helena didn't stand out, but she didn't completely lose face in this mess. Ayane is nothing more than a reason for a cat fight between her and Kasumi. Ryu Hayabusa was played out to be Kasumi's love interest rather than a masterful ninja: any game enthusiast would wonder how Yuen could butcher one of the most beloved video game characters of all time.

The "added" characters are uninspired. Weatherby is annoying, and unfunny (the only reasons I remember his name. Oh yeah, and the fact that he kept telling everyone who called him "Wallaby". Was that funny?). You can see that the man is TRYING to act. Max, as Christie's partner in crime, does nothing to enhance the plot; he adds 3 minutes to the 86 minute movie by allowing Christie to sleep with him. The main antagonist and the final fight is almost laughable.

The only saving character is Jaime Pressley as Tina Armstrong. Although not in the busty proportions of "game" Tina, it's almost forgiven as she makes the character her own, and has a genuinely funny relationship with her father, Bass. One of the only reasons to watch this movie.

The plot is completely horrible. Generic and predictable, it would have looked better back in the 1980's. One expects it to revolve around the actual tournament, or focus on a specific character's story (seen in the game). What I got was some lame conspiracy, and as Tina rightly puts it in the trailer "They're a bunch of pervs".

The soundtrack is unoriginal. It's a bunch of licensed music, probably because the music composer gave up on this movie. Funnily enough, DOA rightly plays the song 'Scandalous'.

The martial arts/fighting is as fake as it can get. Wires can be 'seen' without actually being visible, and Yuen's decision to do 'Matrix' shots is a double edged sword. Good because it's apparent "Popstar" Valance can't fight, bad because the audience has had enough of slow motion sequences. All characters apparently do the same type of martial arts. One comes to wonder how the non-ninja characters fight fluidly with a sword against 20 trained professionals. Utter rubbish.

Attention to detail is obviously something the crew thought unnecessary. The characters are from different ethnicities. A few even come from Japan. Yet they can all speak perfect English. WITH American ACCENTS. From the first line, the audience roared with laughter at this very poor mistake.

---DOA fans--- Dear Yuen and co, why pay homage to DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball when you can't even pay homage to DOA properly? Christie works in a team? Hayate is the ultimate fighter? Hayabusa acts like a ninja wannabe? Helena is American? How did Jan Lee get defeated so easily? What about Lei Fang? Yes she is in it, but not as a beautiful oriental schoolgirl. She has a cameo but anyone would realize the woman portraying her is some 40 year old dressed up like a schoolgirl. Hideous.

Essentially, a movie not worthy of your time, unless you're REALLY REALLY bored. Miss. Pressley saves this stinker from scoring a one.

2/10

Tongue in cheek action film is action packed and very silly and perfect for those who want mindless action with just enough plot so as not to be totally mindless

[dbborroughs · 8/10 · 7 July 2007]

Corey Yeun's mindless video game movie is just what the doctor ordered for those days when you've lost your brain and can't find it. This is high class trash cinema that should be high on your popcorn list.

The plot of the movie has a group of the world's best fighters all being chosen to go to an island for the DOA contest where they will compete for a 10 million dollar prize. The main characters are women so we get to see lots of beautiful woman fighting and frolicking on a tropical island. The contest is a cover for Eric Roberts to use his computers to take all of their fighting information so he can be the worlds best fighter thanks to a program which he intends to sell to the highest bidder(or something similar).

So un-serious from the get go its a wonder that people dislike the film for being silly. The trailer and most of the promotional material let you know going in this is a silly western martial arts movie with its tongue through its cheek and lots of unreal wire work. The action riffs on every martial arts film you've seen and does so in such an inoffensive way that you just go along with it. This is form and substance over meaning and its all a great deal of fun. Its silly in the right sort of smile producing way. If you go in expecting mindless (really mindless-but intentionally so) entertainment you'll enjoy yourself a great deal.

I really liked the film. If I have any misgivings its that the film loses focus in the final half hour as plot lines are dropped or hurried through. At some point the film gives up real plot for action leaving only a sketch of where its going. Thats fine since by then the film is just nonstop action of the highest (well not highest, most entertaining) order. this is one of those films destined to become a guilty pleasure once it hits cable, you know the ones where you stop every time its on and watch it to the end.

You will want to rent this at some point since its a blast.

(The Chinese DVD I saw had about 9 minutes of deleted scenes. You'll want to see them. Some were rightly removed but a few others really should have stayed in.)

Interesting movie with excellent fight sequences

[dustinhunter707 · 7/10 · 16 September 2007]

I was expecting some good fun from this movie because its directed by Cory Yuen, who also did the fight choreography on Transporter 2 which was just amazing. Anyways this was a good solid PG-13 action film with nonstop fighting and I liked it, I mean I have seen better, but I have seen much worse also. Jaime Pressly is great in this movie along with Eric Roberts and Devon Aoki. Great cast and great fights makes this out to be a pretty good movie, plus hot babes that can fight just never gets old in the action genre to me. Overall I gave this movie a 7 out of 10 because I thought it was good and entertaining but it could have been a little better if it had been rated R or if the fights were extended a little more.

7 out of 10, recommended for fight fans and action junkies like myself.

Watch Van Damme's Street Fighter again or Watch the paint on your wall

[solidsnake4040 · 2/10 · 7 December 2006]

Piece of crap. Cory Yuen can do so much better than Wire-fool. The movie's plot is retarded and very lame. No spoilers but it is a porn version of Bruce Lee's classic Enter the Dragon. Just that this time the evil mastermind is not developing drugs, and he invited 4 chicks to the tournament. The girls are not attractive at all, and Kasumi has no figure to wear a bikini. The love relationships were built up faster than instant cup noodles and the some of the best characters in the game were killed off in the first round. The action scenes in the movie look extremely familiar to Cory's old movies, which means that he was not creative at all. Fans can easily draw reference to movies like "Legends of Shaolin", "Kiss of the Dragon", "The One", "Cradle 2 the Grave" and others. The only good thing about this movie is that you get to see Robin Shou went from Liu King and degraded to a cheap pirate that appears no more than 4 minutes through out the movie.

pop corn movie at its best

[torchiam-192-639252 · 14 January 2021]

It is 2021 now.but watch this 2006 movie is still fun.it is a tv game adapted movie,not big budget mission impossible or the bourne identity.but still full of good action fights,great stunt design,no unnecessary cheap CGI,good charactor development.and even it is 15 years ago,the director made a full hot diverse female team do the final big combate.

nothing to complain,just good entertainment.

Oh the horror...

[squidyed · 1/10 · 10 January 2007]

I'll get straight to the point and say, ITS BAD. Any fans of the games, prepare to be severely disappointed.

When I first heard that they were doing a DOA movie, I was sceptical. When I first saw the actors picked, I was more so. When I saw the film, I was amazed how bad they actually did.

I've never seen anything so painful. And I'm not talking about the strictly average fights. Somehow, they've managed to totally butcher almost every characters personality beyond belief. Every new character coming on screen was like a kick in the face.

Now i knew that it would be near impossible to get good actors who would look like and really feel like their characters. But they avoided that problem by not even trying! Instead they tried to get some lame cast of stars rather than people actually suited. We don't want a Christie thats played by a pop star!!! We don't need an Ayane played by someone who looks twice her age! Also, many of the costumes also look as if they were stolen of cos-players.

But that doesn't matter either, because they've decided to throw away any similarity to the characters anyway. Just a few nags...

For some reason they made Helena , as best as I can describe, some rollerskating bubbly pop girl. They seem to totally remove any sense of her french nationality, and the fact shes a opera singer. They also add in (and god knows why..) this geeky 'love interest'. Its not Helena at all!

Christie is said to be a thief, rather than an assassin. No longer the cold and detached killer shes meant to be. They also changed her unique fighting style, no She-Quan anywhere to be seen, she seems to prefer to fight with clenched fists. Again, just not the same character.

Ryu. Even as one of the 'least butchered' characters, any fans of ninja gaiden will be pained to see their hero being so... mundane. His capture is plain insulting. They also made the mistake of saying he's in the same clan as Kasumi.

kasumi's title as a 'ninja princess' is horribly skewed. For some reason the small simplistic ninja village is replaced by a city, with her living in a palace, and an army of soldiers (not even ninjas). Her soft personality is reversed to being cold and constantly looking quite moody. Also at the end of the film, her and the others go back to her clan and massacre the army. WTF!?!? Oh yeah, and Shinobi apparently means runaway ninja now... morons...

Ugh... I could complain about every character, but I've probably said enough on that. The plot also sucks and has no relation to the game. Even the comparatively easy bit, the fights, are poor. Average at most, then dropped by the fact they ignored the games again. They had several games full of fighting manoeuvres they could have used, so to make Ryu fans shout out "Yeah! He did Izuna drop". Just generally make them fight in their own styles. But did they use it? Nope. Sod that.

So there. The people responsible for this need to be slapped round the face with sponge full of glass dust and soaked in acid. I knew making a live action DOA movie would be a bad idea, but there is no excuse for something this poor. Unforgivable.

An insult to DOA and fans, and nothing more than a cheep second rate action movie for everyone else.

Bad version of Mortal combat

[falconisthebest · 3/10 · 7 June 2007]

I never had much hope for this to be a good movie. and therefore was not very disappointed afterwords. the acting is very poor, and the the cast is to a large extent novice. and still have a long way to reach the performance the audience hopes for. also the writing is very crude, and un entertaining. this could of done better with no dialogue at all. but i have to admit that the ladies did some hardcore effort in producing a somewhat OK performance in the fights.

this film could be best described as the "bad" version of Mortal Combat. the fighting is no where are as good, and cast is truly talentless. and the idea is just so unoriginal. not to mention the childish story and the "cartoon network" like ending....

wouldn't advise buying or renting, but watching it on a cable channel wont be that bad

Why did I watch it? Why?!!

[mario_c · 1/10 · 4 April 2007]

Martial arts' movies are not my favorite kind of movies. In fact is one kind of cinema which I generally despise. If it's a really good martial arts' film I may even like it a little bit, but when is a movie like D.O.A. – Dead or Alive, man, I feel sick! OK, I must admit it, what really called my attention to this movie were the girls. They are really hot! But, Oh my God! When I started to watch it I wasn't expecting such big trash! It has everything I HATE in a movie, except the girls of course! Movie? Can we call such piece of crap as "movie", I don't think so… it's an insult to cinema, as the 7th art! But when they insist to make "movies" out from video-games the result can be just one: garbage like this D.O.A. – Dead or Alive. This "movie" makes Mortal Kombat seems like a piece of art. Like I said in the beginning I don't appreciate, and I don't use to watch, martial arts' movies, but even to this genre I think this "movie" is shameful!

Quite better than Charlie's Angels

[edzelr · 7/10 · 30 September 2006]

This film ain't pushing the girl power formula it's just a group of fighters whose main protagonists are mostly women. DOA is quite good and i might think to see it again, I like everybody in the film my comment is that they have to trim down the comic elements i think it was too much especially Christie's partner he's quite annoying.

I expected it to be a charlie's angels film but it's not. DOA is one of those films you'd like to see if you are into popcorn films, and the fight choreography is worth the price of the ticket they actually applied the moves of the characters on the video game. It makes me wanna play the video game when after seeing it!

Catastrophe!

[Black_Fang · 3/10 · 10 February 2007]

Corey Yuen is a stain on Asian cinema. Making awful film after awful film, but remains quite popular to western audiences.

Dead or Alive, a great Japanese VG, with the main characters Japanese. But here 3 out the 4 main characters, non-Japanese. Clearly making a movie to accommodate the west and betraying the VG.

Fans of the VG wanna see more of Hitomi, Lei Fang, Jann Lee, and definitely Ryu Hayabusa, the super ninja. Not some pathetic body guard, portrayed in this movie. These characters are the people's favourites. Whilst we still like the bouncy chicks, it shouldn't have been the main attraction to this movie.

Terrible, cheesy dialogue. Boring plot and rubbish sequences. The cast wasn't a bad one, Holly Valance, Jamie Pressley, Sarah Carter, Devon Aoki are all likable performers. But Corey Yuen just can't do anything with them other than make Lei Fang look good.

Absolutely Fantastic... if you're watching it in 1996.

[Quicksand · 6/10 · 16 June 2007]

In 1999, the martial arts movie was redefined by "The Matrix." What people forget is, the martial arts movie was previously redefined four years earlier, with the release of 1995's "Mortal Kombat." Of course, yes, "The Matrix" left everything before it in the dust. But for that 4 years, we had a short-lived champion... exciting action sequences, fair-to-cheesy dialogue, and a thumping techno soundtrack. It took something as historical as the Wachowski Brothers to knock it off its perch.

"Dead or Alive" features action sequences about on-par with "Mortal Kombat," dialogue scenes that are only slightly more painful, and the added presence of Eric Roberts, which takes two full points off its IMDb rating just for attaching his name to it.

I didn't hate DOA; it was miles better than "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" and director Corey Yuen ("Transporter," "So Close") is certainly light-years better than Uwe Boll, if that even means anything.

Slightly better than your average rental, but not worth a $7 movie ticket. In 1996 this would have made a bundle, but today it's just something that might actually hold your attention on cable at 3 a.m. 6/10.

And this is supposed to be Dead or Alive?

[knale · 2/10 · 27 November 2006]

I had a few expectations as of how this movie would be when I went to watch it. And believe me, it lived up (or should i say down) to my expectations. The film was just about as crappy i thought it would be.

Let's start off with commenting the story. From my point of view, it sucked. OK, I know Dead or Alive was never the games with the best story, but nevertheless. The team behind DOA: Dead or Alive put little or no effort in making the story close to anything in the DOA games. And what's with the female focus here? Like the three females that the movie focuses on and around are the main characters of the games. Well trust me, they aren't, there's a ton of other characters worth mentioning. With this kind of story, all this movie is worth to be called is a chick flick with fighting, and a very bad one at that.

The characters were not similar to their video game original at all. If you take one peak at Leon, or Bayman, and say that they (beneath the badly made cosplay outfits) look anything like the original, you better go wash your eyes or get glasses. And it's not only those two, it goes for them all. I mean seriously, a Ryu Hayabusa without his mask? And even so, if we look away from the fact that he didn't have one, he still sucked as he looked nothing like the original.

The acting was horrible. I must admit it had it's moments now and then. So it wasn't just crap. But close to. Very close. I didn't really feel that any of the actors put an effort into acting serious. Not once. It was more like they put an effort into making this a bad spoof off the games, giving other people a laugh about DOA.

So DOA: Dead or Alive is, in short, the worst movie I have seen in God knows how many years. I can't believe how dreadful it was. Why did I watch it all then, you might ask? Well, a very bad movie can still be entertaining, the same way a good movie can be boring. If you don't believe me, watch it. 2/10.

A fun movie, so don't take it seriously

[frater_solomon · 8/10 · 21 November 2006]

While I agree that this is not terribly original or even an innovative film, it is fun, and that's what it was meant to be. You can't expect mastery from actors who haven't trained their whole lives but having a long history with martial disciplines I felt that these women did a great job. Sarah Carter has shown combative promise for years (remember Black Sash???), and her skill as a dancer is clear watching her move (fighting or not). Graceful and inspired, sleek and sexy, in many ways, she alone is worth seeing this movie for, whether in jeans or that little bikini. Who couldn't love this woman? But then they throw in other talent like Jaime (who is obviously in shape for this film both physically and professionally—great accent she adopted) and Devon, both of whom who could have a strong career in action flicks.

Having said that, this is not a film for the martial arts critic, it is a movie for fans. Many may have to lower their expectations so as to not feel as other reviewers have, and may need to remind themselves that these women are not masters of combat (and that a gorgeous woman in a bikini is not offensive but a vision). Movies don't have to be original to be enjoyable, and I hope viewers don't fall into the trap of criticizing this movie because it isn't. Why bother watching any movie then?

Good Entertainment

[ebiros2 · 7/10 · 11 July 2009]

This movie is hard to rate. Nice action and nice bodies probably best describes it.

The story is about a martial arts tournament with many hot woman martial artist and some guys vying to be the champ. The scenery seems to be in Australia and it's beautiful.

They did do great casting job on this movie. Many good looking athletic actors makes endless parade of action and romance.

One of the better martial action to come out in recent years, this movie. It's like watching Bay Watch and kung-fu movie in one, and chicks are better fighters in this movie than guys.

If this is the direction Australian movie is taking, their future is bright. I hope they'll keep exploring this style of action movies.

2nd worse movie of 2006.

[joshfriel-1 · 3/10 · 24 October 2006]

This movie was released here in S. Korea before the US. They are filling a void of American movies between the summer and the holiday season. I guess they thought that news wouldn't get back to the US about how awful this movie is. It is still better than my vote for this years worst so far: Blood Rayne--but not by much.

Contestants for the "ultimate martial arts tournament" are invited by a blade weapon that magically flies and hits something near them with the words "DOA." However, the name is a complete misnomer. I was expecting a brutal martial arts competition. However, its announced at the beginning that to win a match, the winner need only "knock out" their competitor. In several of the fighting scenes, there are actually "life meters" that appear over the fighters--just like in the fighting video games.

The movie plays like a soft-corn porn except there's no nudity. Seriously, skip it.