DOA

September 18, 2007

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 87 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I really wasn’t looking forward to watching this one. Why not? Because this is a movie based on a video game. As soon as I heard that, my mind conjured up images of Uwe Boll and the abominations he’s created in the past.

DOA But wait! Once I got the DVD in my hand, I began to see signs that this one might *not* suck! First of all, Boll’s name wasn’t listed anywhere on the packaging. Then I saw that it wasn’t just a bunch of kung fu action…it was lots of HOT babes doing lots of kung fu! And, lastly, I noticed the director was Corey Yuen, martial arts supervisor/choreographer on such films as Lethal Weapons 4, X-Men, The One, The Transporter, Bulletproof Monk, and many others.

Suddenly I was actually kinda looking forward to viewing this puppy! So I popped it into the player and sat down to watch. What I saw was, as one person aptly put it, a combination of Charlie’s Angels and Enter the Dragon. Butt-kicking women (and men, too) from all over the world are introduced in bone-crunching style and, once they dispatch with their foes, they all receive invitations to fight in a very prestigious fighting tournament called Dead or Alive.

All three primary woman (and the two secondary ones) have their own back stories but they aren’t really worth mentioning here. Suffice to say that they all have a reason to want to win the tournament. Eric Roberts plays the tournament’s organizer and does a passable job. This movie is several notches down from his critically acclaimed titles (Runaway Train, Star 80, etc.) but, then again, Roberts himself is down a few notches, too, so his casting here is pretty much perfect.

The majority of the plot is very, very predictable but, in this case, it didn’t bother me since I was just simply having too much fun to care! Not nearly as much fun as I did watching Shoot ‘Em Up, but still enough fun that I could overlook some elements of the absurd.

And, as expected, Yuen delivers some top notch fighting action sequences with all the fighters, ladies included. In the featurette we learn that, like with big mega-productions, the actors spent MONTHS training several hours per day and, thanks to that, I was REALLY impressed with the women’s fighting skills. Who’d have thunk that Jaime Pressly, our favorite redneck bimbo (NBC’s “Earl”), could open so many cans of whoop-ass in one movie?

All this adds up to a very strong 3 star rating. I flirted with 4 stars, but it just misses out. Definitely rent this one soon!

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, DVD, Eric Roberts, Jaime Pressly, Kevin Nash, PG-13, devon aoki