Piranha 3D (2010)

Back in 1975, Jaws hit theaters, made a fortune, and changed everything. Jaws created the concept of the "summer blockbuster" and Hollywood never looked back. Right on the heels of Jaws, several studios of varying size and means smelled blood in the water and chummed theaters with their ripoffs. Among these was 1978's Piranha, which Steven Spielberg considered to be the best of these ripoffs.

In the 2000s, everything old is new again, and remakes are a hot commodity. Now, no one would ever remake Jaws (right, Hollywood? You know how bad an idea that is, right?), but Piranha? Hell, why not?

Piranha 3D (which I watched in 2D on the Netflix Instant Queue) takes place at Lake Victoria, Arizona, where an earthquake has opened a passage to an underwater lake (!) and unleashed the prehistoric piranhas that live inside just in time for the town's annual Spring Break debauchery.

It's a brilliantly simple and simply brilliant story that sets the stage nicely for loud music (every song sounds like LMFAO, but according to the soundtrack listing, only one actually is), drunk collegiates, bikini (and less) babes, and VICIOUS FISH ATTACKS!!

The cast is good, with Elizabeth Shue as the town sheriff, Ving Rhames as a deputy, Steve McQueen's grandson as the sheriff's oldest son, and Jerry O'Connell as an analogue of that super-sleazy Girls Gone Wild guy. Excellent cameos by Richard Dreyfus (essentially reprising his role from Jaws, sortof), Christopher Lloyd, and Eli Roth add to the fun. But the real stars of the movie are the digital fish.

As Christopher Lloyd's fish expert character explains, piranha attack in packs so-as to be an overwhelming force against their prey. That's a great description of what we get in the massive set-piece sequence when the piranha attack the massive MTV-style party as the day comes to a close.

Oh, the humanity. The carnage is epic as hundreds of idiots who spitefully flaunted the Sheriff's command to get out of the water become fish food. Piranha sets the record for most filleted humans in one film, and features a fish through the mouth, a handful of decapitations, this one guy running over dozens of people with his boat, and even a cut/slide. It's not for the squeamish, to be sure.

Piranha gets my highest recommendation if you're looking a fast-paced, loud, violent shocker that eschews subtlety. It's legitimately one of the most fun horror movies I've seen in years.