Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Do or Die Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson March 21, 2020

Throughout a very productive career in TV and on the sliver screen, Pat Morita became most recognized for his acclaimed portrayal of Mr. Miyagi, Daniel's Karate instructor, in The Karate Kid (1984) and two sequels (plus another one with Hilary Swank's Julie). Miyagi was tough and demanding to his pupils but he possessed a Zen mind and gentle soul as well. Watching Andy Sidaris's Do or Die, it was difficult to get the visage of Miyagi out of my mind as Morita is playing Masakana "Kane" Kaneshiro, an international crime boss. Kane orders Lew (James Lew) and Chen (Eric Chen), his top henchmen, to have a muscular guy escort Donna Hamilton (Dona Speir) and Roberta Vasquez (Nicole Justin), two undercover DEA agents, away from a dance performance at a Mo­lokai beach. Kane informs the female agents that he has plans to play a deadly game with them by unleashing as many as six pairs of contract killers on them. Donna and Roberta telephone their main contact, Lucas (William Bumiller), who enlists the help of such hulky guys as Richard 'Rico' Estevez (Erik Estrada), Bruce Christian (Bruce Penhall), and Shane Abilene (Michael Jay Shane). Kane hires sexy Ava (Ava Cadell) to chase Donna and Roberta around the desert with an Uzi submachine gun. He also hires two minions disguised as cooks to poison their food as well as that of their friends. Kane has also entrusted a sniper to shoot them while their tanning and two jet skiers to gun them down on the water.

Morita spends half of the movie up in a high-rise penthouse apartment delivering and receiving nude body rubs and massages from his girlfriend, Silk, who's portrayed by another one of Sidaris's Playboy Playmates, Carolyn Liu. The other half is spent in his control room where Silk and he monitor the kill targets on a large Nintendo screen. When one of Kane's tag teams is taken out, they're transported into the "death zone." Do or Die is nothing more than a series of computer simulation games played out in the open between Kane's goons and the DEA agents. I never bought that Morita was really playing a bad guy (his first villainous role, according to Andy Sidaris on the audio commentary). Morita fails to convey any of the menace that Erik Estrada so amply brings to Juan Degas in Guns. Because of his high pay grade, Sidaris could only afford to have Morita for four days of filming. Also, there isn't any palpable feeling that Donna, Nicole, and their allies are ever in any type of peril. Sidaris divides the action scenes up with soft-core sex scenes that are supposed to break up the tension (if there ever is any) but these seem forced. After the entertaining and occasionally suspenseful Guns, Do or Die turns out to be a disappointment.

Do or Die Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek Entertainment brings Do or Die to Blu-ray for the first time on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. Like Guns on its DVD, the R1 BCI Eclipse disc of Do or Die was presented in 1.33:1. The likely theatrical exhibition ratio for it was 1.85:1 and Mill has opened the framing up to 1.78:1. This is also advertised as getting a new 4K scan and the transfer displays less damage marks and artifacts as the restored print of Guns. For the sunset scene in Screenshot #1, you'll notice Pat Morita's face appears rather toasty and brown. This contrasts with the daytime scenes which are extremely bright (#s 7, 14, & 18) and sunny (#3). The image boasts coarse grain that's thick and pronounced in lower lit shots (see #s 8 & 12). There is some dot crawl and low-level noise behind Morita's right shoulder in capture #21. Mill has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 34995 kbps.

The 97-minute film receives twelve chapter markers from Mill.

Do or Die Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mill Creek has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1665 kbps, 24-bit) as the sole sound track. Do or Die was mixed and recorded in Ultra Stereo so I feel an opportunity was lost to open up the stereo channels. Dialogue is mostly intelligible and I could catch the spoken English from all the actors. The sounds of helicopters, trucks, boats, gunshots, and explosions aren't as dynamic as they could have been with a lossless stereo or 5.1 remix. Composer Richard Lyons's all-electronic score does a competent job of "Micky Mousing" the action.

Optional English SDH are available to turn on through the main menu or on the fly.

Do or Die Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Andy Sidaris and Producer Arlene Sidaris - The Sidaris' discuss the film's various locations, their acting troupe, and the sexiness of their performers. In English, not subtitled.

• Intro by Director Andy Sidaris (0:58, 480i) - a quick intro by Sidaris who's soon joined by the bare-breasted Julie Strain, a Penthouse Pet whose appeared in other Malibu Bay Films productions but not Do or Die.

• Behind the Scenes Featurette (38:42, 480i) - this is a compilation of mini-featurettes that first appeared on the BCI Eclipse DVD of Do or Die. They include "Andy and Julie Talk," "Hard Hunted Locations AZ," "Film School Action," "Hard Hunted Locations HI," "Film School - Sexy," "Joe Bob Briggs Interview," and "Hard Hunted Locations CA." These play continuously and can't be selected individually. A bulk of it is B-roll footage from the shoot of L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies: Return to Savage Beach (1998). It is of VHS quality. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:19) - a full-frame trailer for Do or Die.

• Bonus Trailers - previews for a dozen other Malibu Bay titles.

Do or Die Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Andy Sidaris called Do or Die "my best film yet" in news clippings but it's certainly a step down from Guns. Pat Morita is largely wasted in an underwritten role as an international crime lord who doesn't exhibit much malevolence at all. Sidaris's script makes the plight of the DEA agents too safe on the ground and in the water. There are enough bullets and topless Playmates for the average Sidaris fan but the narrative can never maintain or carry over momentum from one scene to the next. Mill Creek's Blu-ray is sourced from a very good 4K restoration but the uncompressed mono track is only mediocre to fair. RENT IT first.