Joe Dante’s debut is a fringe recommendation, low-budget, fun,
with enough redeeming elements (mostly that engaging narrative) to warrant future
revisits
If a critic doesn’t mention Jaws
in the first paragraph of Piranha,
they either haven’t seen Jaws, or
haven’t seen Piranha
Roger Corman produced, John Sayles written— a crazy
combination– blending a B-movie production and a witty enough screenplay
Jaws video game in the film, the opening- it’s all Jaws but if you think about Jaws and why it works- Jaw’s mechanical shark didn’t really do
it—it is all about withholding, splashing, the unknown in the water,—and that
is the perfect recipe for a B-movie that doesn’t have a budget. The few times
here when we get an actual look at the piranha’s it’s a joke and takes you out
of it—fortunately it doesn’t happen often
The casting of Barbara Steele (all that work with Mario Bava)
and Kevin
McCarthy (Invasion of Body Snatchers)
just make too much sense—B-movie royalty
It’s unabashedly goofy and tongue-in-cheek but the
anti-government and “there’s always another war” stuff in the screenplay is
well done
Believe it or not Piranha only has a 41 audience score on RT and Gardens of Stone has 55.Apparently 4 of the last 5 reviews are highly positive for Gardens of Stone.
@Harry- It was not when I first saw it- which was decades ago. I have not been back to revisit it since – I should.
Malith
April 14, 2022 at 1:58 pm
@Drake-Have you seen the new Batman(2022) film? And also is Batman Returns(1992) in the archives? As much as I liked Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and Colin Farell as Penguin in the new film I thought there were inferior to the the potrayals by Danny DeVito and Pfeiffer in Batman Returns. Otherwise the new film was very well made.
Drake
April 14, 2022 at 2:37 pm
@Malith- I have seen The Batman (2022) from Matt Reeves- very impressed. I do not currently have the 1992 Tim Burton film in the archives but have not seen it recently
Why are you archiving crap like Piranha and not archiving valuble films like Gardens of Stone(1987)?
@Hashan– believe it or not, much stronger reviews on rotten tomatoes for Piranha– 72% positive… 47% for Garden of Stone
Believe it or not Piranha only has a 41 audience score on RT and Gardens of Stone has 55.Apparently 4 of the last 5 reviews are highly positive for Gardens of Stone.
haha audience score
No but 4 of the last 5 reviews are highly positive.worth a look I think.
@Hashan- I want to see Gardens of Stone. added it to my queue yesterday
@Drake is Gardens of Stone good enough to be in the archives?
@Harry- It was not when I first saw it- which was decades ago. I have not been back to revisit it since – I should.
@Drake-Have you seen the new Batman(2022) film? And also is Batman Returns(1992) in the archives? As much as I liked Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and Colin Farell as Penguin in the new film I thought there were inferior to the the potrayals by Danny DeVito and Pfeiffer in Batman Returns. Otherwise the new film was very well made.
@Malith- I have seen The Batman (2022) from Matt Reeves- very impressed. I do not currently have the 1992 Tim Burton film in the archives but have not seen it recently
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