BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Wuchak Released in 1972, "Piranha" chronicles events when a brother & sister photography team (Tom Simcox & Ahna Capri) enlist a guide (Peter Brown) for a tour in the jungle wilderness where they meet a friendly-but-mysterious hunter named Caribe (William Smith), who lives in the jungle. Caribe shows his true colors when he acts upon his Native namesake.People badmouth this movie because they fell prey to a bait-and-switch by DVD-makers or whomever. This is NOT the Roger Corman nature-runs-amok flick of the same name from 1978. Neither is it a creature feature at all. It's a realistic Venezuelan jungle adventure/thriller with hints of horror highlighted by genuine early 70's atmosphere. Despite being an adventure/thriller, the title "Piranha" does not misrepresent the movie, which is explained in the second half and ties into the plot (I'm not going to give it away). Another thing to keep in mind is that the movie was released in '72, three years before "Jaws" made nature-runs-amok flicks popular. So the filmmakers didn't title it "Piranha" with the intention of misleading fans of creatures-on-the-loose flicks.In any case, the cast is great, although they coulda done better with someone other than Capri in the female role, even though she plays the part well despite my slight misgivings. Simcox is a likable masculine protagonist and it's too bad he didn't become a star, although he had constant TV work. Brown is good too, but it's Smith who towers here, literally at 6'2", but in overweening taciturn charisma as well. Caribe seems like a cool guy to party with in the jungle and the quartet have some good times together, including a long (8.5 minute) motorcycle race, but the story takes a dark turn in the final act. I've seen a handful of Smith films & TV episodes over the years and this is by far his best role.Some complain about the "stock footage" of numerous animals, but it adds to the jungle atmospherics. Others complain about the thinness of the plot and the seeming padding with the animal, Native and diamond-panning footage, etc. This has caused some to criticize the movie as a "Venezuelan travelogue," but I enjoyed this aspect. Viewing the film IS like vacationing in Venezuela and I found it interesting and informative, but it's just a stage for the interesting low-key drama of the quartet. And, say what you will about the thin story, it gels together into a meaningful whole with interesting things to glean.If you're in the mood for a 60s-70's psychological adventure/thriller I recommend "Piranha." However, if you need an explosion every second and unrealistic action sequences to maintain your attention look elsewhere.The film runs 90 minutes and was shot entirely in Venezuela.GRADE: B+

Woodyanders Wildlife photographer Terry (lovely Ahna Capri) and her brother Art (underwhelming drip Tom Simcox) go to Venezuela for a photo shoot. They hire the rugged Jim Pendrake (hunky Peter Brown) to guide them through the jungle. However, the trio run afoul of evil and lethal local hunter Caribe (legendary B-flick tough guy William Smith in peak nasty form). Sound good? Well, it sure ain't. William Gibson's flat (non)direction and Richard Finder's dull, talky, and uneventful script fail to deliver much in the way of either action or excitement, the draggy pace plods along at a painfully sluggish clip, and there's a numbing abundance of boring filler and (admittedly pretty) travelogue footage of the gorgeously verdant jungle. Moreover, the mild PG rating ensures that we don't get any graphic nudity or harsh violence to alleviate the severe tedium (for example, Capri gets raped by Smith, but it happens off screen). Richard LaSalle's score alternates between the reasonably funky and the hideously slushy. The titular flesh-eating fish only pop up briefly towards the end. Jim Stein's horrendously sappy folk ballad "Love All Things That Love the Sun" sure doesn't help matters any. That said, the always dependable Smith adds some sorely needed energy to this otherwise dreary bilge, there's a thrilling motorcycle race between competitive alpha males Smith and Brown, and Smith does finally embark on the inevitable crazed rampage in the fairly lively last ten minutes, but overall this insipid wash-out proves to be a real crummy chore to endure. Skip it.

Dragoneyed363 My mother mistook this Piranha movie for the 1978 Piranha movie and when I had noticed she made a mistake, a mistake I was extremely upset about, I decided to watch this one anyway, just to give it a shot. I can tell you I deeply regret watching it all the way through and even continuing to watch it once I began to hate it. This movie is terribly boring and basically horrifying, not in the Horror movie kind of way, to watch. I wish my mother wouldn't have been so stupid and forced such excrement on me. This movie is so horrendous and so intolerable in every piece of material that I couldn't bare to let anyone say this movie was halfway decent. For one thing, this movie should be called A Boring Talk About Wilderness instead of Piranha. They only show piranhas once, once. At the same time, the way this film sounds so poorly is just ridiculous; I got sleepy only 20 minutes into the thing for it's lack of any music with upbeat tempo, or sound volume with any real heights, or basically just it's lack of everything in general, including acting talent and credibility for any redeeming qualities. At the end my mouth was hung wide open and I stared gloomily at the blank TV screen. It is a very poorly directed and badly filmed piece of junk that I was afraid I had a brain dysfunction after watching. It's a good thing it's very obscure, I can see why, because I'm pretty sure it saves the trouble of many people accidentally mistaking it for some other kind of movie, a trouble that I wish would not have been brought upon me, but sadly, it was.

glen-87 There seems to be about 30 minutes of movie here and 60 minutes of shaky, hand-held shots of birds, monkeys, guys on an endless motorcycle race. Seriously, the race comes from out of nowhere and takes forever! One guy jumps over a log with a gator beside it. Spine-chilling thrills, there! Hey, let's get some cash together and spend some time in Venezuela! Yay!Oh yeah, it's about 55 minutes in before anyone even says the word "piranha" and about an hour and ten minutes before you see one "in action".I, too, got this one for about 5 bucks. I was thinking it was the OTHER Piranha movie. (This one is even so deceptive to be labeled only "Piranha")Lame. Not even lame enough to be much fun, I'm sad to say.