Product Details

• Actors: William Katt, Alexandra Paul, Monte Markham, Darleen Carr, Mila Kunis
• Directors: Scott P. Levy
• Writers: Alex Simon, John Sayles, Richard Robinson
• Producers: Chako van Leeuwen, Mike Elliott, Roger Corman
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Concorde
• VHS Release Date: June 2, 1998
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304200447
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,679 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific remake of the 1978 cult classic!, February 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Piranha [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A remake that actually surpasses the original classic! This one has it all: thrills, chills, laughs, movie in-jokes! A terrific ride. Kudos to all, especially the writer and director, who do justice to the material while putting their own original spin on it. Check it out!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Some Classics Weren't Meant To Be Tampered With, November 7, 2003

By 

Crazy Jim (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Piranha [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The original "Piranha" was an entertaining cult classic but the decision by Roger Corman to remake it, nearly twenty years later, must have entirely been for finacial reasons because this straight-to-video retread is about as half-baked as it gets. Aside from a few changes of some character's ethnicities and gender, this is almost an exact copy of the first film.

As was the case in the original, two troublesome kids decide to go swimming at a government test site and end up "fish food". Enter Alexandra Paul as a very butch-looking P.I. who is hired by one of the kids' legal guardians who also happens to be the owner of a new resort that is opening up. With the help of overacting hillbilly hermit, William Katt, she ends up at the test site and drains the pool causing the piranha to run amok in the local river system. Of course, the greedy resort owner isn't going to let something like giant man-eating killer fish ruin his plans to open his resort.

This new "Piranha" offers very little added value aside from possibly a little bit more gore and nudity but not even enough to really make it worth your while. Of course, we get to see a grown-up "Punky Brewster" as Soleil Moon Frye shows up as a summer camp counselor with Mila Kunis (many years before she broke out on "That 70's Show") as Katt's hydrophobic daughter. Alex Simon's screenplay should barely qualify as a "studio rewrite" as it is practically a word-for-word duplicate of the original John Sayles script. Even worse, the severe overacting of the cast really kills the memorable dialouge. Only Roger Corman would save production costs by recycling the underwater photography from the original for a remake. Needless to say if the producers of this film wouldn't waste their money on it then you probably shouldn't either.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool Movie, December 11, 2000

By 

"maddawg6986" (PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Piranha [VHS] (VHS Tape)

When a mutant school of Piranha are accidentally unleashed into the calm waters of northern Texas, all hell breaks out as tourists at a lake-front resort and kids at a nearby camp are savagely devoured by the monstrous fish.

The movie has a good cast, a good plot, good special effects (except that the fish don't actually move their fins while swimming), and tons of blood & gore. You'll definitely like this new spin on the tired "Jaws rip-off" genre.