Piranha 3D: Critic Reviews

It's hard to imagine how scenes of mass dismemberment set during a wet T-shirt contest could be staged any better.

What is disturbing is the talent and distinction of much of the cast, whose mere presence seems to signify an element of smart, self-conscious fun that the movie does not really supply.

The softcore cynicism wore me down a bit.

A movie this adolescently dirty-minded could hardly pass up a chance to go to Lake Titicaca.

If you're looking for signs of intelligent life -- well, did you really expect to find them in a remake of a Seventies B-movie anyway?

This moderately entertaining popcorn thriller recaptures the B-movie spirit of such vintage schlockmeisters as Samuel Z. Arkoff and Roger Corman.

An awe-inspiring, stomach-churning journey into blood, gore, and boobs directed by one of France's most talented horror auteurs, Alexandre Aja.

The 32-year-old carnivorous fish franchise has lost none of its bite, serving up a fresh batch of spring-break revelers for the fearsome creatures to attack.

Piranha 3D goes for the jugular. And generally misses, but generally in an amusing way.

Aja's ability to spoof an easy target gives 'Piranha 3-D' its primary thrill factor. All those scenes of wriggling naked bodies torn to shreds have obvious cathartic potential.

For most of Piranha 3D, Aja skates along the line separating satire/camp from horror without straying into the realm of outright parody.

A bloody entertaining blast of a flesh-eating fish-out-of-water story.

Mere words cannot describe how awesomely gnarly Piranha 3D is, how hugely entertaining, and how urgently you must get yourself to the theatre to see it. Like, now.

Piranha 3D ends the summer on a note of shamelessly entertaining B movie bottomfeeding.

[Tries] so hard for the laughs and the allusions amid all the gore, and endless bloodbath of bare naked ladies, that it completely forgets to frighten anyone.

This action-thriller will eat you alive. Paul Chambers, CNN.

Aja once again proves that no one understands the aesthetic of ample arterial spray better than the foreign horror geek.

...a mildly watchable B-movie effort that could have (and should have) been so much better.

full review at Movies for the Masses

Fails in being an entertaining satire and a competent horror film...

There?s a dull predictability to the set pieces; when you see a topless para-skier bob in-and-out of the water, it?s inevitable that she?ll rise into the air without any legs.

Piranha 3D gets honestly earned points for the creative energy it sustains in the arena of creatively gory dispatches, non-torture porn division.

Neither gore enthusiasts nor boobie fans will be disappointed. Piranha 3D knows what it is and embraces it, from stupid disobedience to kids in peril to sexy exploitative silliness, with a remarkable level of humor and competence.

Coarse, crass and mind-boggling shameless? Hell, yeah! Alexandre Aja's remake of the Joe Dante/John Sayles' killer-fish movie flies its trash flag high.