From Super Mario Bros to Resident Evil all the way through to Silent Hill the genre of the video game based movie is traditionally an area were the standards and praise accorded to truly great pieces of cinema rarely venture. Often dull plodding shadows of the games they attempt to imitate it's a sub-section of movies that the average viewer should tread into with caution. Their has been the odd sporadic flaring of quality (Mortal Kombat in certain eyes fits the bill) but mainly the ever eager gamer is left with a movie that is either to removed from the game it is based upon (Doom) or so slavishly attached to its structure as to rendered confusing and dull to watch (Silent Hill).

It's into this mix that the adaptation of the popular beat-em up game DOA: Dead or Alive enters and to say it's a “different" experience to the normal cinema outing is putting it mildly.

Helmed by “The Transporter" director Corey Yuen DOA: Dead or Alive is a insanely OTT piece of cinematic trash the completely discards any semblance of standard cinema rules from the off. Plot, story structure, believable dialogue all these things are left at the door as Yuen unleashes what at times feels like an old Acme style cartoon, bar the various flourishes of gaming style that is brought to the party.

The “plot" (if it could even be called that a more accurate description would be a thin skeleton to hang the set pieces on) revolves around the DOA Ultimate Fighter tournament and the various contestants involved. There is other titbits along the way like some strange evil doings in the background an attempt to steal cash and a Ninja attempting to kill a Princess for going “Shinobi" but lets be honest nobody is going to watch this movie expecting Shakespeare. What the viewer of this will want is a slice of trashy fax Hong Kong action shined with a layer of Hollywood and Playstation 2 gloss and that is exactly what you get.

The main players in the movie namely Devon Aoki, Holly Valance, Jaime Pressly and Sarah Carter do exactly what is expected of them and that is kick ass while looking stunning in skimpy outfits. The action scenes are a blur of wirework overload indeed it looks like no attempt was made to even hide this, but they are highly entertaining. Some of the computer games male characters also show up but they don't really feature to any real extent (although professional wrestler Kevin Nash does deliver a surprisingly enjoyable performance with his small role as Presley's dad). The one male character with any real screen time is Eric Roberts as Donovan a villain moulded in the classic silly Hong Kong 70s style. His hamming up for the camera is at turns both highly enjoyable and deeply depressing, although it is nice to see the man in a major-ish movie again.

For aficionados of the video game there are plenty of little additions to enjoy as well. The accidentally (?) hilarious voice-overs during some of the fight scenes and a volleyball sequence that is totally redundant to the movie but does allow the viewer to see the ladies in some of the smallest bikinis known to man. In the whole lurid body shot regard DOA: Dead or Alive is guilty (or great depending on how you look at it) of the biggest overuse of lingering female butt shoots you are ever likely to see. Swooping, panning gliding its clear the director just can't get enough butt.

By all normal standards this movie should be completely panned and you should be warded off but I just can't bring himself to do that. Yes it's a horrible movie by all the normal standards. Its stupid, shallow, devoid of character development and has a soft porn sheen that is hard to miss. But as a piece of throwaway entertainment with a few friends it's close to perfect. Go see it with a empty mind. You won't be disappointed.

B- (the most illogical grade i'll probably ever give.)

Well, I managed to get a copy of this after it was taken off the release schedule for the year. I just had to see it.

And I agree with Gullimont. The film is really, really bad. There are lines in the film that just make your teeth cringe. The acting is atrocious, like a bad made-for-TV sci-fi flick. The film takes 'cheese' to a new level. In terms of quality, it's just slightly better than Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne. I'm actually really shocked this came from the director of The Transporter, which looks like an Oscar contender in comparison. However, the film is just so ridiculously fun and wild that it's hard not to enjoy. And not in the same way you'd enjoy The Wicker Man, laughing at Nicolas Cage drop kick the shit out of random people in a bear costume. That's just funny, but stupid. DOA is really fun. The fight scenes are kinda cool, the women are really hot, and the film overall is just entertaining. As long as you expect the film to be bad, which I did, you'll enjoy it.

B-

haha yeah I saw this a couple of months back and thought exactly the same thing as you two - its terrible in many ways - but its damn entertaining and enjoyable and some great eye candy too.

Grade B-

You people cannot be serious.

D-

I remember you liking it a lot more then that awhile back...

DOA is just as ridiculous and fun as Charlies Angels: Full Throttle. They're pretty much identical films. Yet Charlies Angels gets an A+ and DOA gets a D-?

No, actually I gave it a D- back then as well. But please find this information to back you up.

Yeah but CA was fun to sit through.

Like Zingaling said the movie is pretty much like CA2. Really dumb but with extremely hot girls. I was pretty bored the entire time and it wasn't as fun as I hoped it would be. Loved Holly Valance tough. A good D

I'm not gonna bother, I just said that I thought you liked it more at the time. If I'm wrong, ok, my bad.

seen the movie a month ago. it was very entertaining when i saw it but i forgot the whole movie story the next morning. the only thing kept me in my mind was how HOT Jaime Pressly is in the movie. the action was fine. it gets B grade from me, thanks to Jaime credit in the movie. :wink:

Not half as bad as I thought it would be. Definitely not a quality movie from a technical aspect - acting, plot, dialogue all left a lot to be desired. However, it had decent pacing, some good fight scenes, and a light mood to the entire movie, which made it easy to watch.

I had a few complaints in which I'd have to put my nerd hat on to go over, so... *puts nerd hat on*... Movie Helena is not the same as video game Helena... in the games she's an uptight french opera singer who suspects her mother was killed by Christie. In the movie she has turned into Hitomi (who isn't in the movie and is a roller skating carefree European), and apparently she has gotten over the fact that Christie may have bumped off her mom. Also, Lei-Feng a major player in the games, is virtually non-existent here. Lastly, the nerdy computer guy that dates Helena? That seemed odd and didn't fit in with the normal DOA world at all. Ok... *removes nerd hat*

In the end it was campy fun and delivered exactly what you'd expect to. For that I'll give it a generous B-.