Fighters from around the world are called to a tournament on an island, but something nefarious is afoot. Based-on-the-videogame action movie directed by martial arts legend Corey Yuen.

Not to be confused with the series of films from Japanese loon Miike Takaashi, or indeed any of the other films named DOA, this is instead another entry in that most troublesome of genres: the videogame adaptation. Not only that, it's a film based on a fighting game - not something that lends itself to narrative. Furthermore, it's from the stable of Paul WS Anderson, who can be blamed for the whole sorry cycle after the commercial success of his own 1995 Mortal Kombat.

This time out Anderson and his fellow producers hired Corey Yuen, the renowned martial arts actor, choreographer and director and regular Jet Li collaborator, a man who knows how to handle both hokey stories and feisty martial arts action.

Of course, the big challenge was how to bring the game to the screen. While 'Mortal Kombat' was the fighting game with extra blood and 'Soul Calibur' was the franchise with a fantasy twist, 'Dead Or Alive' was, frankly, the one that paid most attention to the bouncing of its many busty female characters' boobs.

The film doesn't give us women who are quite so busty, nor does it linger on the bounce factor. Instead, it provides a straightforward plot involving a tournament, a conspiracy, and girl power. Plenty of girl power. The three main characters are introduced first: there's Princess Kasumi (Aoki), who becomes a renegade after she leaves her clan's palace to discover the truth about her brother Hayate (Chou). Escaping, she receives a mysterious invite to DOA. Next there's Tina Armstrong (Pressly), a sassy southern girl and pro wrestler. Then there's Christie (Valance), a master thief.

As they make their way to DOA Island, we meet several of the other competitors: the roller-blading Helena (Carter), daughter of the original founder of the DOA tournament; Ryu Hyabusa (Kosugi), Kasumi's bodyguard; Bass (Nash), Tina's dad; Max (Marsden), Christie's partner; Zack (White), who sports a bizarre quiff; and the enormous Leon, who supposedly defeated Hayate in a fight that lead to his death during the previous year's tournament.

But just what is DOA? It's "the world's greatest martial arts tournament", we're told. It offers a "chance to prove you're the best fighter in the world" and $10 million in prize money. It's run by Dr Victor Donovan, who, unsurprisingly, turns out to be the scheming villain of the piece. This is the increasingly bizarre looking Eric Roberts.

Once settled on the island, all the competitors have "a complete physical", which involves Donovan and his nerd stooge Weatherby (Howey) injecting them with "nanobots". It gives the filmmakers a chance to strip off the actors a bit more and present them in a way that's like a character select screen in a game.

Proceedings are kept light and lively by Yuen and the writing team of JF Lawton and Adam and Seth Gross, with a pace that just about manages to distract from the recycling of sets, the paucity of ideas and the abject dumbness. Instead, we get plenty of fights and even a volleyball sequence, which riffs on 'Dead Or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball', a hit game that was a spin-off from the fighting series.

Ultimately, this is about as rubbish as the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat films, but it's a guilty pleasure (hell, this is a film that builds towards a climax featuring a self-destruct countdown, so it can't be taken seriously on any level.) It's not quite as bad as it could have been, thanks to a director who knows how to handle action and a capable cast, many of whom are suitably qualified. Pressly trained as a gymnast and kick-boxer, Aoki has some martial arts training, Nash is a wrestler, White is a former American football and lacrosse player, Malthe was a ballet dancer, and the likes of Chou, Kosugi and Simac are genuine martial artists.

Verdict
As well as plenty of fighting and bikini volleyball, there's also girl power, good sports(wo)manship and lessons in cooperation. What more could you want from lowest common denominator cinema?