Piranha DD is more or less a SyFy Original Movie with nudity. The story, such as there is, is pretty thin (not surprising, though) but the dagger in this movie is unlike its predecessor, it’s not much fun to watch. I’ll give credit to Danielle Panabaker for trying her best and even the director for attempting to bring back the 1970s monster slasher genre, but for me, I just didn’t find this to have any redeeming value, even in the genre.
Piranha 3DD (2012)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Horror
Anchor Bay | R – 83 min. – $34.98 | September 4, 2012
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: John Gulager
Writer(s): Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan and Joel Soisson (written by)
Cast: Danielle Panabaker, Matt Rush, David Koechner, Chris Zylka, Katrina Bowden, Gary Busey, Christopher Lloyd, David Hasselhoff
Theatrical Release Date: June 1, 2012 (limited)
DISC INFO:
Features: Commentary, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Short Film, DVD Copy, Digital Copy
Number of Discs: 3
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.78
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Disc Size: 20.6 GB (2D Blu-ray)
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 2.0/5
Plot Outline: The prehistoric school of bloodthirsty piranhas is back and this time, no one is safe from the flesh-eating fish as they sink their razor sharp teeth into the visitors of summer’s best attraction, The Big Wet Water Park.
Quick Hit Review: Piranha 3DD isn’t a mystery. We all know why this movie was made and that was to show some nudity, bikini-clad chicks, thinly written characters and terrible CGI that only SyFy could be proud of. On the bright side, the young Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th, The Crazies, The Ward) isn’t too bad in this and gives it her best despite a poor script by Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan, the pair responsible for Saw 4-6, and Joel Soisson, the man behind numerous direct-to-video horror sequels including Mimic 2, The Prophecy 3-5 and the awful Pulse 2 and 3.
Directed by John Gulager, Piranha 3DD is the type of film you would see on SyFy complete with poor CGI but with some nudity as a way to placate the adolescent male audience. I’m all for these types of movies but at least put some effort into it. In any case, I can’t think even those who liked Piranha won’t find this to be a worthy entry into the potential (though likely) franchise. On the plus side, it is an incredibly short movie clocking in at around 70-minutes sans end credits.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5
Audio Commentary – This track features Director John Gulager, Co-Writer Producer Joel Siosson and Co-Writer Marcus Dunstan. As you can imagine, it’s a fairly light-hearted commentary but the trio to tend to provide some behind-the-scene info about how the movie was made, locations shot at and some anecdotal stories from the set.
Deleted Scenes (2:34; HD) – There are three scenes included that failed to make the cut.
The Story Behind the DD (7:49; HD) is a short promotional featurette that doesn’t really offer much information.
The Hofftastic World of David Hasselhoff (2:09; HD) – This featurette is dedicated to The Hoff who makes fun of himself.
Busey’s Bloopers (2:04; HD) are some outtakes featuring Mr. Crazy, Gary Busey.
Wet and Wild with David Koechner (1:37; HD) is just another short featurette with Koechner offering insights into… something or other.
“A Lessong with John McEnroe” (3:53) is a short film featuring the former tennis pro. I haven’t a clue what this is doing here…
This release also includes the 3D Blu-ray, 2D Blu-ray and DVD Discs along with a Digital Copy.
Previews – Scream 4, The Zombie Diaries 2
VIDEO – 3.75/5
Piranha DD is presented in 1080p high-definition and its original 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio. I assume this was filmed on a digital camera (esp. considering it’s was made for 3D) so it is a very clean looking transfer, free of any flaws but this also means it doesn’t give it that theatrical quality including film grain or noise. The detail level isn’t bad, albeit it can be a bit on the glossy side at times while the colors seem to be well balanced especially during the daytime scenes and those bright bikinis…
AUDIO – 4.0/5
The movie comes with a good 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track which comes to life during the numerous piranha attack scenes while even the quieter, “dialogue” (and I use that loosely) scenes sound pretty good as well.
OVERALL – 2.25/5
Overall, Piranha DD is more or less a SyFy Original Movie with nudity. The story, such as there is, is pretty thin (not surprising, though) but the dagger in this movie is unlike its predecessor, it’s not much fun to watch. I’ll give credit to Danielle Panabaker for trying her best and even the director for attempting to bring back the 1970s monster slasher genre, but for me, I just didn’t find this to have any redeeming value, even in the genre.
The Movieman
Published: 09/03/2012