MyRating: YYY1/2Director: Alexandre Aja
Cast: Elisabeth Shue, Stephen R. McQueen, Jerry O'Connell, Adam Scott, Ving Rhames, Jessica Szohr, Kelly Brook, Riley Steele, Christopher Lloyd, Eli Roth, Richard Dreyfuss
MPAA: Rated R for sequences of strong bloody horror violence and gore, graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use
Holiday on the beach will never be the same again! Maybe we have heard this before when the phenomenal Jaws of Steven Spielberg was first being released in 1975, which made many people became afraid of the beach and the sea at that time. This Piranha was a remake from a movie directed by Joe Dante with the same title in 1978, which was actually a comedy and a parody of the successful Jaws. However, this 2010 version by Alexandre Aja was no parody!
When an underwater earthquake shakes Lake Victoria on a Spring Break event, where the number of visitors is at its peak and the beach is at its busiest time of the year, thousands of prehistoric man-eating piranhas, with sharp razor-teeth, are being released from the beneath of the earth. And the party is suddenly becoming the ultimate terror and their worst nightmares, ever, as while thousands of young visitors are partying and enjoying the beach, the fishes are also partying and enjoying their fleshes.
This movie is a horror-action-thriller with an old magic formula that turned out to work perfectly well. The story was simple, but captivating and suspenseful. The actings were good. The tension was well managed to the climax. Lots of beautiful "sceneries" on the beach. And the piranhas were cute, that will make you want to take them home and put them in the aquarium as your pets. No! They were brutal! As brutal as hell breaks loose! This movie has lots and lots amount of gore with extremely strong violence, as you can see people being eaten to the bones, bodies ripped and torn apart, beautiful faces become fleshless, tons of bloods spilling on the beach, and dead bodies floating everywhere. People screaming and panicking, trying to "swim" for their lives, including the horror-sounded screaming from the people inside the theater when seeing the horror on screen. Indeed, if you have a weak heart and stomach, then there were many pretty hard scenes to watch.
Besides scary, this movie was also sexy. Very sexy and wild. As there were plenty of beautiful young women in bikinis (and without). Definitely a feast for the eyes and a guilty pleasure movie. Actually this is the magic formula, you give them gore, and you give them pretty girls who do not mind to do anything, combined with an interesting story, then every horror fan will surely love it. It's the perfect recipe. But don't bring your kids to watch this movie, just because you think this is the cute live version of Finding Nemo, because it is not.
The other factor that didn't make this movie to fall into an average B-movie was the well-known casts and the good performances by the actors. Elisabeth Shue was convincing as the Sheriff and the mother, who concerns about the safety of her town as well as her children. Jerry O'Connell gave a very interesting performance as an eccentric pornographer and womanizer, who wants to shoot porn on beach. There were also Ving Rhames as the Deputy Sheriff, Christopher Lloyd as the marine biologist, Eli Roth as the Wet T-Shirt Host, and a performance by Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper, the character he portrayed in Jaws. The young lead, Stephen R. McQueen, as Shue's son, also performed well. While Jessica Szohr, Kelly Brook and Riley Steele were the beauty pageants and the breath takers of this movie. The CGI was okay and the piranhas did look fierce, and sometimes funny. Unfortunately, I didn't watch this in 3D.
Piranha was a great fun summer horror movie. I think it delivered what the horror fans has always expected from such a movie. Not only a feast for the eyes, but also for the nerves. If you like horror, then this one is a satisfaction guaranteed! (MJ)
