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Editorial Reviews
The residents of a small Louisiana Bayou community being terrorized by a school of genetically engineered, bloodthirsty fish think the key to safety is to simply stay out of the water. But when it's discovered that the creatures can breathe on land, they quickly realize that they need another plan for dealing with their amphibious assailants. Tomas Arana, Tory Kittles, China Chow star. 84 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
No, despite the title, "Frankenfish" isn't a painful-to-watch monster spoof trying achingly hard to be both cool and funny but failing miserably at both. And despite what the title might also have you thinking, it's not a $10-budgeted filmed-in-the-basement-over-the-weekend student film. It's a surpsisingly well done, at times quite fierce, and thoroughly fun, blast of monster mayhem.
Set in the deep parts of the Florida everglades, the movie involves (as opposed to a re-animated fish swimming forth from a foreboding gothic castle) Chinese Snakeheads (real fish from China, piranha-like creatures who can live for a while on land and will even attack prey on land) who've been genetically engineered by a group of wealthy big-game hunters to grow to monsterous proportions, all the better for them to track down with their machine guns and grenade launchers during the pursuit of their 'sport'. A ship carrying the cargo gets caught in a massive storm and washed up the river into the Everglades where the beasties get free just in time for lunch. And, of course, the 'Frankenfish' have turned out even more lethal than their designers intended. This movie is far from a spoof but it is a little on the campy side, a little on the tongue-in-cheek side, and it's a reminder that, occasionally, a bit of the campy elements in a horror movie don't necessarily have to be a bad thing, as long as they don't go overboard.
The main protagonists in the film aren't the rich hunters. A Florida cop and an Everglades wildlife expert are dispatched into the rivers to do some investigation into the discovery of a washed-up and eaten-up corpse, and end up at a cluster of houseboats where people live year-round in the Everglades making a living off fishing in the rich swamps and streams. It's a likable cast that ends up as the fish's target for buffet of the day, and the bloody man vs. beast action sequences are better and more credible than you might think they'd be. The movie doesn't try to present its creatures as more dangerous than they could conceivably be (taking into account that a regular-sized chinese snakehead is a pretty intimidating little predator, let alone a six-foot one). Ergo, they're not presented as the harbingers of civilization's imminent collapse, but they are extremely dangerous to anyone on or remotely near to the waters they're in. It's like with "Jaws" - the shark wasn't taking down big ocean-liners but you sure didn't want to be out swimming or even on a small sailboat when he was nearby. The balance struck is right, the effects are solid and well-designed, and the whole movie surpasses what pretty well anyone likely thought it could be.
An allout winner and a must-see for fans of aquatic/swamp horror like "Piranha" and the "Anaconda" movies.
Set in the deep parts of the Florida everglades, the movie involves (as opposed to a re-animated fish swimming forth from a foreboding gothic castle) Chinese Snakeheads (real fish from China, piranha-like creatures who can live for a while on land and will even attack prey on land) who've been genetically engineered by a group of wealthy big-game hunters to grow to monsterous proportions, all the better for them to track down with their machine guns and grenade launchers during the pursuit of their 'sport'. A ship carrying the cargo gets caught in a massive storm and washed up the river into the Everglades where the beasties get free just in time for lunch. And, of course, the 'Frankenfish' have turned out even more lethal than their designers intended. This movie is far from a spoof but it is a little on the campy side, a little on the tongue-in-cheek side, and it's a reminder that, occasionally, a bit of the campy elements in a horror movie don't necessarily have to be a bad thing, as long as they don't go overboard.
The main protagonists in the film aren't the rich hunters. A Florida cop and an Everglades wildlife expert are dispatched into the rivers to do some investigation into the discovery of a washed-up and eaten-up corpse, and end up at a cluster of houseboats where people live year-round in the Everglades making a living off fishing in the rich swamps and streams. It's a likable cast that ends up as the fish's target for buffet of the day, and the bloody man vs. beast action sequences are better and more credible than you might think they'd be. The movie doesn't try to present its creatures as more dangerous than they could conceivably be (taking into account that a regular-sized chinese snakehead is a pretty intimidating little predator, let alone a six-foot one). Ergo, they're not presented as the harbingers of civilization's imminent collapse, but they are extremely dangerous to anyone on or remotely near to the waters they're in. It's like with "Jaws" - the shark wasn't taking down big ocean-liners but you sure didn't want to be out swimming or even on a small sailboat when he was nearby. The balance struck is right, the effects are solid and well-designed, and the whole movie surpasses what pretty well anyone likely thought it could be.
An allout winner and a must-see for fans of aquatic/swamp horror like "Piranha" and the "Anaconda" movies.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Yes I admit that this film is a guilty pleasure and that your only going to like it if you have a high tolerance for crap or just enjoy a bad b-movie. I didn't think the film was that bad it had great lines like (Oh great were fu***ng fish food!) and (Oh my god the house just shot her) and you actually get to see that in this film, as dumb as this film gets I actully enjoyed it. A big game fisherman and a scientist genetically engineer some killer mutant fish for hunting but they escape and are let loose near a swamp somewhere in Louisiana soon the local population are under attack enter the cliche characters including the cool black cop that thinks hes Wesley Snipes and the attractive marine biologist yeah right whens the last time youve seen a hot marine biologist. The film had a lot of gory death scenes and some random nudity that was pointless but made things alot better I guess, the gore is what made it interesting and included a nice decapatation, a woman being torn in half and some guy being eaten so you know its going to be good its almost like a stress relief from work!.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I don't know what form of madness I suffer from that requires me to rent virtually every film from the "animals run amok" genre. Whatever it is, and such an illness ought to have a name, I'm currently passing through the advanced stages. I don't even bother reading a plot summary anymore when I see a DVD case with killer sharks, giant insects, or mutated monsters on the cover; I just rent the sucker immediately. It's likely--extremely, painfully likely--that the movie in question will stink. It goes without saying that the filmmakers lifted most of the plot from Spielberg's "Jaws." Doesn't matter. I'll still rent the movie in question and give it a watch. Such was the case with director Mark A.Z. Dippé's "Frankenfish." Just look at that cover! How could I resist such an alluring vision as that? If, for some reason, the cover is no longer visible, the case for "Frankenfish" shows two hapless looking people in water up to their waist in the foreground while a gigantic, ugly fish sporting lots of nasty looking teeth zooms toward them in the background. Yay! We're about to have some fun! Well, not really, but the movie isn't as bad as some in this genre.
"Frankenfish," set in the mythical land called Louisiana, begins by introducing us to a crack medical examiner named Sam Rivers (Tory Kittles) as he goes about investigating a crime scene. He quickly finds more than he bargained for when a call sends him further into the bayou to investigate a suspicious animal attack in the swamp. Teaming up with a busty scientist named Mary (China Chow), Rivers discovers with some alarm that the victim in question sports bite marks of an unknown origin. Uh oh. Obviously, an investigation needs to take place right away in order to ascertain the cause of death. It's equally obvious that such an investigation will likely CAUSE more deaths, but that's why we're watching. Anyway, Sammy and Mary head up the river...umm, swamp...to track down this nasty beastie. They soon stumble over a few rickety houseboats populated by a group of people from central typecasting. We've got some neo-hippie with a penchant for swamp grass and nekkid livin', a voodoo lovin' African-American family, and a sullen loner. After some tension filled chitchat between all the characters, disaster strikes in the form of a monstrous fish, a Frankenfish if you will, and the movie rapidly descends into "monsters gone mad" mode.
These fish are mean mothers! They can soar through the air like trained gymnasts, breathe air when necessary, and have the ability to pursue their prey out of the water. And they don't like these people or these houseboats. Predictably, the characters have no way to escape from these monsters, so they have to use their wits to survive until help arrives. When someone finally does show up, it's about as far from help as you can imagine. It turns out that some bored big game hunter imported a bunch of these fish from China and then had them genetically altered. Of course, they escaped and quickly began to breed in the river...umm, swamp. It's this hunter and some of his cronies who arrive to clean up the mess. One thing leads to another as many people die in horrible ways. Since "Frankenfish" is a genetic monster gone mad movie, we also must have the scenes where humanity reasserts its control of the natural world. How this happens is quite amusing, if completely illogical by orders of magnitude, and evokes memories of that Saturday Night Live sketch in which Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child ground that fish up in the blender. Roll credits.
"Frankenfish" does have a few things going for it, things that set it apart from the typical "Jaws" ripoff. One, the movie has China Chow and K.D. Aubert, two cuties who if nothing else provide the audience with the requisite eye candy so important to the success of these types of films. Two, "Frankenfish" is massively gory. We see screaming flesh torn to shreds, ripped in half, punctured with bullets, and generally abused in delightfully saucy ways. Mutated fish don't worry about making a mess when eating their prey, apparently. Three, a character actually kills one of the monsters, tears its heart out, grills the dripping mess, and then proceeds to eat it as a form of revenge! Alas, what's good finds its opposite in what's bad, and "Frankenfish" frequently fails to rise above several obstacles. One, it's a ripoff of every creature flick we've ever seen. Two, the dialogue and the reactions of the characters to the unfolding carnage easily scale the heights of stupidity. Three, and the most important, the CGI effects used to depict the monstrous fish look like CGI effects used to depict monstrous fish. Don't get me wrong; the fish here look light years better than the cheesy rubber objects seen in a movie like "Piranha," to cite one example, but they still come off as pretty schlocky.
Extras on the disc are limited to a bunch of trailers: "Resident Evil: Apocalypse," "Frankenfish," "Asylum of the Damned," "Boa vs. Python," "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital," and "Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid." Overall, I'd give "Frankenfish" a solid three stars. It's stupid and derivative, but it's also entertaining and gory. I can think of many films in this genre that are far, FAR worse than this one. If you can't resist the lure of mutated beasties seeking revenge against humanity, if you can't pass up seeing another movie with killer sharks or giant insects, "Frankenfish" is must see viewing for you. All others should proceed directly to "Jaws" and give this a pass.
"Frankenfish," set in the mythical land called Louisiana, begins by introducing us to a crack medical examiner named Sam Rivers (Tory Kittles) as he goes about investigating a crime scene. He quickly finds more than he bargained for when a call sends him further into the bayou to investigate a suspicious animal attack in the swamp. Teaming up with a busty scientist named Mary (China Chow), Rivers discovers with some alarm that the victim in question sports bite marks of an unknown origin. Uh oh. Obviously, an investigation needs to take place right away in order to ascertain the cause of death. It's equally obvious that such an investigation will likely CAUSE more deaths, but that's why we're watching. Anyway, Sammy and Mary head up the river...umm, swamp...to track down this nasty beastie. They soon stumble over a few rickety houseboats populated by a group of people from central typecasting. We've got some neo-hippie with a penchant for swamp grass and nekkid livin', a voodoo lovin' African-American family, and a sullen loner. After some tension filled chitchat between all the characters, disaster strikes in the form of a monstrous fish, a Frankenfish if you will, and the movie rapidly descends into "monsters gone mad" mode.
These fish are mean mothers! They can soar through the air like trained gymnasts, breathe air when necessary, and have the ability to pursue their prey out of the water. And they don't like these people or these houseboats. Predictably, the characters have no way to escape from these monsters, so they have to use their wits to survive until help arrives. When someone finally does show up, it's about as far from help as you can imagine. It turns out that some bored big game hunter imported a bunch of these fish from China and then had them genetically altered. Of course, they escaped and quickly began to breed in the river...umm, swamp. It's this hunter and some of his cronies who arrive to clean up the mess. One thing leads to another as many people die in horrible ways. Since "Frankenfish" is a genetic monster gone mad movie, we also must have the scenes where humanity reasserts its control of the natural world. How this happens is quite amusing, if completely illogical by orders of magnitude, and evokes memories of that Saturday Night Live sketch in which Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child ground that fish up in the blender. Roll credits.
"Frankenfish" does have a few things going for it, things that set it apart from the typical "Jaws" ripoff. One, the movie has China Chow and K.D. Aubert, two cuties who if nothing else provide the audience with the requisite eye candy so important to the success of these types of films. Two, "Frankenfish" is massively gory. We see screaming flesh torn to shreds, ripped in half, punctured with bullets, and generally abused in delightfully saucy ways. Mutated fish don't worry about making a mess when eating their prey, apparently. Three, a character actually kills one of the monsters, tears its heart out, grills the dripping mess, and then proceeds to eat it as a form of revenge! Alas, what's good finds its opposite in what's bad, and "Frankenfish" frequently fails to rise above several obstacles. One, it's a ripoff of every creature flick we've ever seen. Two, the dialogue and the reactions of the characters to the unfolding carnage easily scale the heights of stupidity. Three, and the most important, the CGI effects used to depict the monstrous fish look like CGI effects used to depict monstrous fish. Don't get me wrong; the fish here look light years better than the cheesy rubber objects seen in a movie like "Piranha," to cite one example, but they still come off as pretty schlocky.
Extras on the disc are limited to a bunch of trailers: "Resident Evil: Apocalypse," "Frankenfish," "Asylum of the Damned," "Boa vs. Python," "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital," and "Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid." Overall, I'd give "Frankenfish" a solid three stars. It's stupid and derivative, but it's also entertaining and gory. I can think of many films in this genre that are far, FAR worse than this one. If you can't resist the lure of mutated beasties seeking revenge against humanity, if you can't pass up seeing another movie with killer sharks or giant insects, "Frankenfish" is must see viewing for you. All others should proceed directly to "Jaws" and give this a pass.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Corny but fun!!!
My family was over for Christmas last year and this movie just so happened to be on the SyFy channel. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Waynestaticluva
not just another genetically engineered giant fish story...
It takes a while for the action in Frankenfish (2004) to get going, but when the monster fishes finally arrive on the scene, the stage is set for the total destruction of a small... Read more
Published 8 months ago by trebe
frankenfish
frankenfish is the coolest fish
movie ever.it has gore,lots of
creature violence,guns.and the
most important thing,well a
kind of good ending.
movie ever.it has gore,lots of
creature violence,guns.and the
most important thing,well a
kind of good ending.
Published 13 months ago by Tammy N. Zhang
Surprised! It Was Better Than Expected!
From the rather lame front cover picture, which was totally expected of a movie like this, I was expecting a lame, boring, and flawed filled movie. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Nathan T.
BETTER THAN MOST B HORROR
With the title having "Franken" in it and with a black man on the cover, I was all set for a bad black horror movie on the order of "Black Frankenstein." I was wrong. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Michael Ledo
The sweatpants of monster movies
The prefix "Franken-" is the sweatpants of movie names. As Seinfeld put it: You know the message you're sending out to the world with these sweatpants? Read more
Published 21 months ago by Michael J. Tresca
CHOMP! SPLASH! GLUB!...
FRANKENFISH is the story of gargantuan, genetically altered monster fish on a feeding rampage. It's sort of a combination of JAWS, LAKE PLACID, and TREMORS w/ some fairly decent... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein
A Waste Of A Good Film Title
"From the director of Spawn"!! Boy if that doesn't have you throwing this one in your shopping cart, I'm not sure what else will. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Stanley Runk
Frankenfish
Although the plot is indistinguishable from countless other killer animal flicks, FRANKENFISH is a step above the usual direct-to-video releases. Read more
Published on May 9, 2010 by Carl Manes
One of my favorite creature features!!
My husband and I love cheesy creature features. Pretty much if most people hate the movie we know we are going to love it. In fact we use movie reviews opposite of most people. Read more
Published on January 29, 2010 by Jayde N. Cook
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