Review: Piranha 3D (2010)

Piranha 3D, directed by Alexandre Aja, stars Elizebeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell, (Stand by Me), and Ving Rhames. The film follows a high-schooler named Jake Forester (Steven R. McQueen), who has finally spent enough summers baby-sitting that he can't endure it any longer. As his mother (Shue) is patrolling the lake, he decides not to baby-sit and to partake in the summer festivities, only to find that he chose the worst day to do so. A sudden underwater tremor has set a large group of prehistoric piranhas loose into the college student populated city lake. Much like Snakes on a Plane, Piranha promises four things: laughs, gore, summer fun, and nudity. Not only does this flick meet these standards, but it exceeds them with its use of 3D technology. Sure, this 3D phase seems to be growing old all over again, until Piranha delivered 3D boobies (yeah, I said it). This film won't win any oscars, and the plot is considerably laughable, but it never promised to be anything more than just that. A film including Ving Rhames using a propeller to kill evil fish, 3D nudity, Christopher Lloyd, excessive gore and language, and lines like: "I think they took my penis!" should not be judged on a dramatic scale- and I won't. Despite the comical plot, sub-par acting, and overall absurdity of the film, Piranha distributed a fun way to spend 90 minutes- earning it 3 stars.

Reviews from the Vault: Pulp Fiction

Ah yes. The one... the only... Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino brought a tale to the screen in 1994 that was like nothing told before. Pulp Fiction follows two hit men named Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson); a boxer (Bruce Willis); two bank-robbing sweethearts (Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer); and a gangster's wife (Uma Thurman), all of whom are having a complicated day. Everything is right about this film, including it's special appearance from Christopher walken. The cast alone was enough to attract viewers to the film, including arguably the best performances by Travolta and Jackson. The dialog itself was strong enough to be it's own movie and create tension in the room that could be cut with a knife. From the odd couple-like relationship between Jackson and Travolta, to the "date" night with Thurman, to the epic revenge scene posted below involving Willis and Rhames, the characters created by Tarantino and portrayed by the actors are arguably more interesting than most real life people. The viewer tends to find themselves tremendously focused for a movie that is so famously scrambled. From it's realistic elements to it's supernatural ones ( i.e. Ving Rhames' glowing suit case that is rumored to contain his soul), Pulp Fiction is one of the only movies that runs 154 minutes, yet under stays it's visit. For that I give Tarantino's cult classic a solid four stars.