A group -- a very large group -- of college kids are having spring break at Lake Havisu in Arizona (called Lake Victoria in the film). A small earthquake unleashes an underwater tunnel where thousands of hungry piranhas wait.
This film marks the third time that director Alexandre Aja has directed a horror film remake. He previously directed "The Hills Have Eyes" (2006) and "Mirrors" (2008), also remakes of earlier horror films. I want to say this disappoints me, because Aja has some of the best talent in the business today, but frankly he makes remakes worth watching. "Hills" may have trumped the original.
Having ten times the budget of a SyFy film, with only a marginally better outcome. The effects are still pretty cheesy in most scenes, leading me to believe the money went to the decent cast, with the two best actors (Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss) only having a few scant minutes on screen.
The cast? Elisabeth Shue (looking good for her age), Jerry O'Connell (usually annoying but works in this film), Ving Rhames (who we do not see nearly enough of in the theater these days), and Eli Roth as a guy with a thousand one-liners about wet breasts. In fact, the film as a whole has more bare women than piranhas.
Empire gave the film three out of five stars, saying "Remember the film you hoped 'Snakes on a Plane' would be –- this is it! By any sane cinematic standards, meretricious trash ... but thrown at you with such good-humored glee that it's hard to resist." I agree. This is the cheese I wanted from "Snakes", but unlike that film, it is not a pile of dog excrement.
And did you hear? There is a sequel on the way... I almost suspect it will be better than this one.
