SYNOPSIS:
From
director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) comes the new
action thriller Piranha 3D. Every year the population of sleepy
Lake Victoria explodes from 5,000 to 50,000 for Spring Break,
a riot of sun and drunken fun. But this year, there's something
more to worry about than hangovers and complaints from local
old timers; a new type of terror is about to be cut loose
on Lake Victoria. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free
scores of prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of
strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming
fish food for the area's new razor-toothed residents.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Five minutes. 300 seconds. That is how much you’d be missing from the original cut of the movie if you bought and watched this DVD in the comfort of your home. The disc, rated M18 for nudity and gore, is a toned down version of the Alexandre Aja directed comedy horror (we’ll talk about this genre a while later) movie which was shown in local cinemas last year. So what difference does it make if you chose to own this DVD instead of hunting down the movie in its entirety?
The French director follows up from his slew of bloody flicks (2006’s The Hills Have Eyes, 2007’s P2 and 2008’s Mirrors) with this remake of the 1978 movie of the same name. If you consider the following a decent plot, then here goes: After an underwater tremor sets a pack of prehistoric man eating fish, a group of strangers must come together to survive, and well, in the larger scheme of things, to save the world from being torn apart by these ferocious creatures.
It’s just hilarious how the filmmakers can even come up with a plot to explain how the piranhas are let loose in the waters. Seriously, underwater tremors? We may not be scientists, but the idea behind this tickles us quite a bit. The fact that there is even an attempt to come up with an excuse to set free the piranhas is really rather amusing. Once you get past that fact, then let all hell be unleashed.
This species of carnivorous fish is really the best bet if you want lots of blood splattering and body part decapitations. When the first body part falls off, shock may set in, but as the frequency increases, you are desensitised and end up chuckling quite a bit. Same goes for the blood – the splashes and sprays of the red fluids are almost works of art, if you want to see it that way. Given that not everyone can tolerate violence and gore, this movie (imagine what it would be like if you watched it in eye popping 3D technology!) may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
An ensemble cast came together to be part of this bloody gore fest. They include familiar faces like Jerry O’Connell, Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Lloyd, Elisabeth Shue, Ving Rhames and even Eli Roth. There are also less known names like Adam Scott, Kelly Brook. Without giving away too much, let’s just say each of them will have different consequences by the end of the movie, some more amusing than the others.
It is not surprising to learn that a sequel is already in the works (you would have seen it coming with the film’s final scene), given how thwarted the human mind can be. Entitled Piranha 3DD, we are, as guilty as we are to announce this, very much looking forward to it.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
There is nothing to complain about the pristine visual transfer of the movie. It is presented in its original English audio track in Dolby Digital 2.0.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
Posted
on 10 April 2011
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