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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
DOA: Dead or Alive (2006)

DOA: Dead or Alive (2006)

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Released 11-Dec-2006
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	82:54
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Corey Yuen
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Jaime Pressly Holly Valance Sarah Carter Natassia Malthe Devon Aoki Eric Roberts
Case	?	Starring
RPI	$39.95	Music	Junkie XL

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	No Audio Data available for this title
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

DOA: Dead or Alive reminds me of those straight-to-video releases of the 1980s, aimed directly at schoolboys. Resembling a cross between Charlies Angels and Girls Gone Wild, in DOA, a group of hot chicks will fight a bunch of video game characters on an exotic island. Although "Crouching Pussy, Hidden Tan Line" certainly isn't for everyone, even without seeing it, you probably already know if you're going to like this film or not by the DVD cover alone.

      DOA: Dead or Alive is co-produced by Producer/Writer/Director, Paul W.S. Anderson, who has made a career out of bringing computer games to the big screen. Anderson directed Mortal Kombat, and wrote and directed Resident Evil and Alien v Predator. He is currently producing the third instalment of Resident Evil, titled Resident Evil: Extinction, and Driver (yet another video game adaptation).

    In this latest video game adaptation, a number of contestants have been invited to compete for $10 million on an exotic island. The favourites are Chinese ninja-princess Kasumi (Devon Aoki), a beer-drinking 'superstar pro wrestler', in an American-flag bikini top, Tina (Jaime Pressly), and a glamorous, assassin-thief, Christie (Holly Valance).

    Each of the ladies has her own agenda: Kasumi is looking for her missing brother, who was reportedly killed during last year's DOA competition. Tina has retired from pro-wrestling, and wants to prove that she's no fake. Meanwhile, Christie and her dodgy boyfriend and fellow thief, Max (Matthew Marsden), are planning to steal the $100 million stored in the island vault.

Unknown to them all, DOA Director, the evil Dr Victor Donovan (Eric Roberts), intends to capture and download all their fighting skills into a computerised set of sunglasses, that will make him a better fighter than all of them combined. How and why? That's not really explained. But perhaps a bigger mystery is what happened to Roberts' career? The brother of Julia Roberts, and one-time star of films such as Star 80, Runaway Train, and The Specialist, seems to now to only appear in the occasional music video and B Grade drivel.

The well respected, Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, Corey Yuen has been called in to direct and jazz up the high-wire, fight choreography. Yuen is best known for directing The Transporter, but he has worked on over 100 Hong Kong martial arts films prior to this.

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Transfer Quality

Video

DOA has a great widescreen transfer, presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

The sharpness is excellent throughout. Consider for example the detail in the building foyer at 38:13. The black level and shadow detail are both excellent.

The colour is also excellent throughout, and the film uses many coloured lens to help create the various moods. The skin tones are accurate.

There are no problems with MPEG, Film-To-Video, or Film Artefacts. Some minor edge enhancement is noticeable occasionally, but I never found it distracting.

English and Italian subtitles are present. The English ones are accurate.

DOA is presented on a single-layered disc. The feature is divided into 20 chapters.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The audio for DOA is great as well.

The DVD offers the options of English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s).

The dialogue quality and audio sync are both excellent on the English audio track.

The original musical score is credited to Junkie XL, and it features a variety of hip-hop influenced styles.

The surround activity at times is as unrelenting as the fight action, and an immersive surround sound experience is provided, as the rears are used extensively for the score, ambience, and effects.

The film boasts a powerful LFE track, and the subwoofer is used throughout, with the bass-heavy music.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

The extras are slim.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

DOA will be released on DVD in R1 later in September, and I did not have the exact details at time of writing. But, a R2 (German) DVD was released with bonus Cast Interviews, and a R3 (Hong Kong) DVD was released with English dts-ES 5.1 audio.

Summary

Cartoonish fun with some nice scenery.

The video quality is very good.

The audio quality is also very good.