DOA Delay

In a rather unexpected box office shift, MGM has announced their plan to move the video game-to-movie adaptation Dead Or Alive from the middle of this month until the first part of December. Typically, a move such as this one is done for a high profile movie with major monetary expectations from the studio. DOA will now be bringing its sexy-female-fighters-on-an-exotic-island plot into direct competition with some of the biggest films of this half of the year.

Now I know there will always be a crowd for this style of movie -- particularly when it includes a beach volleyball scene* -- but I'm seriously baffled by the wisdom of this move. Common wisdom holds that video game movies tend to be poor box office performers, and this flick looks like it could very well live up to that proud tradition. Maybe MGM is hoping if they throw it into the middle of the holiday season it'll tank quickly, and they can take it off the market in a hurry.

*Seriously, what the heck? If you, as a movie maker, feel the need to stick a beach volley ball game into the middle of your martial arts movie, maybe you need to reevaluate the direction of your flick. And if you, as a movie watcher, feel the need to go see a martial arts movie because it has a beach volley ball scene in it, maybe you need to get yourself some action. Of the non video game movie kind. I'm just sayin' ...