DOA: Dead or Alive

Ridiculous in ways that will have you doubting cinema’s future, the video-game-derived DOA: Dead or Alive achieves a rare degree of synthetic hollowness, its battling “characters” bouncing off walls like toys. Hong Kong action auteur Corey Yuen (The Transporter) may be matching maximum computerized visuals with minimum plotting, but the result is a truly vapid vanilla art that crosscuts Asian-on-Asian ass-kicking with slo-mo, bikini-clad volleyball spiking. Eric Roberts, decked out in what look like satin olive pajamas, presides over it all as a menacing tournament host. He sports a look of great monetary contentment. (Click here for venues.)—Joshua Rothkopf