Well I had claimed that DOA was going to be the best videogame movie ever made - How can super hot women (like Jaime Pressly), prancing around in bikinis, doing Kung Fu Hong Kong style not be? Honestly I was expecting tons of cheesiness with hot girls and mediocre fighting sprinkled in between, but that's not what I got. In fact I was very surprised with this movie and I am willing to say that this is the best videogame movie anyone has made to date.
After popping the movie in and getting comfortable I gritted my teeth and prepared for the worst, and I kind of got what I expected. The beginning of the movie is pure cheese with bad dialog and even worse special effects. Immediately I felt like I wasn't going to be able to finish it. The worst was the horrible way they introduce the lady fighters by using cgi images of the stupid ninja star invitations that they receive. The first 15 minutes are bad - not the worst I've ever seen - but not very good either. Seeing Devon Aoki go from kick-ass Kung Fu princess to glider flying girl is not a good way to start things off.
Thankfully, once they get to the island and have to climb the pagoda things start getting better - a lot better. The cheese comes down and the spectacular fighting scenes begin to shine. I expected the fighting to be okay, but not this good. It's not Jackie Chan levels of Hong Kong fighting, but it's close. The actors really put effort into the fighting and it shows. Even better is the fact that we get to watch four lovely ladies strut their stuff in all types of outfits - many of them being skimpy (though I feel they could have done better in the T&A department. It looks like the movie was toned down for the U.S.).
The worst parts of the movie were the bad editing and crappy DOA transitions. All through the movie I kept asking myself why they decided to cut to a particular scene or why they included such an out of place scene. DOA feels like a great movie that was chopped up into a lesser movie. I have no doubts that this movie could have been way better with the proper editing. Then we get the DOA transitions between scenes which are absolutely annoying and totally kills the flow of the movie. I know I'm watching a movie called DOA so I don't need to be reminded every other transition by huge DOA letters popping up on the screen. Was this an effort to remind gamers that this movie is based on the game DOA? I just don't understand how anyone could think that this was good for the movie.
In spite of its many shortcomings DOA managed to win me over and provide me with a good amount of entertainment. I was expecting to not even finish it, but by the end I was totally sucked in and wished that it could have been longer. It's cheesy, poorly edited and struggles to come together, but it still manages to be a good movie with hot girls and awesome fighting. I'd even say that DOA is a solid B movie, and not just another videogame movie - which is saying a lot!
I GIVE DEAD OR ALIVE A 7/10 [GOOD]
PROS:
- Hot leading ladies wearing skimpy outfits
- Incredible fighting action
- Interesting story
CONS:
- Bad editing
- Stupid DOA transitions that interrupt the flow of the movie
- Too much focus on the computer geek character
- Too little focus on the main villian
tags: doa dead or alive movie review dvd jaime pressly devon aoki sarah carter holly valance
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