How do you follow up something as ridiculously over the top and entertaining as Piranha 3D, the loose remake of the cracking Joe Dante movie? Well, if you're director John Gulager then you try to take the basic idea and use it for something even MORE ridiculously over the top and entertaining. Sadly, he only manages to achieve the first part of his aim.
Danielle Panabaker is Maddy, a young woman disgusted by the plans of her stepfather (David Koechner) to make his new waterpark a resounding success by populating it with lots of large-breasted women who aren't averse to showing off their assets. Unfortunately, in an effort to cut costs, the waterpark is also draining water from somewhere it really shouldn't. Somewhere that might contain some large, deadly piranha. While a number of horrible things happen to individuals who go playing around in nearby water, viewers are one step ahead of the characters onscreen as things build up to a piranha-filled, bloody finale.
There's certainly some fun to be had with Piranha 3DD. As well as Panabaker and Koechner in their roles, the cast contains the lovely Katrina Bowden, Matt Bush being sweet, David Hasselhoff portraying himself as an egotistical asshole, and Ving Rhames returning after his encounter with the deadly fish in the first movie. It's good to see Christopher Lloyd back, too. There are also, of course, a number of beautiful women in almost every scene, all fed up of being constrained by those old-fashioned bra things.
The special effects are wildly varied, with some shockingly bad CGI appearing, but they're more than a match for the many outrageous gore gags scattered throughout the movie, the script by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton is pretty weak, and the direction from Gulager fails to balance things well enough for anyone wanting anything coming close to tension or thrills. The mix of gore and off-the-wall humour worked when the same team of writers and director gave audiences Feast, but it's mishandled here.
Don't get me wrong. This is an easy film to have some fun with, if you can watch it without rolling your eyes every few seconds. But it's not an easy film to like.
4/10
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