Piranha (1972)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

With a title like "Piranha," one might expect a film about killer fish tearing people apart with their sharp-ass teeth; but that is not the case with this putrid exercise in padding. Fast-forward through the dull parts and you might get a watchable five minutes.What passes for the plot: wildlife photographer Terri Greene (Ahna Capri) and her brother Art (Tom Simcox) fly to Venezuela to photograph the Amazon jungle but find themselves the targets of a brutal, sadistic hunter named Caribe (William Smith). Along the way, we're treated to a Venezuelan booty call, a desiccated folk song, lots of anti-gun talk from Terri (guess where that leads?), Caribe's half-assed philosophy on life and death, a pointless motorcycle race, a crash course in diamond-mining, Terri getting raped, the fiery destruction of a native village, and a stabbed-to-death Art being devoured by piranhas— hardly enough to justify the title.It would have been nice had PIRANHA offered less padding and more backstory and character development. It also could have played up the implied attraction between Terri and her guide (Peter Brown). That way, the viewer might feel some empathy for these characters, particularly when Caribe makes them his prey. But no; that would take effort, and we certainly can't have that.If anything here is worth seeing, it's the footage of the Amazon jungle and its teeming wildlife. Come to think of it: if you cut all the scenes with the people, you might have an interesting nature documentary. Just hire a good narrator.By the way, "caribe" means "piranha."

The movie is great for Venezuelan tourism, birds, birds and more birds. Only 1 piranha. Nice scenery. The only highlight was the alligator seen during a very long and boring motorcycle race. The end when Caribe drowns is a definite Hollywood prop. There is no definite storyline. It goes from Venezuelan scenery to a rip off of easy rider to diamond mining and a ruthless hunter going crazy for some reason who gets it in the end. A very low budget movie that could have been filmed anywhere with outtakes of Venezuela. William Smith is a very talented actor that has made some very good movies. Like all actors they all need to have at least one bad film Don't waste the $5.00 on the DVD.

"Piranha" is an very underrated little masterpiece. It starts out very slow and moves faster and faster until it comes to a very dramatic end.Ahna Capri (from "Enter the Dragon") plays the Photographer Terry who comes with her brother Art (70ies regular Tom Simcox) to Venzuela to shoot photos. Jim Pendrake (played by B-movie star Peter Brown, unforgotten as bad guy in "Foxy Brown") is their leader through the jungle. In a bar they meet the mysterious hunter Caribe, played by the greatest B-movie actor of all times, William Smith. Smiths performance is outstanding, one of his best ever.Caribe does not only hunt animals, he hunts everything that moves and that includes people, too. He invites Terry, Art and Jim into his house. While the man are away he rapes Terry. Art wants to revenge his sister and is the first who dies.Jim and Terry try to escape but Caribe follows them, burns down a village but they could escape him (but only this time).At Caribe's house it comes to a very dramatic showdown, he kills Jim until the hunter himself gets shot by his victim."Piranha" plays with the idea of Manhunt which was a main theme in a classic movie that was made almost 40 years earlier: "The Most Dangerous Game" from 1932 from Meridian Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, the makers of "King Kong" (1933).The beautiful landscape of Venezuela stands in confrontation to the heavy violence of his movie. It's a very rare and underrated movie!

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.