Piranha 3D is a 2010 horror film and a remake of the 1978 film Piranha. It was directed by Alexandre Aja from a screenplay by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger.
The movie stars Steven R. McQueen, Jessica Szohr, Jerry O’Connell, Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Lloyd, Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Kelly Brook, Riley Steele, Ving Rhames and Eli Roth.
Generally well-received by critics, the film grossed over $83 million worldwide and spawned a sequel, Piranha 3DD.
Plot:
Fisherman Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) is fishing in Lake Victoria, Arizona when a small earthquake hits, splitting the lake floor and causing a whirlpool. Hooper falls in and is ripped apart by a school of piranhas that emerge from the chasm and ascend the vortex.
Jake Forester (Steven R. McQueen) is admiring attractive tourists as spring break begins. He reunites with his old crush, Kelly (Jessica Szohr) and meets Derrick Jones (Jerry O’Connell), an eccentric adult moviemaker, as well as Danni Arslow (Kelly Brook), one of his actresses. Derrick convinces Jake to show him good spots on the lake (Lake Victoria) for filming an adult movie.
That night, Jake’s mother, Sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue), searches for the missing Matt Boyd with Deputy Fallon (Ving Rhames). They find his mutilated body and contemplate closing the lake, however, this is made difficult by two thousand partying college students on spring break who are important for bringing revenue to the small town. The next morning, a lone cliff diver is attacked and consumed by the marauding fish…
Reviews:
The Guardian review: ‘There are one or two, or maybe three, gross-out laughs, and it’s certainly better than the recent tongue-in-cheek clunker Mega-Piranha, but I have to say the softcore cynicism wore me down a bit. Richard Dreyfuss sends up his role in Jaws with a good-natured cameo’
Rolling Stone review: ‘Piranha 3D ends the summer on a note of shamelessly entertaining B movie bottomfeeding. Man-eating fish, blood everywhere, full frontal nudity, girl-on-girl action, a hard R rating, tacky 3D added after the fact, actors who look like they want to kill their agents, and a chance to laugh at everything in sight. Watch for the dismembered penis that becomes fish food. What more do you want out of an August popcorn movie?’
Screen Rant review: ‘The movie is gross. If you know anything about director Alexandre Aja (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes) this shouldn’t surprise you. The man has a real talent for somehow conveying the gruesomeness of death … When these piranha finally do come calling and Spring Break gets turned into a massacre, it, is, ugly. As for the little aquatic killers themselves: the GGI work in this film isn’t going to win any Oscars, ever, by any means’.
Total Film review: ‘It’s all trashy, splashy fun that’s both a light-hearted throwback to 3D’s exploitation roots and a shameless pandering to the Friday night crowd’s baser instincts… A shame, though, that more time was not lavished on the computer-generated carnivores themselves. Indeed, a great deal of the piscine carnage is so underlit it’s hard to tell what’s going on and who’s eating who’.
Trailer:
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