D'OA!

DOA: Dead or Alive: here's the deal - Several beautiful women and some extras are invited to DOA Island for an Enter the Dragon style martial arts competition. They include a ninja princess (Devon Aoki), a Texas lady wrestler (Jaime Pressley) and a jewel thief (Holly Valence). Hosting the competition is a Richard Branson-esque Eric Roberts and his roller-skating kung fu daughter Sarah Carter. What ensues this time? Mayhem.

One of director Corey Yuen's signature themes is hot young women engaged in martial arts action. He uses so much wirework and CGI that he doesn't usually bother to get actual trained martial artists in the roles. That's a shame, but it must be hard to find beautiful kung fu masters who can act. One out of three isn't bad.

You get an exotic location (sets and CGI), a goofy plot, pretty women and awesome action scenes (again, CGI). It's breezy fun with very few false notes. My kind of movie.

It's based on a video game that I've never heard of, so I can't say if it is true to its source material.

In conclusion, not the 1950 Edmund O'Brien noir or the 1988 dog of a remake. There is no luminous poison in this film.