DOA: Dead or Alive

A group of expert fighters of all races and styles (and both genders) are invited to participate in an exclusive martial arts tournament on a secluded South Seas island; little do they know that the event’s organizer (Eric Roberts) has nefarious ulterior motives. Here’s a guilty pleasure for the Netflix queue if you’re in the right time-killer mood. The movie has an appealing primary-color gleam, and director Cory Yuen injects a surprising amount of comic-book exuberance into the fight scenes (while the camera boldly ogles his scantily clad female stars). But even at a modest 87 minutes, the energy flags well before the end; the plot (by writers J.F. Lawton, Adam Gross and Seth Gross) grows haphazard and hurried, and Yuen’s propensity for impossible computer-generated slow-mo combat action wears thin.