Piranha takes place on Lake Victoria, Arizona, a sleepy town which is invaded by 20,000 college students every year for spring break. As the film opens, an earthquake hits the area, creating an opening in the bottom of the lake. Sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) is asked to escort a team of geologists, led by Novak (Adam Scott), to the opening, where they discover a chamber leading to an underground lake. This crack has released a large school of piranha into the lake. Meanwhile, Julie's son, Jake (Steven R. McQueen), is supposed to be babysitting his younger siblings (Brooklynn Proulx and Sage Ryan). Instead, he's accepted an offer to be the guide for Derrick Jones (Jerry O'Connell), a huckster shooting a "Girls Gone Wild" type video. Meanwhile, Julie and Novak are racing back to the main part of the lake to warn the vacationers about the piranha. But, it's impossible to outrun 1000 hungry fish.

The question which you are going to ask is, "What were you expecting from a movie called Piranha 3D?" This is going to be in response to my statement, "This movie was a little more lowbrow than I'd expected." Part of what motivated me to see the film in the theater were the positive reviews that it was getting from the very mainstream media -- the kinds of critics who usually loathe horror movies. Yes, most of the reviews mentioned something about "boobs & blood", but this didn't prepare me for just how sophomoric this movie is.

Well, it wasn't really the sophomoric nature which I didn't like, but the uneven nature of the film. Aja has stated that he wanted the movie to be a fun throwback to the insane horror movies of the 80s. The difference between Piranha and those movies is that when they got down to business, they really meant it, while Aja's film never rises above a certain level of seriousness. Yes, this movie features grisly scenes of piranha violence, but these are awkwardly juxtaposed with scenes of cheesy humor and tons of gratuitous nudity -- note that there's basically no sex here, just nudity. This mash-up of a movie seems to have no idea what it wants to be beyond a 12-year old boy's dream. I had high hopes for the movie, but I have to admit that it lost me early on during the underwater naked ballet scene.

The movie's tone miscues are truly a shame because this could have been a great horror movie. What's creepier than the idea of dozens of razor-toothed fish gnawing you to death? A few of the piranha attacks here are effective, but they usually happen to characters we either don't know or don't like, so there's little emotional punch. With The Hills Have Eyes, Aja showed that he understands suspense and intensity, but here the goal simply seems to be to gross out the audience. (Do I need to see a piranha regurgitate?) Even the big center-piece loses any impact when it goes into overkill mode. (Although, seeing a certain annoying director get killed was nice.) In short, not only is a great premise squandered, but the legacy of Joe Dante's original has been besmirched. In the end, this bites.

Piranha apparently needed a shirt wrangler on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc carries an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is incredibly sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source materials. The movie was purposely filmed with bold colors in mind and they look great here. The image is never overly dark or bright. The crispness of the picture lends it great depth (obviously this was in mind for the 3D) and the level of detail is very good as well. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are very good, as the front channels produces sounds coming from the right and left. The surround sound effects are nearly constant, either from the under-water sounds or the screams of the big scene. The subwoofer is used very well for jump scares. The bass is intense, even at low volume. This is a superior technical package.

The Piranha Blu-ray Disc contains a small assortment of extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Producer/Director Alexandre Aja, Producer Gregory Levasseur, and Producer Alix Taylor. "Don't Scream, Just Swim: Behind-the-Scenes of Piranha 3D" is a ten-part documentary which runs for over 2 hours. In a unique move, the piece opens with positive critical blurbs about the movie. We've just watched it, why are you trying to convince us that it was good? The documentary is incredibly in-depth, and it's essentially hosted by Aja, as he's interviewed and comments on every facet of the film and the footage is built around his comments. The piece contains a generous amount of on-set footage and comments from various cast and crew members. We learn about the development of the script, the casting, and the choosing of a location. We also see the difficulties of shooting on the water and the challenge of creating a huge spring break out of nothing. The stunts, special effects makeup, and the visual effects are explored, and we see how these were created. Composer Michael Wandmacher is profiled and we get a discussion of why the film was done in 3D.