Piranha 3D (2010)
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Piranha 3D (2010)
Remake of the 1978 film, this new one is directed by 'French visionary' director Alexandre Aja (the thriller killer High Tension) - is this... a new vision? A new way of... looking at Piranha? ...to see them as more than just... gluttons? No, not really. In the plot, a small earthquake creates a new fissure under the waters, leading to an until-now unseen underwater cave; the deadly fish waste no time in roaming their new territory - the 1st victim is a hapless fisherman played by Richard Dreyfuss in cameo, humming a familiar song in a direct homage to Jaws (the original film was also a parody/homage to Jaws).
Elizabeth Shue stars as the local Sheriff in some tourist town in Arizona - on Victoria Lake - which is just beginning its week of college morons on vacation for Spring Break. She calls to mind that old TV show with Suzanne Somers, She's the Sheriff, though Shue takes her role a mite more seriously. In fact, she may be the only thing in this film which is close to serious; all the other actors tend to ham it up, especially Jerry O'Connell as an obnoxious-sleazeball filmmaker who is there to simply film boobs. Shue's son is played by Steven R. McQueen (grandson of THE Steve McQueen); he's a teen and therefore irresponsible; he and his younger siblings end up on O'Connell's boat with a few others and this boat soon gets tangled in seaweed; then the fish arrive. But, the big attack happens near shore where a huge celebration was in progress; soon the waters are red with blood.
The film has quite a lot of T&A and the unrated version also has a lot of flat out frontal nudity (the female kind), including one water ballet sequence underwater. It creates a disturbing juxtaposition in that many of these beautiful female bodies are soon shown ripped apart. However, all the carnage in the key scene near the end, while extensive, also seems very unlikely given that everyone is literally a few strokes from shore. One unsympathetic young punk, for example, actually gets in a working speedboat and spends his time driving over numerous others rather than heading a few yards towards a beach. There's also Ving Rhames as another cop, choosing to battle the fish while remaining in waist-high water. Also small roles for Dina Meyer as a scuba diver and Christopher Lloyd as the local fish expert who pronounces these fish as supposedly extinct as of 2 million years ago (so what we have here are prehistoric piranha). He also supplies the revelation at the end, leading to a surprise ending. The film also has an interesting color scheme - usually the barren yellow/orange land surface contrasting with the stark bright blue waters. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
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