 |  | Some Classics Weren't Meant To Be Tampered With |  |
The original "Piranha" was an entertaining cult classic but the decision by Roger Corman to remake it, nearly twenty years later, must have entirely been for finacial reasons because this straight-to-video retread is about as half-baked as it gets. Aside from a few changes of some character's ethnicities and gender, this is almost an exact copy of the first film.
As was the case in the original, two troublesome kids decide to go swimming at a government test site and end up "fish food". Enter Alexandra Paul as a very butch-looking P.I. who is hired by one of the kids' legal guardians who also happens to be the owner of a new resort that is opening up. With the help of overacting hillbilly hermit, William Katt, she ends up at the test site and drains the pool causing the piranha to run amok in the local river system. Of course, the greedy resort owner isn't going to let something like giant man-eating killer fish ruin his plans to open his resort.
This new "Piranha" offers very little added value aside from possibly a little bit more gore and nudity but not even enough to really make it worth your while. Of course, we get to see a grown-up "Punky Brewster" as Soleil Moon Frye shows up as a summer camp counselor with Mila Kunis (many years before she broke out on "That 70's Show") as Katt's hydrophobic daughter. Alex Simon's screenplay should barely qualify as a "studio rewrite" as it is practically a word-for-word duplicate of the original John Sayles script. Even worse, the severe overacting of the cast really kills the memorable dialouge. Only Roger Corman would save production costs by recycling the underwater photography from the original for a remake. Needless to say if the producers of this film wouldn't waste their money on it then you probably shouldn't either. November 8, 2003
A community is terrorized when hundreds of spawning genetically-mutant piranhas are accidently released from an isolation pool and into a river used by the community for boating, fishing, and SWIMMING!!! These things are so violent and aggressive, they may as well be consitered "Mini-Jaws's". They attack anything that moves and chews it up until it's practically gone!
July 18, 2003I really love this movie for one reason: I was in it. I play one of the kids in the summer camp (I'm wearing green and blue shorts). I've even got pictures with Solie to prove it. The funniest part about making this movie was that in the trailer that I would get dressed in, they kept a bloody skeleton prop that looked like it was eaten by piranahs. Everyday as I would change into my wardrobe, that stupid thing would be staring right at me. I really hated that.
April 4, 2003Some of you may think that it is a terrible film, but i think it is so funny!! It's such a good film....
November 22, 2002I baught this film for Soleil Moon Frye only and she does an excellent job in this cheesy horror film that is not scary and the pirahnas a little rubbery, also bad acting by William Katt.
September 17, 2001More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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