On some occasions, writing a review of a film is somewhat difficult. How do you effectively communicate the intricacies of the plot or characters and how to you genuinely summarize the effect the film has on you so potential viewers reading your review can fully understand and know what they are getting into if they do attend? Fortunately, in the case of Piranha 3D, I had none of those problems.

After all, it is a film about an underwater quake which sets free hundreds of prehistoric man-eating fish who then proceed to attack and eat pretty much anything and everything they can sink their teeth into. Once the fish are loose and on their way to spoil Spring Break for the thousands of kids frolicking at Lake Victoria, AZ it’s up to an unlikely group led by the town’s Sheriff (Elisabeth Shue) and a visiting marine paleontologist (Adam Scott) to stop the deadly horde before it’s too late.

Having recently seen Joe Dante’s original Piranha and another classic Roger Corman gory campfest Humanoids from the Deep, I can say that Piranha 3D borrows heavily from both of those previous films and does deliver a campy, over the top and in your face good time. It’s not art, whatever you may consider that to be, but it does have one big thing going for it: It’s fun.

Piranha 3D doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: a movie where a pack of fish attack a whole bunch of people and eat them which also features ample sexual situations and nudity. It definitely earns the R rating.

It starts out letting you know these fish are not to be messed with by presenting Richard Dreyfuss doing what can only be described as a parody of his character from Jaws (complete with his rendition of Irving King’s Show Me the Way to Go Home) innocently fishing on the lake.

Continue Reading