Cinema Review: Piranha 3D

Taking a swift turn from the rest of this summers entertainment, Alexandre Aja brings us his third remake in a row, Piranha 3D, modernizing Joe Dante's 1978 original splatterfest.

After an unexpected tremor unleashes copious amounts of ravenous, prehistoric piranha, the town Sheriff (Elisabeth Shue) must divert the amplitude of wild, booze-hungry teens on Spring Break.

Whether you've seen the original (or James Cameron's sequel) or not, we're all aware of the sudden uproar in B movie flicks, all of which are continuously overproduced by the Sci-Fi channel. They succumb in the ridiculous, containing an undoubtably OTT, often hilarious storyline, superfluous characters and sadly devoid of any real intelligence. Still, with the 50's introducing such propsterous films, they've only grown more popular. If you're in the right mind-set, B movies can supply the audience with one hell of a good time, and Piranha 3D is no different.

With our set of oddly placed characters serving no true purpose other than a few cheap laughs, we're left reeling with who'll be next on the piranhas' long, long list of who to munch on. It's the true reason why Piranha 3D will do so well, so why try to act otherwise? Jerry O'Connell's spoof of Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis is an utter delight, especially with the hilarious outcome proving one of the film's true selling points. British model Kelly Brook swims in a camptastic manner with porn star Riley Steele (with full frontal nudity, three-dimensional style!) as Shue battles her way through the floating corpses to reach her kids who're stranded on a capsized boat. The film yells cheap, yet never fails to entertain.

From the fantastically tongue-in-cheek opening paying homage to another well known ocean dweller, it's clear from the get-go that Aja has made a B movie for the ages. With the 3D proving similar to those catapulted on-screen back in the 70's, the entire film is a nod to the classics that re-defined the genre.

The beautifully serene setting tainted by booze, boobs and blood is chaos defined. Teens frollicking in all directions as limbs are ejected, gnawed, ripped and eaten. A copious amount of blood envelops the water as screams engulf multiple scenes; never before has carnage been this entertaining.

Full of genuine thrills, cheeky humor and motorboating (yes, motorboating - courtesy of Brook and Steele), horror buffs will truly revel in Piranha's brilliance, with Aja directing his best film since High Tension. While many will find faults with it, those able to yield in Piranha's camp, often overwhelming enjoyment may just find that that it's one of this summers biggest highlights.

4/5