Piranha part Two: The Spawning (1981) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA, Italy 1981
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Tricia O'Neil, Steve Marachuk, Lance Henriksen, Ricky Paull Goldin, Ted Richert, Leslie Graves
Rating: R
Release Date: 5 November 1982 (USA)
Running Time: 1 hour 31 minutes

The Movie Review

Piranha part Two: The Spawning film still 1

Piranha part Two: The Spawning film still 1


PIRANHA Part TWO: The SPAWNING
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

A sequel is probably something not very welcomed by the fans of the original movie, but those sequels would just keep on coming and coming no matter what you think. Piranha part Two: The Spawning probably well overdue in this time of year especially since we've already seen Piranha 3D (2010) and its rip-off titled Mega Piranha (2010), but I'm sure fans of animal gone wild movies are very anxious to know about this sequel, to think that getting a hand on the original Piranha (1978) is a lot more easier than on the sequel by the way...

Piranha part Two: The Spawning, surprisingly, has got much much more cheese in term of cheesy brainless fun entertainment ala B-movie of the '70s compared to the first one. I'm so grateful I could finally get a hold of Piranha 2. I still like the first one better in term of quality, it's a more serious effort on natural horror realm, but man.. I have seen the sequel more than several times now. Seriously, this is one of the sequels that could entertain fans of the original.

In a beautiful Caribbean Island, Club Eulyseum is hosting many attractive events by and on the water. We meet a diving instructor Anne Kimbrough (Tricia O'Neil of The A-Team: Deadly Maneuvers (1984)) and her son Chris (Ricky Paull Goldin) who works as the guide for tourist who can't sail good enough. We also meet Anne's husband, a police chief Steve (Lance Henriksen) who has a weird relationship with his wife. And last but not least two girls, Jai and Loretta who are sunbathing naked (what does this have got to do with the story? Heck it's a B-movie dude!). Basically everyone is busy with their own job and pleasure with Anne is getting lucky with her new student, Tyler (Steve Marachuk), or Steve who's patroling the beach and of course Jai and Loretta who try to steal food from the Club and getting away by making fool of a stuttering chef. But what they don't realize at this time, there is a lair of a school of deadly genetically enhanced Piranhas inside the sunken ship not very far from the beach.

But what makes it even more worse is the main event of seeing fish spawning which is held by the club manager for all the guests to enjoy. Hungry Piranhas and curious club members apparently don't match... What will happen in this beautiful beach and its unsuspecting visitors?

Piranha part Two: The Spawning film still 2

Weeeeeee, I'm flying! I'm flying!

Actually to call it a sequel is merely a marketing strategy to capitalize the success of the first Piranha (1978), as Piranha (1978) was also made to capitalize the success of Jaws (1975). It's better to see this movie as a stand alone, it could not match the quality of the first one, but it's still above average compared to other animal gone wild movies, besides, the cinematography plays a big role and the filmmakers have also put one clever touch to the culprit... Wings! Yiipiii, now the Piranhas could fly and chase their victims! For crying out loud, like that's not wacky enough, the gore and the nudity are also factors that were 'enhanced' in this sequel. Anyhow that's why this movie is also known as Piranha II: Flying Killers.

James Cameron ---the man behind Titanic (1997), Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986) and of course Avatar (2009)--- sat at the director chair for the first time with Piranha 2. And he already showed his talent from his first one, it's far from perfect but it's good. And before I forgot, the Piranhas dolls are much more cool-looking than the first one and it's nice to see them biting the necks of their victims, at least it's not some fake Computer Generated Imagery.

So should you rent or buy or ignore the movie? It's up to your cup of tea, but I do think that even though Piranha 2 is cheesy but it still has class and I still prefer this title compared to many many modern movies with lame CGI.

> Sometimes fish also like to eat people: Snakehead Terror (2004).