DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE

US/ China, 2006, 87 minutes, Colour.
Jaime Pressley, Devon Aoka, Sarah Carter, Holly Vallance, Eric Roberts.
Directed by Corey Yuen.

Though it’s not necessarily worth it, it might be interesting to have some statistics on who actually sees this film and enjoys it. It’s another computer game movie, filmed in China, with an international cast of high-kicking and chopping glamorous magazine cover girls who assemble on an extraordinarily high-tech remote island to join a no-weapon, wits and brawn competition. The advertising is for a male audience!

The plot is fairly preposterous – especially the set up on the island which takes us beyond Dr No Goldfinger or other megalomaniac villains. This time the villain is Eric Roberts whose goals are more mundane than world power. He wants technology to sell to the highest bidder and then to take the money and run.

The girls include a Japanese princess, a Texan wrestler, a safecracker and a 21 year old who wants to win, whose father invented the technology and who has been murdered.

Characterisation is not a major feature. It’s the fights, the martial arts and the combat that counts.