There are very few things that are worse or more annoying than watching a completely pointless movie, that means well but ultimately is about- and adds absolutely nothing.

No need to be mild about this movie; I absolutely hated it. Throughout, I constantly kept wondering what the point of it all was and what the movie was trying to do and say with its story. Sad thing about it is that it truly seems to believe it's being a cute and heartfelt movie, about social issues with some realistic touches to it.

Just like its story, its approach is all over the place. At parts its a silly comedy, at others a more serious one and at others its being more of a straight and serious drama or romantic movie. But really nothing in it ever clicks. There is never a right balance, making this movie ultimately ineffective as a comedy, drama and romance and just as a movie as a whole.

It's a real big problem for the movie that the story seems to be going absolutely nowhere. It's its own fault really. It tries to throw in far too many distractions, that in the long run add absolutely nothing to the story. Guess the movie tried hard to connect everything, by showing how the different characters influenced each other and helped to change their lives but the different story lines and characters just never feel well enough connected at all for it to ever work out as something convincing or effective. Instead it's one big, uninteresting, mess, that's not even being remotely entertaining or funny with any of its comedy either.

You would think that a movie which stars Robert Vaughn, Christopher Lloyd, Wayne Knight and Jerry Stiller in it at least would feature some mildly amusing comedy but it's all pretty embarrassing to watch really. They get absolutely nothing good or funny to do in this movie and at times you could see them struggle with some of its poor material and badly written dialog. Really painful and embarrassing to watch really and I also just can't understand why any of them ever agreed to appear in this movie. It's not like they received an handsome paycheck for it either, seeing how low-budget this movie is.

Another thing that's bad about the movie is that it doesn't even feature a good enough main character in it. Tom Pelphrey just totally isn't likable in this and comes across as a crazy (yes, crazy! Not depressed, as they try to convince you of), spoiled little brat, that whines and complains about absolutely nothing relevant or interesting for this movie. Something that's annoying about all of the characters in this movie is that by the end of it they don't really seem redeemed, or come across like they have progressed as human beings. By the end of it, the movie does indeed wrap all of their story arcs up but it's all extremely forced and some stuff just comes out of absolutely nowhere. Not satisfying at all.

It's a good example of some poor film-making. That's probably the most kind and positive thing I could say about it.

2/10

Watch trailer

A friendly warning before starting things off; be aware of the fact that this really isn't being a serious zombie/demon movie but more one that is directed toward young teenagers. It does not only have the visual look of a kids movie but it's also being a childish one with comedy, characters, dialog and all of its situations.

It's a very infantile movie, in which there is never a sense of any danger or tension, also since its main characters are extremely busy with a whole bunch of stuff, such as getting the boy/girl and not necessarily with trying to survive or lifting the curse, even while clearly their lives are in danger and they have already lost some loved ones.

The good news is though that it's not being an horrible movie to watch. The movie does very little with its story, so it's also can't do an awful lot wrong. You could say that its simplicity saved this movie and still makes this a somewhat enjoyable flick, if you're in the mood for it.

It's definitely being a weird thing that this movie looks and feels like a children's movie, considering its premise and also its blood and gore. But this in every way looks and feels like a Nickelodeon movie, directed toward young teenagers. And it's not done in a satirically kind of way! It's just the movie its style, which for sure shall throw off a bunch of people already.

There is nothing wrong with a movie taking a more simplistic and comedy approach to things, after all, basically 90% of all zombie flicks are being extremely simplistic and straightforward ones but this movie just never gets clever or truly creative with anything, which causes most of its humor and situations to fall flat. Well, perhaps the movie is being creative at times, however mostly in a silly and just not all too effective way.

This movie is just being too simplistic and infantile to consider this a truly good or enjoyable genre flick but thrust me, there are far more worse genre movies to watch out there!

5/10

Watch trailer

Watch trailer

At least he creators of the first movie knew what they were doing. The makers of this film absolutely had no idea how to turn this into a good and fun genre movie to watch.

It should tell you enough already that main cast and crew members of the first movie are no part of this film. I like to believe that they were smart enough to stay away as far as possible from this obvious inferior sequel.

From a sequel to a movie like "Piranha", you would expect them to go even more overboard with things, this time around. But instead of more gore, more nudity and more fun, there is less of everything. Especially the fact that there isn't really any good gore present is very disappointing. And the gore that is present in the movie is just far too fake looking for my liking. It prefers to use computer effects over practical effects, which was a really poor pick, in my opinion.

But what makes the movie just bad to watch is the fact that the story is all over the place. It doesn't really follow a good a clear main plot line and none of the characters is fun or even likable enough to care for.

This movie really has some bad and lazy writing in it. This shouldn't always be a problem for a movie of this sort though. I mean, the first "Piranha" movie sure had lots of big plot holes in it as well but the fun of the whole movie compensated a lot. It actually was a part of what made the movie so fun to watch. It made it a spoof of the genre, by making fun of all the clichés and weaknesses, including lots of nonsensical stuff and big plot holes. So really, deliberate bad written can be fun but I feel that in this case it wasn't deliberate at all. It's just incompetence and that's also what makes it bad and annoying to follow all.

When the end comes, you suddenly also start to realize that everything that happened before really didn't mattered and totally wasn't being relevant for the movie at all. You could say that the movie only builds up to its last 30 minutes or so, which isn't even being a good movie finale. It was supposed to be one big bloodbath and orgy or gore but let me tell you that compared to the first movie, this one felt like a kids film.

Really, it all could had been saved with some good humor but that is also incredibly lacking in this movie as well. They had no idea how to make things fun and even when the movie is going over-the-top, it just isn't being all that funny to watch.

It's just incredibly bad all and not in a good or fun way at all. Skip it please! Or else they might make another one...

3/10

Watch trailer

Of course the key to liking this movie, is to take it not too seriously. It's also so over-the-top and ridicules that I just can't imaging anyone taking this serious in the first place, though there are still plenty of people like that out there, as it appears.

It's a B-movie that is very well aware of itself and actually strives to be taken as a B-movie. Now, this is an approach that can work out but more often does not, since it's too forced and the movies are too slick looking to be taken as a B-movie. However in this case I feel like it did work out well!

Throughout the years, I have seen plenty of just plain silly mankind versus nature/animal type of movies. And as far as this sub-genre goes; this is probably one of the better movies out there, that I have seen. It's such an enjoyable film to watch that its story just simply doesn't matter and neither does all of the crazy and just stupid stuff that this movie comes up with.

But it's not like that the movie simply only goes over-the-top with its story. It also does so with some of its characters but mostly with its gore. It's an extremely gory film, that also has lots of nudity in it as well. The gore gets so extreme at points that the movie actually starts to turn into a comedy, which is one of the reasons why it also becomes such an enjoyable movie to watch.

It's also such a clichéd movie but because of this, the movie actually starts to turn into a spoof. The movie gets deliberately exaggerated in about every way imaginable, such as with its gore, nudity, character behavior and plot developments. When you get and recognize all of this, the movie actually becomes a much more fun movie for you to watch!

Of course when you start over-analyzing everything and look seriously at this movie, there is no way you could call this movie a great one. But not all movies are made to be great. Sometimes certain movies are just simply made for entertainment and not to win any awards or receive lots of critical praise. This movie is a perfect example of that. It's purely made for entertainment and it looks to me like the film-makers also had plenty of fun creating it.

It also must be the reason why so many big name actors make a cameo appearance in this movie. Lots of people wanted to be part of the fun and madness that got called "Piranha". Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Lloyd and Eli Roth make cameo appearances, while also big name actors such as Ving Rhames and Dina Meyer play bit parts.

It's just simple, silly, fun entertainment, that works out very well!

7/10

Watch trailer