Piranha 3D (2010)
Starring Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd, and Richard Dreyfuss
Directed by Alexandre Aja
I don't quite know where to go with this one. Let's just start by saying that Piranha is not a good movie. Nor does it have any intentions of being one. It knows full well that it's awful. The question then becomes does it reach the level of "so bad, it's good" which is the goal it sets out to achieve.
The answer is "it depends."
The problem with a movie like Piranha is that it isn't good or worth your time unless you're able to watch it with a group of people who can talk back to the screen. Sitting and watching this flick in a theater with folks who are "forced" to be quiet is going to seriously dampen your fun...and it's going to make you realize that the movie doesn't quite hit the heinously hilarious levels it hoped it would.
When a pack of prehistoric-era killer piranhas is unleashed due to a seismic event (triggered -- no joke -- by a beer bottle falling into a lake), the town of Lake Victoria is in for some trouble. Of course, it's Spring Break and tons of college hotties who are perfectly fine with dancing topless are ready for a dip in the town's lake. There's really no point in explaining any more plot...killer piranhas attack senseless and obnoxious college students. You don't need to know anything else.
We're treated to a who's who of has-been actors -- Elisabeth Shue, Ving Rhames, and Christopher Lloyd -- who are all surprisingly decent. Thankfully, the director realized that watching a movie riddled with horrible actors like the obnoxious Jerry O'Connell would have been painful to sit through, so he actually cast a few decent people to counter the awful ones.
On one hand, it's nice that director Alexandre Aja recognized he was going for pure camp. There's a scene towards the beginning where two buxom ladies strip down to nothing but flippers and swim through the surprisingly clean waters of Lake Victoria while proceeding to hump one another. This scene goes on for at least two minutes and it's all set to a classical opera aria. Alone, the nude ladies would have been just nude ladies, but set to classical music, it becomes a somewhat hilarious scene. Aja at least has an eye for the corny and it certainly is necessary in a film like this.
The 3D -- which was a conversion and not shot in the format -- was disappointing. It created a dark tone at times where it became nearly impossible to see what was going on. In the end, the corniness would've been perfectly acceptable in 2D.
Even after writing this review, I'm still not quite sure where to go with the rating here. I enjoyed myself, but I'm well aware that this movie sucks. If I watched it alone at home, I would think it was one of the worst movies I'd seen this year. In the setting in which I watched it, however -- with a group of seven talking back to the screen -- it was an enjoyable diversion.
In the end, just know what you're getting into with this and maybe you'll come out of it with some moderate enjoyment.
The answer is "it depends."
The problem with a movie like Piranha is that it isn't good or worth your time unless you're able to watch it with a group of people who can talk back to the screen. Sitting and watching this flick in a theater with folks who are "forced" to be quiet is going to seriously dampen your fun...and it's going to make you realize that the movie doesn't quite hit the heinously hilarious levels it hoped it would.
When a pack of prehistoric-era killer piranhas is unleashed due to a seismic event (triggered -- no joke -- by a beer bottle falling into a lake), the town of Lake Victoria is in for some trouble. Of course, it's Spring Break and tons of college hotties who are perfectly fine with dancing topless are ready for a dip in the town's lake. There's really no point in explaining any more plot...killer piranhas attack senseless and obnoxious college students. You don't need to know anything else.
We're treated to a who's who of has-been actors -- Elisabeth Shue, Ving Rhames, and Christopher Lloyd -- who are all surprisingly decent. Thankfully, the director realized that watching a movie riddled with horrible actors like the obnoxious Jerry O'Connell would have been painful to sit through, so he actually cast a few decent people to counter the awful ones.
On one hand, it's nice that director Alexandre Aja recognized he was going for pure camp. There's a scene towards the beginning where two buxom ladies strip down to nothing but flippers and swim through the surprisingly clean waters of Lake Victoria while proceeding to hump one another. This scene goes on for at least two minutes and it's all set to a classical opera aria. Alone, the nude ladies would have been just nude ladies, but set to classical music, it becomes a somewhat hilarious scene. Aja at least has an eye for the corny and it certainly is necessary in a film like this.
The 3D -- which was a conversion and not shot in the format -- was disappointing. It created a dark tone at times where it became nearly impossible to see what was going on. In the end, the corniness would've been perfectly acceptable in 2D.
Even after writing this review, I'm still not quite sure where to go with the rating here. I enjoyed myself, but I'm well aware that this movie sucks. If I watched it alone at home, I would think it was one of the worst movies I'd seen this year. In the setting in which I watched it, however -- with a group of seven talking back to the screen -- it was an enjoyable diversion.
In the end, just know what you're getting into with this and maybe you'll come out of it with some moderate enjoyment.
The RyMickey Rating: C+
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