9.20.2010

Piranha 3D (2010)

directed by Alexandre Aja
with: Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell, Richard Dreyfuss

When I saw the trailer for Piranha 3D I was mildly interested by it. I never really thought of watching it until I had three hours to kill while waiting for a friend. I was expecting something terrible and somewhat entertaining, but simultaneously frustrating. To my surprise, I had some big laughs and was glad I saw it. The movie contains the cliches of horror films you can expect. It uses and abuses the same formula as Jaws, which is one of the reasons why it works. People having a great time, an authority figure that knows what's up, underwater shots ...blood, tons of it...survivors. The 3D of course, is a big plus. An immediate cult movie. 

The movie is never to be taken seriously in any way; then it becomes enjoyable. With a ridiculous plot, and a ridiculous amount of breasts and severed body parts, the film also manages to criticize the spring breaker behaviors and attitudes. Aja did what he had to, he took it to the extreme and he communicated exactly what he wanted and for that, a bad movie can be a good movie... and, I will probably head over to the cinema for the sequel when it comes out. 

Worth a look. 
Rating: 6.25/10

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

with a low grade means it´s not good but entretaining. is that correct?

Bob Clapes said...

yes, exactly. This movie does not deserve a lot of points on quality, artistic values, acting, script or possible future influence in cinema, but it's entertaining.