Mega Piranha

Introduction

I think we're alone now, there doesn't seem to be anyone around…

…except maybe a couple of tons of deadly giant piranha.

And so from the makers of Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus…

An American Senator and the Venezuelan Foreign Minister are killed in mysterious circumstances whilst cruising on the Orinoco River in Venezuela. US Secretary of State Bob Grady (Barry Williams) needs to find out quickly how the top officials died and so puts his best man on the job, Special Forces operative Jason Fitch (Paul Logan).

Whilst being given the run around by the local military hierarchy, Fitch meets marine biologist Sarah Monroe (Tiffany) who has some information for him. Turns out that Munroe and her team are working on experiments for the UN to genetically modify parts of the food chain in order to aid the local economy. Bizarrely though, her team were working on the L23 group of piranha, a particularly aggressive strain of the killer fish. Not quite sure how much of a local delicacy piranha fish are, but hey it's the UN…

Anyway, Munroe is positive that the L23 strain has either escaped or been stolen and set free and Fitch manages to prove that the L23 are alive and well in the Orinoco river. Tests on a dead fish brought back by Fitch show that the piranha have evolved, gaining thick skin for protection, 2 hearts and also gained the ability to self-reproduce. Even more worringly, it turns out that the modification to this strain means that the fish can double in size every 36 hours with no limits as to how big they will grow.

And now it's a race against time before the fish break free, swallow Venezuela for breakfast before moving into the United States for dinner…

Picture

The producers have clearly learnt some lessons from the previous film with some quite fantastic sfx this time round. Not that they're anywhere near LucasFilm standards but they've put a lot more effort into it and gone the outrageous comedy route as well. So you'll see people swallowed whole and piranha either impaling themselves on lighthouses or jumping into buildings, which then explode - as they clearly would after contact with giant fish.

Extras

Making Of - I'm not even sure if this featurette can be taken too seriously.

Overall

Anyone who read my review of Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus knows I loved it so there was little chance I wasn't going to like this one. In fact I actually love it more as the producers have gone all out this time for the outrageous comedy angle disguised as a really bad Sy-Fy movie of the week. It's just so genius that it's a wonder I didn't find Carlsberg in the list of producers.

Another coup was upping the ante on the casting. Paul Logan and Tiffany now take the spotlight and the bad acting stakes have been raised, including quite possibly one of the worst Special-Forces-operative-escapes-from-custody-of-foreign-soldiers sequences you'll ever see. The plot also makes a little more sense than last time, not much but enough…

…and this is despite plenty of continuity errors and lame dialogue.

I've now seen this film twice and can't quite get enough of it. It's a superb piece of comedy and kudo's to both the producers and writers for taking their brand of rather silly films and lifting it to the next level. Some of the sequences are just too bizarre to comprehend, such as Paul Logan flat on his back on a beach cycle kicking flying piranha left and right (it's in the trailer, see it to believe it…). As mentioned in the section above, there are some great comedic touches within the effects and a brilliant tracking shot up a river with flapping tail fins of piranha sticking out of buildings. Seriously, my descriptions really can't do it justice and I can't remember the last time I laughed as much as I did bar during the previous film.

You may be able to see Kelly Brooke in 3D but this is the best piranha film you'll see for a fair while…