DOA: Dead or Alive was inspired by a videogame and...(Excuse me while I laugh uncontrollably at the absurdity of using the word "inspired" in that context... Just a minute... Just a minute... OK, I'm fine now.)
And as you might expect, narrative complexities and subtle character nuances are not its strong suits. On the other hand, as I acknowledge in my Variety review, if you show up with sufficiently lowered expectations, you can enjoy the flick as an exuberantly trashy trifle, the sort of nonstop, wire-worked kung-foolishness in which increasingly elaborate set pieces are interrupted only sporadically by something resembling a storyline. Credit director Corey Yuen for staging such show-stopping spectacles as a babe-versus-babe blade battle in a bamboo forest where gravity is just a sometime thing, and an against-all-odds swordfight on an outdoor stairway that looks like a collaboration between Gene Kelly and Bruce Lee. Another highlight: Two bikini-clad cuties in a slow-mo smack-off on a rain-swept beach, suggesting what might happen if a fight broke out during a location shoot for a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
So there you have it: Big swords, cool fights, scorchin' chicks. If it's a hot night, and the theater's air-conditioned, what the hell...
1 comment:
Ahh, inspiration. It is a wonderful thing. Sometimes it is best not to quibble about the source. I was inspired by reviews of DOA, yours among them, to see this movie myself. (I post my comments here: http://oxidianative.blogspot.com/)
While your review is more positive, I myself found the film quite interesting. As a lifelong video gamer, I am quite familiar with the DOA girls, and saw the film as a derivation of the Pygmalion myth, an effort to make mere images into real women, the better to love them. That this effort fails is probably for the best, as to love image is mere solopsism. DOA: Dead or Alive has something to teach us.
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