Piranha

A group -- a very large group -- of college kids are having spring break at Lake Havisu in Arizona (called Lake Victoria in the film). A small earthquake unleashes an underwater tunnel where thousands of hungry piranhas wait.

This film marks the third time that director Alexandre Aja has directed a horror film remake. He previously directed "The Hills Have Eyes" (2006) and "Mirrors" (2008), also remakes of earlier horror films. I want to say this disappoints me, because Aja has some of the best talent in the business today, but frankly he makes remakes worth watching. "Hills" may have trumped the original.

Having ten times the budget of a SyFy film, with only a marginally better outcome. The effects are still pretty cheesy in most scenes, leading me to believe the money went to the decent cast, with the two best actors (Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss) only having a few scant minutes on screen.

The cast? Elisabeth Shue (looking good for her age), Jerry O'Connell (usually annoying but works in this film), Ving Rhames (who we do not see nearly enough of in the theater these days), and Eli Roth as a guy with a thousand one-liners about wet breasts. In fact, the film as a whole has more bare women than piranhas.

Empire gave the film three out of five stars, saying "Remember the film you hoped 'Snakes on a Plane' would be –- this is it! By any sane cinematic standards, meretricious trash ... but thrown at you with such good-humored glee that it's hard to resist." I agree. This is the cheese I wanted from "Snakes", but unlike that film, it is not a pile of dog excrement.

And did you hear? There is a sequel on the way... I almost suspect it will be better than this one.

This film is a rather cheesy film, but sometimes a bit of cheese is a good thing. In fact, I enjoy cheese so to a point I enjoyed this film. It had some great gore in it and it was just a mindless movie where you shut off your brain and enjoy an hour and a half distraction. The film was a modest hit, making its budget back in the states and making an additional 55 million with its worldwide gross, but not a super hit by any stretch of the imagination.

The story has a earthquake that unleashes an underwater cavern where there are apparently thousands upon thousands of flesh eating piranha residing. One would think that if these fish were living in an isolated cavern where food was not plentiful they would evolve needing less food, but like I said it is mindless fun as they come out hungry and their victims? A bunch of annoying teen spring breakers, so you are going to enjoy watching them get killed. A teen whose mom is a sheriff goes with this guy shooting a girls gone wild type video (why the heck were those things popular?) and we meet a few people before the fish go on their super kill spree!

The film features quite a number of actors such as Richard Dreyfuss who gets credited and I never really noticed him, then figured out he was the fisherman at the beginning of the film. Then there is Christopher Lloyd who was not listed in the credits, but who is in the film a lot more than Dreyfuss. Ving Rhames also plays a role in this one and there are a couple of others of note.

They seem to be just having fun with this one and as I said, just don't take it too seriously and it is enjoyable enough. Nothing great, but I could think of worse movies to waste and hour and a half with. The gore effects in places are great and the film leaves off clearly with a sequel in mind. Just one question, how did those two chicks stay underwater for so long without drowning?

An underwater tremor unleashes thousands of hungry Piranha that have thought to have been extinct for millions of years. Bad timing, because it's Spring Break.

Piranha was, what some people called, a rip off of Jaws. Another person wanting a piece of the pie. It went on to have a sequel, to be directed by the now famous James Cameron and it seems that it is time for a remake, in 3D no less. Do we need a remake? Probably not, but the film is fun and excessively violent, which makes for a good time for those looking for b- movie horror goodness. Piranha delivers on the levels it aims for, take that as you want to.

Alexandre Aja directs this film, let's just forget he did Mirrors okay? He gets the bloody mess off to an interesting start by having Richard Dreyfuss in the film. A nod to Jaws no doubt, but one can only assume that he had him in here to say that this film is either a: More scarier or B: More dangerous. I'd go with the latter because the film isn't scary. What's more dangerous though? One shark, or thousands of Piranhas? You pick.

So it's Spring Break, so the fish have hundreds of young drunk teenagers to eat, and boy do they eat. The film doesn't shy away from the bloody truth. Piranha's can strip a cow to it's bones in minutes, these guys are more aggressive. They've been feeding off each other for millions of years and now they have a variety of meat to pick from. Yummy. So people die in bloody, over the top, funny ways. The film is one for the people who cheer when someone has their legs torn off. If that's not you, you might want to stay away from this one.

Also, if you're not a fan of naked women, you might want to stay away from this one. This film is full of naked women, left right and centre. There is even an underwater naked swimming dance sequence set to opera music. It's weird and funny at the same time because it comes out of nowhere.

The film could have used more of it's cast. We have Richard Dreyfuss, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd and Eli Roth. All of them are underused. Rhames, I thought was going to have a more hero type role, he doesn't. Roth has a total of maybe two scenes as does Lloyd. Dreyfuss only shows up at the beginning of the film. Once again, an interesting cast that is not put to good use. The film decides to stick with the blood and boobs.

The film is in 3D. I expected to have more fun with it than I did. Although I did enjoy it more than other 3D films I've seen. It has a more gimmicky feel to it and it actually fits with the film. Seeing bits of Piranha fly up at you is fun. Boobs in 3D, fish in 3D but the things that were used the most were the underwater coral reefs.

The theatre lost power near the end, so the last 3 or so minutes of the film we saw with no sound, but I could tell what was going to happen, even with the lack of audio. I'm not letting that affect my review for the film, but I can sense that the film was going to go for one of those jump-scare-abrupt endings.

Piranha 3D is a hoot, for those who know what they are getting into. In my theatre there were children, this is NOT A KIDS MOVIE!!!! This is more bloody and violent than any SAW film. Piranha is full of cheesy moments, and it works.

Piranha 3D is better than it should be. I see it bc I'm a fan of Alexandre Aja (The Hills Havs Eyes, Mirrors) & Greg Nicotero (Walking Dead). Putting aside the to-be-expected B-movie antics like excessive boobage & some bad CGI (which admittedly is a large chunk of the movie) there's something elevated about it. Nice shots on the water, it's funny enough, Elisabeth Shue's badass. Ya know, it's campy! For what it's worth, critics actually liked it. Surprisingly good time.

Spring-breakers (or Girls Gone Wild?) get eaten by prehistoric piranhas. Viewers won't feel too bad as these airheads get spectacularly chomped.