Paul Andrews Piranha starts late one night as two teenagers Barbara (Lorissa McComas) & Dave (Richard Israel) break into a disused army research facility, they decide to go swimming in a pool but are attacked by something inside it... Barabra's uncle J.R. Randolph (Monte Markham) hires private detective Maggie McNamara (Alexandra Paul) to find his missing niece, the trail takes Maggie to the area where Barbara was last seen & speaks to local recluse Paul Grogan (William Katt) who mentions the nearby army facility. Maggie convinces Paul to take her out there where they find personal items belonging to Barbara & Dave by the side of the pool, fearing they may have drown they drain the pool & find skeletal remains at the bottom. Genetic scientist Dr. Leticia Baines (Darleen Carr) tells them that they just released a new breed of Piranha that she created into the local water system, the river runs down towards a newly opened holiday resort & the Piranha are headed straight for it eating anything living in their way...Directed by Scott Levy this made for cable television was the first attempt to remake the modestly effective Jaws (1975) rip-off Piranha (1978) which as gained a fairly strong cult following over the years as one of the better rip-offs out there, more recently Piranha was remade as a big budget 3D Hollywood release so that makes at least three versions of what is essentially the same film & one has to say that the '95 version is by far the worst. To be honest it's not even close. This Piranha is an almost scene for scene remake of the original that adds absolutely nothing to the mix, at least the recent 3d remake tried to change things about a bit rather than just rigidly stick to the original. Sure a few things are slightly different, the genetic scientist is now a woman rather than a man & the camp counsellor is now a woman rather than a man but generally speaking the two films are almost identical in terms of plot. This version lacks the humour & knowing self awareness that the original '78 Piranha had going for it, this is fairly dull going with little inspiration, creativity or gore to keep one watching. The back & forth one liners between Maggie & Paul are alright & there's a certain chemistry there but otherwise Piranha is populated by boring forgettable character's. At only 80 minutes in length at least it doesn't go for too long & has a decent pace but it's not very exciting & is pretty predictable even if you haven't seen the original & if you have seen the original then this will hold no surprises.Despite being made nearly twenty years after the original Piranha actually uses special effects shots from the original & has virtually no new Piranha scenes at all, the same shot of the Piranha swimming through the river is seen again & again as they make this strange high pitched squeaking noise. There's a bit of gore, there's a guy with the flesh ripped from his lower legs, there's a severed arm, people are seen with various bites, there are some shots of blood stained water & a bit of a Dog but nothing too nasty. There's a couple of instances of female nudity as well. The attack scenes are poor, most just consist of people splashing around on top of the water & if you feel something bite you wouldn't you instantly take your foot or hand or whatever out of the water as a natural reaction? I mean that guy sitting at the end of the pier has Piranha attack his legs but he just sits there rather than take them out of the water, does that make any sense to anyone?Probably shot on a low budget this has reasonable production values in a cheap made for television way. The acting isn't too bad, Alexandra Paul & William Katt give better performances than the film deserves.Piranha is one of two remakes or the original piranha & is easily the worst despite what anyone else says, it's a routine & dull rehash that adds nothing & even resorts to stealing the shots of the Piranha from the original such was the impoverished budget. Check out Piranha 3D (2010) instead, it's much much better.

slayrrr666 "Pirahna" is a rather fun and enjoyable, if familiar creature feature.**SPOILERS**After an unexplained disappearance, Maggie McNamara, (Alexandra Paul) is hired by real estate developer J.R. Randolph, (Monte Markham) to find his niece. Taking her case up to recluse Paul Grogan, (William Katt) in the mountains, her story eventually takes them up to a closed secret military base in the mountains which they find contains a large pool as well as evidence of their previous appearance there. Despite warnings from Dr. Leticia Baines, (Darleen Carr) they drain the pool to conduct their search, only to find out that it was teeming with a school of ravenous, genetically-engineered piranha created during the Cold War to destroy enemies but have since been put aside for study. As the creatures lead a path of destruction up the lake, they realize that they're heading for a kids' camp and a newly-opening resort, they try to stop them before they're all devoured.The Good News: This here is a really enjoyable and entertaining film. One of the best aspects in this is that this one flies by with it's pacing. It's barely beginning when the investigation starts, barely fifteen minutes have gone by when they're released out into the open, and it's only a short time after that where the fish are starting their trail of destruction. It has a really superb pace which has a lot of possibilities for it to really ratchet up the action, and by making it fly by so quickly, it's able to do that with flying colors. That is also due to the placing of the action scenes in here to keep the film rolling along, which is mainly the violent and gory attacks. There's several really great ones in here, including one in a small pond that takes out a couple as well as the conclusion, which leads to a rather suspenseful sequence where there ravenously attack the boat to get at a bleeding victim which leads to a rather fun and bloody ending. The sequence with the battle at the camp, which scores more points for having the audacity to have it include children in the attack. This is helped along even more with the attacks coming in as very brutal and bloody. There's innumerable who are bitten around the legs and back, resulting in many bite marks and giant swarms of bloodied water, one is bitten on both legs, stripped of flesh from feet up to the knees as well one that has plenty of bite marks around the back, chest, shoulder, stomach and arms, with much more biting to come from this one. It's bloody and gory enough, and works for the style. The piranhas are really well-designed and come off as appropriate predators, making for some really nice moments with them. It's also really fun and enjoyably cheesy at times, just the way it should be. From the manner of escaping the cell to the creatures and the overly fun, at times creepy opening, this one works for it's cheesy air. All of these here really work for the film.The Bad News: This one here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws to it. One of the main things with the film is how similar it is to the original. As a remake, this one uses the storyline to the exactness of the original, and it uses them almost in the exact same position as the first one. To see the exact same scene repeated in the exact same manner with the exact same shot placing is something that this one utilizes for it's majority of the time, could give this one the impression of being completely unneeded at times. To have a film already do this one before calls the integrity of this one into question, as it's nearly a shot-for-shot version which is something that could be completely taken against this one. This one also has a hard time trying to justify the ending here, where the pollution angle that made the original work here feels completely out-of-place and stuck there mainly for the purpose of having an ending. Other than these, the film doesn't have that many flaws at all.The Final Verdict: With only the fact that it's an almost-exact duplicate of the original makes this one feel really fun and entertaining when those are put aside. If those feelings can be done, then this one here should be given a fair shot, but unless that can't be done, then it's better off to just ignore this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, children in danger and Language

rchrdshelt Although many will disagree with me here, I have to say that I enjoyed this film and actually prefer it to the original. The original is too old for me to appreciate it and even though this movie is made for TV it is still preety good and is well acted and directed. The plot is slightly different in this one but i like it. The script is exactly the same but does have some extra decent one-liners and funny parts, especially with that idiotic director who fancies that girl 20 years younger than him! That had me laughing for ages! William Katt was very good in this movie and is in a lot of other movies i've seen him in. He deserves to be in much better, well-known movies than this one. Also good is the guy who plays Randolph (the bad guy in the movie.) The music is preety good as well. Although it ends a bit weirdly and there isun't much development between the two main characters as there was in the original this is still good entertainment for a Saturday night in. So go check it out!

Laserdome-AMH Detective Maggie McNamara investigates a case of a missing young couple as she runs into Paul Grogan, who lives as far away as possible from the city because he doesnÕt want to meet anybody. Together, they unwillingly unleash a plague of killer piranhas created by the military. The Piranhas attack an opening ceremony for some holiday resorts, where lots of guests are in the water - including GroganÕs little daughter...A Roger Corman-produced TV Remake to a Roger Corman-produced (and Joe Dante-directed) original. Sounds bad enough to be a warning? ItÕs almost the same movie as the original, and nothing has improved since, in fact, this has to be one of the most unnecessary remakes in the long history of unnecessary remakes. As for the special effects, almost every single shot is lifted from the original which makes this hard to defend for even the most jaded fan. Not only the special effects in this 1995 movie are from the seventies, thereÕs also still no one around to provide a cell phone when you need one. If only the very likeable William Katt were in the original...