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"Piranha" (1978)

Posted : 5 years, 11 months ago on 3 May 2018 08:48

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.

As it's a creature feature, I didn't expect much. What I got was a mixed bag. Some elements were surprisingly brilliant, like the relationship between the daughter and the camp counsellor, and the plan to distract the guard โ€“ which, in a sense, was ahead of its time. But there were also moments that were just plain unbearable, like the actual execution of said plan.

Plus, this movie came out in the wake of Jawsย and the influence is undeniable, but the movie itself makes it clear that it's aware of this, even throwing in a Jawsย arcade game at the beginning.


My rating: 45%


I won't bother reviewing the sequel, by the way, because there's honestly not much to say. The first movie at least has its moments, but the sequel flat-out sucks. The acting is awful, everything looks cheap, and you'd never guess that James Cameron would go on to become one of the greatest directors of all time.



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An average movie

Posted : 11 years, 3 months ago on 24 January 2013 09:33

Since I'm not a huge fan of this genre, I wasn't expecting much from this flick. However, since I have a weak spot for Joe Dante's work, I still wanted to check it out. First of all, I was quite surprising to discover that John Sayles was one of the writers on this movie (Apparently, he used the profits from the film to fund his own projects. It was also his scriptwriting debut). Eventually, since it is a Roger Corman production, you pretty much already know what you are getting into, even before the whole thing started (blood, naked chicks and some cheap thrills). As I expected, it was a rather weak horror/monster flick with some cheap ass special effects, a total rip-off of 'Jaws' but since Spielberg himself loved it, they didn't even get sued. I was actually surprised that they even went far enough to slaughter some kids at a summer camp and, I have to admit it, it was slightly better than the horrendous sequel which was James Cameron's directing debut but it doesn't say much. I guess, I wasn't really the best audience for this kind of cheesy movies and if you are fan of the genre, you will probably enjoy it more than I did but I wouldn't recommend it and I don't think it is really worth a look.


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