Review for Piranha 3D


(Originally posted on fight-evil.com)

I don't think anyone would claim this movie amazing, or I hope no one would, anyway. But it does accomplish it's goal, and that's to entertain the hell out of the audience.

Most of the characters are annoying idiots, but as half of them get eaten in the fantastic piranha rampage about halfway through the movie, I can't rightly hold it against them. Some of the characters are solid, though - Sheriff Forester does all she can to both ensure the safety of her own children and her community. Deputy Fallon goes all out in trying to save people during the rampage. Jake's valiant attempts to save Kelly, a character herself who sort of got pulled into this whole thing, show him a person of high worth. So we have some solid people, who I feel make up well for the Derricks of the world.

The gore in the movie, at least to me, is the biggest selling point, and I feel they did pretty well. The aforementioned massacre has long been a favorite scene of mine - the blood, the chaos, all done so wonderfully. The nudity's a bit less captivating, but I can only imagine it'd help pull some more people in to watch the film. Overall, this second Piranha remake (after the 1995 failure few recall) is quite enjoyable for what it is. It's not amazing, not to me, but it does what it set out to do, and that's all I can ask. 7.5/10.

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😜

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I've actually not seen Slither (I know, I know - just haven't gotten to it yet), but I rank Arachnophobia and Tremors very highly. I think Arachnophobia's a legitimately good movie, and quite possibly in my top ten horror flicks from the 1990's.

Eight Legged Freaks, I remember enjoying also, but it's been over five years since I last saw it, so I'm badly in need of a re-watch.

Thanks for the comments!

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The movie was fun and had some good 3D, and yes, much of the gore was grisly but in a "I can't turn away due to morbid fascination". I think the filmmakers were having fun with how many ways piranhas could do damage, and whoever did the effects were almost too good at their job. Reminds me of Greg Nicotero (Walking Dead, Tarantino's dude for gore effects) who has a medical background. They know what they're doing, apparently!

Watched this movie in VR in a "drive-in theater" environment on a big screen (with an app called, coincidentally, BigScreen). Room was full, people were having fun, some hilarious commentary. These types of movies were perfect for that drive-in experience. It's not a movie big on plot but it's a good kind of movie to get together and just laugh at where it goes.

The director, Alexandre Aja, would go on to make Crawl, another good creature feature which happened to be Tarantino's #1 ranked film that year lol

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I apologize for the delay in reply - just logged back on here for the first time in two years, and happened to see this comment.

I imagine that seeing this in theaters would have been a blast, as it does have that drive-in feeling you mentioned. As it is, I've not actually seen this since I started this thread, and since I have been meaning to check out Piranha 3DD, I might give this one another go beforehand.

Aja is a pretty solid director. I've not seen Crawl, but I did highly enjoy both the Hills Have Eyes remake along with High Tension.

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