Susan Granger’s review of D.O.A.: Dead or Alive (Universal Pictures)
After sitting on the shelf for almost a year after opening overseas, this smarmy, butt-kicking bikini-jiggle fest has finally made it into our local theaters.
Obviously based on a video game, it involves an invitation-only, top-secret martial arts tournament on a mysterious island in the Pacific Ocean that’s run by Dr. Victor Donovan (Eric Roberts). This malevolent mastermind injects all the contenders with nanobots that record data from their blood stream. This information is relayed into his computer system so he – and all viewers – can judge the frenetic fighting. Ah-ha, but he also has a hidden agenda involving virtual-reality sunglasses.
Feisty competitors include a father-daughter pro-wrestling team (Kevin Nash and Jaime Pressly of “My Name is Earl”); a sultry British jewel thief (Holly Valance of “Prison Break”) with an unreliable partner (Matthew Marsden) and an eye on stealing the stash in a giant Buddha; a rebellious Japanese Ninja princess (Devon Aoki) looking for her brother (Collin Chou) who never returned from a previous DOA tournament. Lurking in the background, there’s the DOA heiress (Sarah Carter of “Shark”) and a nerdy scientist (Steve Howey).
Not wasting time with much of a story, although there are four credited screenwriters, Hong Kong action fight choreographer Corey Yuen (“The Transporter”) concentrates on photographing the scantily clad, buxom beauties in imaginative – if contrived – hand-to-hand combat sequences in exotic locales, utilizing extensive wire work and cheesy CGI and a loud, electro-pop soundtrack. Think of a highly combative Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and you get the picture.
According to the press notes, this is the first Western production to be filmed in China’s Hengdian World Studios. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “D.O.A.” is a lasciviously trashy 3, shamelessly exploiting girl power.
