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Amazon.co.uk Review
As a producer, Roger Corman has always loved to make low-budget rip-offs of hit movies, and Piranha is his typically cheeky take on Jaws--and, as so often with Corman, in many ways it's funnier and more entertaining than the original. Directed with gusto by schlock-horror specialist Joe Dante and sharply scripted by John Sayles, it replaces one huge underwater toothy monster with dozens of little ones and ups the body count by a factor of 10 or so. Two hapless teenagers, hiking in a remote mountain region, stumble on a secret US military research lab. They don't last long, but their intrusion leads to the release into the local river system of a huge shoal of super-intelligent piranha, originally specially bred for use in Vietnam. Downstream from the virulent little munchers lie a kiddies' holiday camp and a tacky new waterfront theme park. Lunch time, fellas!
Sayles, with his staunch left-wing credentials, slips in some mordant political satire at the expense of the military-industrial complex, and authority figures of any kind come off pretty badly, but the satire never gets in the way of the gleeful black humour. The two leads, Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies, are fairly pallid, but there are ripe cameos from such cult horror-movie icons as Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller and Barbara Steele. Pino Donaggio's score impudently borrows aspects of John Williams' famous Jaws theme while never quite infringing copyright. The movie was successful enough to spawn a much-inferior sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), which marked the inauspicious directing debut of one James Cameron.
On the DVD: Piranha on disc comes with just the theatrical trailer as an extra. The transfer is a respectable job, reproducing the original's full-screen ratio. --Philip Kemp
Special Features
English
Region 2
Region 2
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This will remind you of Jaws. It is funny and suspenseful and will make you want to watch it again and again. With a great cast including Dick Miller from Gremlins it has everything. Joe Dante directs and it has a great story to it. Its also not very dated and wont go out of date very quickly. Its fx for some of the dead bodies is very funny actually but also gets pretty scary and serious near the end. By the look of the End though you know there will probably be a sequal and there is. It is a class piece of film though and will have you reeling to watch it again.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
PIRANHA is regarded as the best of the myriad JAWS clones that emerged in cinemas after 1975. This film never takes itself too seriously and tongue is firmly in cheek all the way through. A top notch cast includes PAUL BARTEL and horror veteran BARBARA STEELE as a villanous scientist. The low budget effects are delivered very well and the attack sequences are directed extremely well. It will be interesting to see what the 2010 remake will be like in 3D.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A spoof of 'Jaws' this is a highly entertaining film. It's got a good cast and great director, Joe Dante (who also made 'The Howling' and 'Gremlins 1 and 2').
Not particulary scary, it has a few moments where you cringe for the characters, but the film is mostly humourous, and is meant to be.
The plot is basically genetically-modified Piranhas escape from where the government was breeding them (to use in future wars!) and go on a rampage on a lake by a children's summer camp.
Great fun!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Simply the best multi-fish chomping man film ever
Bought this with Pirahna 3D (for comparison). Kelly Brook is lovely but I had no sympathy for anyone in that 2010 traversty of a re-make. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Victor deBs
The Memory Cheats
I first saw this movie on VHS in the early 80s (I was around 12 - a bit young i suppose but my parents were quite liberal about what i watched). Read more
Published 17 months ago by BELLEMODO
Fun classic creature horror that's still exciting
I was glad that this has stood the test of time, as my other half hadn't seen it and tends to make it pretty clear if a film is cheesy or tacky. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Benminx
Mind numbing drivel
Utter garbage. The film is laughable and forgettable. Bad story, bad acting and there are so many flaws in the plot that it's not even worth going over them. Read more
Published 19 months ago by yaleey
Great "B" Movie
"Piranha" is a cautionary tale about the perils of genetic engineering , yet it manages to inject an element of humour into it's critique as well as portraying the horror of a... Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2006 by L. Davidson
"The piranhas...they're eating the guests, sir..."
We all know that producer Roger Corman made "Piranha" to exploit the success of "Jaws"--just look at the poster art for Spielberg's sake. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2003
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