Piranha DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Features Man-Eating Fish Attacking Teens on Spring Break

This campy B-flick is the best offering from the tongue-in-cheek horror genre since Snakes on a Plane, another gratuitous gore fest with a good sense of humor. But its plot reads more like Jaws, given that the story unfolds in a resort town at the height of the tourist season.
It’s Spring Break, and thousands of college students have descended on fictional Lake Victoria in Arizona for a little fun in the sun and the water. And it falls to Sheriff Forester (Elisabeth Shue) and her beefy deputy dog (Ving Rhames) to keep the kids under control, although they are only anticipating having to deal with disorderly person issues like public intoxication.
Their primary adversary in this regard is Derrick Jones (Jerry O’Connell), the sleazy producer of a string of titillating Girls Gone Wild-style videos. The dirty old man has arrived on location with a camera crew ready to stage wet T-shirt contests and to coax soused coeds to take off their bikini tops.
However, unusual seismic activity in the midst of the debauchery creates a fissure under the lake which leads to the mysterious death of an unsuspecting fisherman (Richard Dreyfuss). Against their better judgment, the cops never close the beaches, even ignoring the dire warnings of an alarmed scientist (Christopher Lloyd) out of fear that mass hysteria might be bad for the local businesses.
Beware, Hell hath no fury like a school of starving, teen-eating piranhas!

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for sexuality, profanity, graphic nudity, teen alcohol consumption, gratuitous violence and gore, crude humor and drug use.
Running time: 88 Minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Director’s commentary.