Piranha: Roger Corman's Cult Classics [Blu-ray]

This review is for the Steelbook Blu-Ray edition of Piranha released in June, 2019.This Steelbook edition is for the original 'Piranha' made in 1978.For those interested only in the picture and extra's, just look below.BLU-RAY & EXTRA'S: The picture is made from the original camera negative and is a 4K scan. The picture didn't look as good as I would have hoped. I know very little about film transfers and I'm guessing that the this is as good as this movie is going to look. The movie is shown in it's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The extra's are plentiful. They are:-New audio commentary with Roger Corman - I did not particularly like this. Almost the entire commentary is of Corman being interviewed about his career. He says very little about this movie. Don't expect to learn much about 'Piranha'. Corman's career has been documented extensively elsewhere. Dick Miller died shortly before this commentary was made.-Audio Commentary with Director Joe Dante and Producer Jon Davison - This is a very good commentary. Dante is always good at commentaries and in this particular instance, it is his movie! He tells you virtually every detail he could remember as you go scene by scene through the movie. This is the way all commentaries should be. When Dante recorded this audio commentary, he was watching this movie for the first time in 15 years.-Additional footage from TV version of 'Piranha' - This consists of about 12 minutes of scenes. This is not all new footage. A lot of the footage is of extended scenes. There is additional footage of the scenes with the kid and father in the canoe, scene in the tent, scene on the river with Dr. Hoak, scene with the colonel along with some other scenes. In addition, there is a new scene with a commercial being shot.-The Making of Piranha - There are interviews with Roger Corman, Joe Dante and many of the actors and production people involved.-Bloopers and Outtakes-Behind the Scenes Footage-Still Galleries-Theatrical Trailers-TV and Radio Spots-Behind the Scenes Photo Archives*****WARNING - LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW*****PLOT/SUMMARY: Maggie McKeown is looking for a couple of teenagers who went missing in Lost River Lake. Maggie comes across a depressed local named Paul. He agrees to help her look for the missing teens. They come upon a closed fish hatchery that has been turned into a secret military facility. Once inside they meet Dr. Hoak (Kevin McCarthy). Unfortunately they have an altercation and Hoak is knocked out. Maggie finds a switch and drains a pool that is outside of the main building. In doing so, she releases top secret piranha into the local river. The hatchery was being used to breed experimental piranha. These were to have been unleashed in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. Dr. Hoak takes off in Maggie and Paul's Jeep but ends up crashing. Dr. Hoak tells the two about 'Project Razortooth'. Dr. Hoak doesn't tell them everything he knows and the trio uses a raft to travel down the river. Paul's child is at a summer camp nearby and he fears for her life. Once alerted, the military enters the picture. Together, they must figure out how to stop the Piranha from advancing.PRODUCTION: This movies was released by New World Pictures and United Artists in 1978.-The budget was around $660,000 and was a big success for New World Pictures.-According to the producer Jon Davison, the shooting schedule was a total of 30 days, 22 days on land and 8 days in the pool. 20 of the shooting days were in Texas with the other 2 in Griffith Park in California.-Universal Studio's wanted to stop this movie from being released but ultimately reconsidered.-This was Joe Dante's first directorial job after his very low budget 'Hollywood Boulevard'.-Dick Miller gets a pretty sizable role. He is of course famous for being 'That Guy'.-Barbara Steele returns to the United States in a minor role.-The underwater scenes were shot in the Olympic pool at USC.-Dante got the military to approve of the script despite their concerns that he would make them look bad. He made them look bad!!!-The movie attempted to use stop-motion early on. The creature shown in the laboratory was going to change sizes but ultimately, it was decided to give up on this.-Eric Braeden, the star of 'Colossus: The Forbin Project' was originally cast as Dr. Hoak. He is actually swimming in one scene. He backed out after getting 'cold feet'. He was worried about the low production standards of the movie. Kevin McCarthy ended up with his role.COMMENTS: DO I LIKE THIS MOVIE?: Not really. I know that this movie is a cult classic but to be honest, I find it pretty boring. It's an original. I get it. It's just not the type of movie that I'm going to watch over again anytime soon. For it's day, it was a pretty good thriller. If it was release in today's day and age, it would be extremely forgettable. Of course, it wasn't released today, it was released in the 70's. IS BARBARA STEELE 'ALL THAT'?:-I just don't get the popularity of Barbara Steele. I understand that she is quite popular. However, I find it amazing that she had such a long career with her attitude. She seems to have had a very bad attitude and I never thought she was that good looking to begin with. Yes, I know, she has fans that think she is gorgeous. To that I say, "To each, his own". I also don't think she is a good actress. If you listen to the commentary, she wasn't even prepared for her role in this movie. She was quite fortunate to have found somebody to hire her in Italy. I can't believe she just walked off of the set of an Elvis movie! I think saying that she didn't age well is an understatement. You can already see her looks going down hill in this movie. OK, so I'm dumping on Barbara Steele. I'll stop since I'm probably offending a few people! CLEAR ENDING?: The ending isn't all that clear... literally. Supposedly the piranha are killed via being 'polluted to death!' OK... if they say so... Soon after they would be flying... I'm not kidding... just watch the sequel. OTHER COMMENTS:-I know they didn't have the budget to re-shoot scenes but I have to point out that you could see the kids laughing in some of the scenes in which they are being attacked.-It was nice seeing Kevin McCarthy in the movie, even if it was only for a short while. I doubt he had much to do at this point in his career but they still couldn't afford him for too long.-Near the beginning of the movie you can see the video game 'Jaws' being played. This is a rare 70's arcade game and a 'shout out' to 'Jaws'.-Supposedly a bunch of kids die in this movie. I didn't actually see any kid die.-Our hero, Paul, is underwater way too long. Joe Dante admits to this and points it out in his commentary. However, there just wasn't anything he could do to make the underwater sequence shorter.CONCLUSIONS: Everyone knows that this movie is a rip off of Jaws. It proved to be influential and helped to launch a whole genre of low budget movies of this type and for that reason it is a cult classic. I think that the director, Joe Dante, did as good of a job as you can do with such a limited budget.If you want the Steelbook version then you are probably a fan of the movie. The picture isn't great but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for better. IS THERE A SEQUEL?: Yes there is. There is a sequel called 'Piranha II - The Spawning' and there are two remakes. One was made in 3D. The sequel assumes that the Piranha have gotten into the ocean and they are hanging out near a beach resort in a shipwreck. It's up and coming director, James Cameron, called it "the greatest flying piranha movie ever made".RATINGS:Plot: 5/10 - Just so-so by today's standards but pretty good in it's day.Picture: 7/10 - It's a scan from the original negative but somehow it just doesn't look all that great.Extra's: 9/10 or 4 1/2 stars - Plenty of extra's, this is a strong point of the release.Steelbook Cover: 5/10 or 2 1/2 stars - This is not especially good for a steel book cover.Overall: 7/10 which I'm rounding up to 4 stars.

Piranha is the best example I have seen of precisely how to do a rip off. It may sound like an oxymoron to call a rip off impressive, but this is what accurately describes Piranha. Today, we have the Asylum, a direct-to-DVD company which gives us so-called "mockbusters" that completely lack the heart and fun of a film like this. Instead, those are merely dull "just-going-through-the-motions-to-make-a-small-amount-of-money" displays of ineptitude.There are several things to strongly commend this movie for, like the fact that the lead characters are likable so that you care what happens to them (unlike in some horror films), the way it is very self-aware and has small tributes to Jaws, the campy sound effect of the school of fish, the excessive amounts of blood that is shown in a comic manner, and how it is genuinely comedic and yet not a pure spoof in the way that films like Scary Movie are. Basically, the film comes just close enough to Jaws to be an obvious attempt to cash in on its success, and yet also stays just far away enough from Jaws that one isn't bored by a repetition of the same story all over again.I also feel that this film did something well that I don't typically see in creature feature films. And that is that it maintained a good balance between the screen time that the piranha attacks had, and that the background story about the people and the origin of the problem had. I say "piranha attacks" because admittedly, the fish themselves are hardly shown close-up at all, but it didn't really feel as if I was missing anything by not seeing very much of their fins. Usually, the scenes involving the creature itself are short as well as far and few in between, while I am bored with all the meaningless dialog (a good example of this is "Demon of Paradise" where I was thinking "When do I get to see the monster?"). But in this movie I did not have that disappointment.As a matter of fact, the scenes where the human characters are talking actually interested me and had me curious what would happen next. It is very rare for me to enjoy these types of scenes.See this movie if you like B movies, by all means. However, if you aren't a fan of that type of cinema, Piranha probably won't convert you. We all have different tastes. I know people who simply don't enjoy a schlocky low budget B movie, even if it's great at being what it is. As for me though, I'll take this little exploitation film over Jaws, because it's just more fun.P.S. The DVD extras include a feature commentary, some extra footage from when they were filming, and a small documentary on the making of the film. You get your money's worth.

This is a very entertaining low budget film obviously influenced by Jaws.It moves at a brisk pace and doesn't take itself too seriously.Much better than the horrible remake.

Between the Goofy Dialogue and the Dorky Characters, this movie Doesn’t take itself So Serious, but still can Show its Teeth at the Right Times.

古い映画だがそれなりによくできている。ピラニアの表情が稚拙であるとか、研究所に出てくる不思議な生物に対する説明がないなど、「古いな」と思わせるところはあるが、パニック映画としては良くできているのではないだろうか?

Specie di versione horrorifica dello Squalo di Spielberg, nato sul filone degli animali cattivi tipico degli anni 70, e forse uno dei titoli migliori. Buona la tensione, discreti gli effetti (per l'epoca) atti a mostrare i pesci carnivori che qui terrorizzano un fiume americano coi suoi bagnanti. Buon dvd con doppiaggio d'epoca per un titolo un tempo must dei passaggi tv, fino agli ani 80- Dal regista de "L'ululato"

C'est un bon petit film d'horreur. Sorti en 1978, il a surfé sur la mode de ''Jaws'' qui, lui, est sorti en 1975. Universal Pictures, qui a produit ''Jaws'', a songé un moment à poursuivre les producteurs de ''Piranha'' mais Steven Spielberg a convaincu la compagnie de n'en rien faire. Mais il est vrai que les deux films se ressemblent beaucoup: gens insouciants sur la plage, autorité politique inconséquente. Malgré un plus petit budget ($600 000), ''Piranha'' est très regardable. On y trouve un clin d'œil aux expériences scientifiques irresponsables de l'armée. Les acteurs jouent bien. Les effets spéciaux sont ordinaires mais, comme je l'ai dit, il s'agit d'un film à petit budget. Le réalisateur, Joe Dante, a plus tard réalisé des films connus comme ''The Howling'' et ''Gremlins''.

The Roger Corman Cult Classic Movies from the 70 's and 80's are always fun to watch. They are low budget and very campy. They must be a part of a movie collection of any film buff. The headline indicated an average movie just because the acting, storyline and special effects are often a bit silly but as mentioned above fun to watch.

Somewhere in a Texas hillside in an abandoned Army testing facility long after the Vietnam War, a lone scientist named Dr. Hoak (Kevin McCarthy) continues his genetic research on a school of mutant killer piranha. Nobody knows of the whacked out scientist's existence or the mutant piranha until some hikers go missing and a rookie detective named Maggie (Heather Menzies) stumbles across their gear at the abandoned facility. Maggie believes that the hikers went missing there, so she enlists the help of an unlikely hero in the form of local town drunk and recluse Paul Grogan; played by veteran character actor Bradford Dillman to help her search for them.After Maggie foolishly drains the military containment pool in an effort to find the missing hikers, the two of them quickly discover the facilities deadly secret has escaped and it becomes a race against time to save the unsuspecting residents down river; including a kid's summer camp and the waterfront amusement park of Lost River Lake. Can Maggie and Grogan reach the summer camp and amusement park in time to save everyone? Can they stop the Piranha from reaching the ocean? Is there anything that can kill the Piranha? You'll have to buy your own copy to find out.In the 1975 underwater classic "Jaws" Roy Scheider shouted "you're going to need a bigger boat" and in 1978's "Piranha" we heard the classic line "Sir, the piranha are eating the guests". Trying to capitalize on the success of Jaws from three years earlier, Roger Corman produced a little B-movie gem called "Piranha" in 1978; it was scripted by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante. While "Piranha" never quite reached the status of "Jaws" it did provide B-movie fans with enough blood and gore to satisfy them and it quickly became a classic in its own right.Fans will be very pleased with the new 2010 DVD release of "Piranha" from Shout Factory. The new video transfer used by Shout factory is the best I've ever seen. Not only does this movie look great, it sounds great. This new DVD version from Shout contains numerous special features and I enjoyed all of them. The disc packaging and disc artwork is well done; even the slip cover is reversible. This is another great addition under the "Roger Corman's Cult Classics Collection" from Shout Factory.Cast:Bradford Dillman (Paul Grogan)Heather Menzies ( Maggie McKeown)Kevin McCarthy (Dr. Robert Hoak)Dick Miller (Buck Gardner)Barbara Steele (Dr Mengers)Belinda Balaski (Betsy)Melody Thomas Scott (Laura Dickinson)Paul Bartel (Mr. Dumont)DVD Special Features:- New Anamorphic Widescreen Version (1.85:1)- Audio Commentary With Director Joe Dante and Producer Jon Davison- Behind-the-Scenes Footage- The Making of Piranha Featurette:New Interviews From Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Belinda Balaski- Bloopers and Outtakes- Piranha Trailer With Commentary by Producer Jon Davison: Courtesy of Trailers From Hell- Stills Gallery With Photos and Posters From Around the World- Behind-the-Scenes Stills Gallery Featuring Photos From Phil Tippetts Personal Collection- Additional Scenes From the Network Television Version- Radio and TV Spots- New World Trailers