Review of Piranha 3DD (2012) by James W — 11 Feb 2014

The original "Piranha" remake scored a lot of points for being so outlandish and over the top, so I guess someone thought the sequel had to top it. Which brings me to the cleverly titled "Piranha 3DD", and that title is easily the most clever thing about this ridiculous picture.

It's made in the same campy vein as the original, but something is missing this time out and the end result is a gratuitous, slightly amusing yet relentlessly stupid film. It's obvious from the outtakes that the cast and crew had a great time making it, but only some of that comes through in the finished product. There's not much of a story as the film relies on the original to do most of the set up for this film, and the special effects are mostly sub-par.

The blood flows freely, but a lot of the deaths aren't very convincing and the film features one of the phoniest decapitations in recent memory. Maybe if I had seen the film in its intended 3-D format, it wouldn't have looked so fake. The film is filled mostly with fresh faces, but thankfully it's also peppered with some veterans who provide the few laughs this does manage. The fact that Ving Rhames even returned for the sequel is hilarious, but so is his performance, and David Hasselhoff steals the show here playing himself. His comic, self deprecating turn is the absolute highlight of this otherwise forgettable effort.

Even the plentiful nudity is disappointing mostly because everything looks surgically enhanced. When a movie fails at gratuitous nudity, there's a problem. "Piranha 3-DD" is a breezy, fast-paced time-killer that does everything to excess. If that's all you're looking for, you'll eat this up.