Dead or Alive Movie Review

It won’t be out on this side of the ocean until June 22nd 2007 but this movie was released in Australia and many parts of Europe last year. Here’s a look at what we can expect from what will surely be this summer’s greatest blockbuster.

If you really can’t wait to check out this great movie you can go ahead and import the Dead or Alive DVD from Amazon UK. Note that this movie is region 2 and PAL encoded so it won’t work in all DVD players. If importing’s not your thing then you should just get yourself in the mood by buying a Dead or Alive video game from the normal Amazon and help support the site.

Learn about how Hitomi is technically a guy and other trivia about this movie after the jump.

The basic tournament starts with a selection of 16 people and is narrowed down by half in each round. In the first round of those 16 people 15 are positively identified either as characters named earlier in the movie or in a name label on screen as they’re shown fighting in a match.

The 16 participants in the Dead or Alive tournament

The only character on that list that does not identify to a name is Hitomi. The only character on screen that does not have a name associated with them is this fellow in the yellow jump suit:

Hitomi is, logically, the guy on the left

The real reason for this is that Eliot and Hitomi were afterthoughts in this movie. The character of Eliot is not credited and Hitomi is credited as the female mentioned in the video. They just threw the names in there for people who don’t really have scenes knowing most people wouldn’t bother to pay enough attention to it. Eliot’s name was probably only put in there in post as he doesn’t resemble the character he’s meant to portray. This movie was clearly never intended to include anyone past Dead or Alive 3. Lisa, Eliot and Kokoro are the 3 characters who first appear as playable in Dead or Alive 4 and they are not in this movie.

Eliot on the left, Ryu Hayabusa on the right

Also please note that I actually recorded this video about a week and a half ago and Eric Roberts hadn’t appeared on Heroes yet so I’m well aware that his washed upness may have wavered ever so slightly lately. Now don’t get me wrong I think Eric Roberts is a cool guy and all but I mean… it’s Eric Roberts!

Also speaking of hitting hard times please note that Robin Shou, who played Lui Kang in Mortal Kombat 1 appears very briefly in this movie as a pirate and you can see Tina beat him up early in this review.

For confirmation of the June 22nd 2007 theatrical release date just visit this site, choose “Current films” and click on the picture of Ayane (she’s the one with the purple hair).