The fish swimming underwater looked better than the original. Also gorier. Just as cheesy and with as much nudity as the first movie. It isn't as good as the first but still kinda fun. Yes, James Cameron made a film about killer flying fish. Could you imagine how good he'd make a b-movie if he made it now?
102 Reviews
The Ultimate Weapon
claudio_carvalho4 November 2007
Warning: Spoilers
In a Caribbean island, a couple is found dead inside a sunken ship. The scuba diving instructor of the local resort Anne Kimbrough (Tricia O'Neil) breaks in the morgue with her acquaintance Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk) and finds that the bodies have been eaten in many parts. They have one night stand and Tyler tells her that he is a biochemist that have developed a specimen of genetically modified piranha capable of flying to be the ultimate weapon. Unfortunately they had lost a cylinder full of the new breed in the water. During the fishing party promoted by the resort, the piranhas attack the guests. Anne and Tyler decide to explode the ship to destroy the nest of the predator.
This shameful rip-off of "Jaws" is simply awful. The saddest surprise is that this is practically the debut of director James Cameron, from "Terminator", "Aliens", "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Titanic". The cheesy "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning" has a terrible story associated to bad acting, using all the typical clichés of this type of B-Movie and caricatures instead of characters. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): "Piranha II Assassinas Voadoras" ("Piranha II Flying Assassins")
This shameful rip-off of "Jaws" is simply awful. The saddest surprise is that this is practically the debut of director James Cameron, from "Terminator", "Aliens", "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Titanic". The cheesy "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning" has a terrible story associated to bad acting, using all the typical clichés of this type of B-Movie and caricatures instead of characters. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): "Piranha II Assassinas Voadoras" ("Piranha II Flying Assassins")
Pretty lacklustre, although not the worst of the Jaws rip-offs
Leofwine_draca9 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This straight sequel to Joe Dante's tongue-in-cheek take on JAWS fails in its attempt to be scary or frightening right from the outset, as the sight of poorly-animated flying rubber fish sadly don't cut it in terms of sleepless nights. Yep, the piranha are back (and you'll no doubt be pleased to here that they make the same noise as in the first one) but this time they can leap right out of the water and seemingly fly some distance across land to get their victims too. Sadly the fish are far from realistic, and in reality their appearance is funny instead of being frightening.
PIRANHA II is widely acknowledged to be a bad film, but it's at the top end of the bad film scale as it manages to be pretty entertaining. Sure, most of the action is familiar already from JAWS and the countless sequels and imitations that followed, but there are a couple of things this Italian/American production has in its favour. It's also a lot more widely known than it rightfully ought to be due to the participation of James Cameron as the director (in fact he was fired before filming finished and only did a week or so's work). You wouldn't realise that Cameron is the director by watching, though, because the direction is mainly static and weak and the photography poor. The movie has a grainy look which makes it seem cheap and dirty.
The acting, too, is nothing to write home about. Tricia O'Neil just doesn't appeal as the heroine, because she's bland and too old in my eyes. Similarly, Steve Marachuk - playing a biochemist - is incredibly wooden and exceedingly dull. The only real cast interest comes from the participation of the dependable Lance Henriksen who plays the cop investigating the cast. Henriksen - later re-teaming with Cameron for THE TERMINATOR - is as good as ever, chewing the scenery on occasion and all-round being a guy you wouldn't want to mess with. Love that scene where he jumps from a helicopter which crashes into the sea.
Otherwise, the usual quota of boring teenagers pad out the cast, along with stupid appearances from a dentist that are supposed to be funny. Periodically some sex and nudity is included in an attempt to keep the audience awake, perhaps. Likewise, there are a couple of fun shock scenes to enjoy as well, the highlight being the moment a piranha jumps out of the chest cavity of a corpse in the morgue! The gory special effects come courtesy of Giannetto di Rossi, the guy who did the splattery work on ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS. I'm pleased to say that di Rossi's work here is almost up to the same scale although not as explicit, and the blood flows freely in some of the fish attacks.
The ending sees a couple of people going down into the wreck of a ship where the piranhas are spawning and set off a dynamite charge. The film then ends suddenly. Personally I would have liked to see some epilogue scenes of dead fish being swept up on the shores but we are just to assume that the rather small explosion killed the entire shoal, I guess. In all, unimaginative stuff, but the gory effects work keep it watchable and not the worst of the JAWS rip-offs out there.
PIRANHA II is widely acknowledged to be a bad film, but it's at the top end of the bad film scale as it manages to be pretty entertaining. Sure, most of the action is familiar already from JAWS and the countless sequels and imitations that followed, but there are a couple of things this Italian/American production has in its favour. It's also a lot more widely known than it rightfully ought to be due to the participation of James Cameron as the director (in fact he was fired before filming finished and only did a week or so's work). You wouldn't realise that Cameron is the director by watching, though, because the direction is mainly static and weak and the photography poor. The movie has a grainy look which makes it seem cheap and dirty.
The acting, too, is nothing to write home about. Tricia O'Neil just doesn't appeal as the heroine, because she's bland and too old in my eyes. Similarly, Steve Marachuk - playing a biochemist - is incredibly wooden and exceedingly dull. The only real cast interest comes from the participation of the dependable Lance Henriksen who plays the cop investigating the cast. Henriksen - later re-teaming with Cameron for THE TERMINATOR - is as good as ever, chewing the scenery on occasion and all-round being a guy you wouldn't want to mess with. Love that scene where he jumps from a helicopter which crashes into the sea.
Otherwise, the usual quota of boring teenagers pad out the cast, along with stupid appearances from a dentist that are supposed to be funny. Periodically some sex and nudity is included in an attempt to keep the audience awake, perhaps. Likewise, there are a couple of fun shock scenes to enjoy as well, the highlight being the moment a piranha jumps out of the chest cavity of a corpse in the morgue! The gory special effects come courtesy of Giannetto di Rossi, the guy who did the splattery work on ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS. I'm pleased to say that di Rossi's work here is almost up to the same scale although not as explicit, and the blood flows freely in some of the fish attacks.
The ending sees a couple of people going down into the wreck of a ship where the piranhas are spawning and set off a dynamite charge. The film then ends suddenly. Personally I would have liked to see some epilogue scenes of dead fish being swept up on the shores but we are just to assume that the rather small explosion killed the entire shoal, I guess. In all, unimaginative stuff, but the gory effects work keep it watchable and not the worst of the JAWS rip-offs out there.
"Guess who's coming to dinner?"
Backlash00710 October 2005
If you guessed Sidney Poitier you'd be wrong. So begins James Cameron's fascination with water. And what humble beginnings they are. Cameron would probably like to forget this one, because it is sadly less perfect than Dante's original. In Piranha II: The Spawning you're no longer safe outside the water. This time they can fly. Now, with a premise like that you expect certain things. Evil, flying, man-eating fish just begs for comedy. But I assure you, this film is never played for laughs; and that's its downfall. Dante's Piranha had elements of comedy in it and this one should have followed suit (especially with flying fish!!!). Make-up legend Giannetto De Rossi did the effects for the film, however, the picture quality on the VHS I was watching was so muddled I couldn't appreciate them. The fish themselves are still accompanied by that menacing sound effect, so they still have that going for them. Unless you're a hardcore Lance Henriksen/James Cameron fan, I'd say you can miss this one.
The best kind of garbage
BandSAboutMovies16 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Any movie that starts with a couple taking off their scuba equipment to make love underwater inside sunken ship and then being devoured by a school of mutant flying piranha before a James Bond style graphics sequence is immediately going to rocket to the top of any to watch list there is. Get ready: Pirahanha II: The Spawning is here, it can fly and it will eat your fleshy bits clean off.
Anne Kimbrough (Tricia O'Neil, Are You in the House Alone?) is the diving instructor for the Hotel Elysium. She tells her class to stay out of the ship wreckage, but some people just don't listen and become more food for those little biters.
Anne wants to see the body, but her police officer ex-husband Steve (Lance Henriksen, who I remarked was young in this movie and Becca said, "He's never been young. He's always been...leathery.") won't allow it.
This movie is packed with all manner of horrible folks set up to be victims. For example, Jai (Carola Davis, one of the few people to ever pose for both Playboy and Penthouse, has had a really interesting life, co-writing "Slow Love" with Prince, appearing as Roxie Shield in Mannequin and performing the song "Serious Money" that was the original theme song for BET's Rap City) and Loretta are sea bandits who dock at the vacation spot to steal food before sailing back out to their doom as they soon learn that yes, piranha can fly.
Marine biologist Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk, The Eyes of Laura Mars) keeps trying to get with Anne, so for some reason, she takes him to the morgue. Beyond being a diving instructor, she's was once a marine biologist so that relationship is a natural. They start taking pictures of the dead bodies, but a nurse kicks them out. This is where we learn another important untrue fact about piranha: they can hide inside dead bodies, then fly across the room and kill nurses.
Anne and Tyler beat feet and then do some horizontal mambo. While he sleeps, she studies the photos and is frightened. It gets worse - her ex-old man finds the credit card and comes back to their old house to throw it at her, get mad she's getting lucky and accuses her of murder. Like I said before, Piranha II: The Spawning is packed with horrible folks.
Much like all films where man - or woman - battle the terrors of the deep, Anne tries to do the right thing and cancel all dives. Raoul, her manager, fires her in response, so she does the only sane - or insane - thing: try and capture a flying piranha as proof. That's when Tyler drops a bombshell on her: he's really a biochemist who was part of a team that developed the ultimate weapon, a genetically modified killer fish that can fly. I guess ultimate weapon may be stretching it, because it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you can unleash in a city or the desert or in cold weather. Man, let's not bring logic into this. Let's just go with it: flying piranha are the ultimate weapon.
Can it get worse? Sure it can. The piranha are running out of food and turning on one another, which means they will eat anything and everything they can. Anne tries to reason with the resort manager one more time and her ex is even on her side this time, if only to tell her that Tyler is crazy.
Oh yeah - there's a fisherman whose son gets killed by the piranha and he tries to get revenge and well, it doesn't go so well.
Of course, while this is all going on, Raoul decides that the resort should have a midnight grunion catching party because that seems like a fun idea for a singles ready to mingle place. Of course, the piranha attack and absolutely decimate anyone and everyone in their path.
Here's another untrue piranha fact: they are afraid of daylight. Tyler and Anne decide to chase them back to their coffin, err, their sunken ship and taking a cue from every other undersea monster movie, blow it up real good.
What could make all of this even worse? Well, it turns out that Anne and Steve's son Chris has snuck around behind their back to work for Captain Dumont, with the hope of getting with his daughter Allison. You guessed it - they're stranded right in the path of the flying fish.
Luckily, everything works out. Chris and Allison survive, free to hopefully spawn themselves someday soon. Anne and Tyler blow up the sunken ship and take out every single little fishie. And Tyler even has the good sense to get chewed up by the monster fish, allowing Steve to not look like a moron that wrecked his own helicopter for no reason and instead the hero that saved his soon to be not ex-wife.
Here's yet another untrue fact: this film is the first movie directed by James Cameron. Well, parts of it are. Here's the true story.
The original director was another graduate of the Roger Corman training school, Miller Drake. His script was all about Kevin McCarthy replaying his character from the first movie, coming back from the dead to create flying piranha and even killing Barbara Steele's character. Producer Assonitis fired him and replaced him with Cameron, who was originally going to do the special effects.
After the first week of shooting, Cameron learned that he was there strictly to follow Assonitis' orders. There are claims that he wasn't allowed to see or edit the footage and even broke into the editing room to create his own cut.
Cameron has said, "He just fired me and took over, which is what he wanted to do when he hired me. It wasn't until much later that I even figured out what had happened. It was like, "Oh, man, I thought I was doing a good job." But when I saw what they were cutting together, it was horrible. And then the producer wouldn't take my name off the picture because contractually they couldn't deliver it with an Italian name."
Lance Henriksen has also stated that the making of this movie was probably the worst time of his life. There was no budget for his uniform, so he bought a waiter's outfit for $75 and found some badges, then hand carved a gun handle to at least look like an actual harbor officer.
Cameron's been quoted as saying that this gets better halfway through if you're drinking a six-pack at the drive-in. I'll agree - this is a movie made for a large group of people and a variety of substances. I enjoyed it, but as we all know, I'm not really known for having highbrow tastes.
Anne Kimbrough (Tricia O'Neil, Are You in the House Alone?) is the diving instructor for the Hotel Elysium. She tells her class to stay out of the ship wreckage, but some people just don't listen and become more food for those little biters.
Anne wants to see the body, but her police officer ex-husband Steve (Lance Henriksen, who I remarked was young in this movie and Becca said, "He's never been young. He's always been...leathery.") won't allow it.
This movie is packed with all manner of horrible folks set up to be victims. For example, Jai (Carola Davis, one of the few people to ever pose for both Playboy and Penthouse, has had a really interesting life, co-writing "Slow Love" with Prince, appearing as Roxie Shield in Mannequin and performing the song "Serious Money" that was the original theme song for BET's Rap City) and Loretta are sea bandits who dock at the vacation spot to steal food before sailing back out to their doom as they soon learn that yes, piranha can fly.
Marine biologist Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk, The Eyes of Laura Mars) keeps trying to get with Anne, so for some reason, she takes him to the morgue. Beyond being a diving instructor, she's was once a marine biologist so that relationship is a natural. They start taking pictures of the dead bodies, but a nurse kicks them out. This is where we learn another important untrue fact about piranha: they can hide inside dead bodies, then fly across the room and kill nurses.
Anne and Tyler beat feet and then do some horizontal mambo. While he sleeps, she studies the photos and is frightened. It gets worse - her ex-old man finds the credit card and comes back to their old house to throw it at her, get mad she's getting lucky and accuses her of murder. Like I said before, Piranha II: The Spawning is packed with horrible folks.
Much like all films where man - or woman - battle the terrors of the deep, Anne tries to do the right thing and cancel all dives. Raoul, her manager, fires her in response, so she does the only sane - or insane - thing: try and capture a flying piranha as proof. That's when Tyler drops a bombshell on her: he's really a biochemist who was part of a team that developed the ultimate weapon, a genetically modified killer fish that can fly. I guess ultimate weapon may be stretching it, because it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you can unleash in a city or the desert or in cold weather. Man, let's not bring logic into this. Let's just go with it: flying piranha are the ultimate weapon.
Can it get worse? Sure it can. The piranha are running out of food and turning on one another, which means they will eat anything and everything they can. Anne tries to reason with the resort manager one more time and her ex is even on her side this time, if only to tell her that Tyler is crazy.
Oh yeah - there's a fisherman whose son gets killed by the piranha and he tries to get revenge and well, it doesn't go so well.
Of course, while this is all going on, Raoul decides that the resort should have a midnight grunion catching party because that seems like a fun idea for a singles ready to mingle place. Of course, the piranha attack and absolutely decimate anyone and everyone in their path.
Here's another untrue piranha fact: they are afraid of daylight. Tyler and Anne decide to chase them back to their coffin, err, their sunken ship and taking a cue from every other undersea monster movie, blow it up real good.
What could make all of this even worse? Well, it turns out that Anne and Steve's son Chris has snuck around behind their back to work for Captain Dumont, with the hope of getting with his daughter Allison. You guessed it - they're stranded right in the path of the flying fish.
Luckily, everything works out. Chris and Allison survive, free to hopefully spawn themselves someday soon. Anne and Tyler blow up the sunken ship and take out every single little fishie. And Tyler even has the good sense to get chewed up by the monster fish, allowing Steve to not look like a moron that wrecked his own helicopter for no reason and instead the hero that saved his soon to be not ex-wife.
Here's yet another untrue fact: this film is the first movie directed by James Cameron. Well, parts of it are. Here's the true story.
The original director was another graduate of the Roger Corman training school, Miller Drake. His script was all about Kevin McCarthy replaying his character from the first movie, coming back from the dead to create flying piranha and even killing Barbara Steele's character. Producer Assonitis fired him and replaced him with Cameron, who was originally going to do the special effects.
After the first week of shooting, Cameron learned that he was there strictly to follow Assonitis' orders. There are claims that he wasn't allowed to see or edit the footage and even broke into the editing room to create his own cut.
Cameron has said, "He just fired me and took over, which is what he wanted to do when he hired me. It wasn't until much later that I even figured out what had happened. It was like, "Oh, man, I thought I was doing a good job." But when I saw what they were cutting together, it was horrible. And then the producer wouldn't take my name off the picture because contractually they couldn't deliver it with an Italian name."
Lance Henriksen has also stated that the making of this movie was probably the worst time of his life. There was no budget for his uniform, so he bought a waiter's outfit for $75 and found some badges, then hand carved a gun handle to at least look like an actual harbor officer.
Cameron's been quoted as saying that this gets better halfway through if you're drinking a six-pack at the drive-in. I'll agree - this is a movie made for a large group of people and a variety of substances. I enjoyed it, but as we all know, I'm not really known for having highbrow tastes.
Pirahna 2 the yawning
sharkattack197816 June 2009
This movie could not have been made to be a serious "sequel" to the original Pirahna. The film was originally called Flying Killers and now for some reason it's been renamed as The Spawning or vice versa. It did actually see a poster that had The spawning on it so made it was called spawning before flying killers. Well the concept is just so ridiculous, I have enjoyed some other no brainer Sci-fi movies (Sci-fi channel has them all the time) but this is both an insult to the greatness that Cameron later created and got him noticed in Hollywood and to me the fan of sci-fi horror and Cameron's work. Who the hell thought of Flying Piranhas? It totally ruined a great classic film to me with this horrid mess. Whether the deleted director's cut version was better like The Crow City of Angels then i guess i'll never know. According to sources, it was on the set of this film that Cameron came up with the idea for The Terminator, the film that made him a star and matured him as a director, so much so that this was forgotten for years until now. That aside it is one of those so bad it's watchable films. Definitely one for a beer and pizza night with friends for a laugh. Just don't expect something awe-inspiring as you will be disappointed with it. Lance Henriksen is totally wasted in this. Although he does play a amicable heroic lead, you can tell he was a better actor destined for better things and later he was (Pumpkinhead aka Vengeance the demon, The Terminator, Aliens...... list goes on.) If you have an hour and half to kill then you could do worse. At least you have do see it once.
Great fun at the beach!
eileenmchenry8 February 2004
This is a fine expose of why people really deserve to have the flesh worried from their bones by little snarling fish with sharp, pointy teeth. All the humans in the story act like Disco-Era yotzes from the first frame of the movie, and it is simply not a tragedy when one person after another gets killed. The movie is full of intriguing little unanswerable questions, like: why does the nurse in the morgue carry a baseball bat to defend herself on the job? And why would the "patients" there ever require nursing services in the first place? This story has all the ingredients of a great killer-fish movie. I was, however, bitterly disappointed that Bradford Dillman was not in this one. It really could have used his talents.
WARNING: Don't let the DVD cover and James Cameron's involvement fool you.
MovieCritic33-63 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I seldomly bash films, and usually I am able to find enjoyment in any film I watch. But this film was plain and simple garbage! There are no other words to describe it. This poor quality film and ridiculous concept which is so far out there its ludicrous. Genetically altered fish that not only have the ability to fly, but to breathe out of water. They're also pretty smart with good vision too, because they know where the people are at and almost never miss their target. To say a sequel to Joe Dante's 1978 cult classic film 'Piranha' would have potential, is probably wrong to say. The first film was a classic, with humour and unnerving moments which actually make you ask the question "What lies under the water?" Dante was able to create fear of the unknown in his film, and although many if not most films bend the branches of reality, Cameron's Piranha II: The Spawning completely mangles and breaks those branches which attempts to form any type of realism. A personal opinion is only a personal opinion, and if you still decide to waste your money on this film that is your choice. Maybe you'll find some enjoyment in this film that I could not, and if so kudos to you because you have a greater tolerance for films then I do. 0 Stars Out of ****
Horrible sequel...
paul_haakonsen16 September 2011
Sitting down to watch this movie in 2011, I was quite surprised to see James Cameron was involved in this movie, and I was also surprised to find Lance Henriksen on the cast list.
I have seen the first part of these movies and it wasn't too bad. Then this movie came along, and it all fell apart. The piranha themselves, weren't' too badly made, considering this is back from 1981. But the fact that they suddenly had wings and were flying about? Come on, seriously? That was just too much, and it totally made the movie turn from horror to comedy in a bad, bad way.
The movie also suffered from horrendous acting and really dull dialogue. The only one worth watching in the movie, in my opinion, was Lance Henriksen. There were just too many performances where you didn't buy into the performance for a second.
"Piranha 2: The Spawning" is a terrible sequel and is not really worth the time, unless you are desperately in need of finding something to watch and can't find anything else. I managed to sit through the entire movie, and I can honestly say that I will never pop this back into the DVD player again.
And also, I was sitting with a gnawing sensation that this entire movie was just a spin off of the "Jaws" movies, only with the lead "bad fish" changed from a shark to large, flying piranha. It took place on an island. There was a police officer (Lance Henriksen). Gee, didn't we see this in "Jaws" already?
All in all, "Piranha 2" is boring and uneventful. I wish it would just grow wings like the fish did and then fly away.
I have seen the first part of these movies and it wasn't too bad. Then this movie came along, and it all fell apart. The piranha themselves, weren't' too badly made, considering this is back from 1981. But the fact that they suddenly had wings and were flying about? Come on, seriously? That was just too much, and it totally made the movie turn from horror to comedy in a bad, bad way.
The movie also suffered from horrendous acting and really dull dialogue. The only one worth watching in the movie, in my opinion, was Lance Henriksen. There were just too many performances where you didn't buy into the performance for a second.
"Piranha 2: The Spawning" is a terrible sequel and is not really worth the time, unless you are desperately in need of finding something to watch and can't find anything else. I managed to sit through the entire movie, and I can honestly say that I will never pop this back into the DVD player again.
And also, I was sitting with a gnawing sensation that this entire movie was just a spin off of the "Jaws" movies, only with the lead "bad fish" changed from a shark to large, flying piranha. It took place on an island. There was a police officer (Lance Henriksen). Gee, didn't we see this in "Jaws" already?
All in all, "Piranha 2" is boring and uneventful. I wish it would just grow wings like the fish did and then fly away.
Piranha Part Two The Spawning: Utter shambles
Platypuschow1 October 2017
This sequel to 1978's Piranah was the initial stepping stone that put James Cameron on the map.
Its hard to believe that the man who is known for Terminator 2, Aliens & Titanic started his career making a movie about flying man eating fish.
Following the same format as the original with a stubborn businessman shrugging off the notion of killer piranah in his waters this time the film is an utter contemptible mess.
Poorly made even Cameron and the always excellent Lance Henriksen couldn't save this embarrassment.
The flying piranah simply cannot be taken seriously, from the ridiculous noises they make to the blatant plastic sfx.
Piranah fans should skip to the 1995 remake or even Piranah 3D.
The Good:
Lance Henriksen
The Bad:
Awful sfx
Horribly made
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
Underwater sex scenes look seven shades of awkward
Every time Lance Henriksen smiles an angel gets its wings
During a feeding frenzy flying piranah sound like pigeons
Its hard to believe that the man who is known for Terminator 2, Aliens & Titanic started his career making a movie about flying man eating fish.
Following the same format as the original with a stubborn businessman shrugging off the notion of killer piranah in his waters this time the film is an utter contemptible mess.
Poorly made even Cameron and the always excellent Lance Henriksen couldn't save this embarrassment.
The flying piranah simply cannot be taken seriously, from the ridiculous noises they make to the blatant plastic sfx.
Piranah fans should skip to the 1995 remake or even Piranah 3D.
The Good:
Lance Henriksen
The Bad:
Awful sfx
Horribly made
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
Underwater sex scenes look seven shades of awkward
Every time Lance Henriksen smiles an angel gets its wings
During a feeding frenzy flying piranah sound like pigeons
Underwater turkeys and boobies!
noizyme4 November 2004
Ha well, Piranha 2 was actually entertaining primarily for its unique setting and creative usage of piranhas. It was hokey to see piranhas flying around (which they don't actually do, but this was due because of someone screwing around with their genetics) and gobbling like turkies underwater. There were beautiful women in this film (most of which weren't wearing bras at all) which, I hate to say, saved many scenes by putting them in. There were humorous moments (the stuttering loser-chef) and crazy settings (the running of the "grunions" and everyone saying "We want fish! We want fish!")
It was cool to kick back and watch this one. As cheesy as it seems, well, it was cheesy. But it was entertaining to see what the piranha might do and, like I said before, it had unique style as to where they were at and the characters involved. Check it out if there is nothing left to see at your local videostore. It gets a 4/10 from me.
It was cool to kick back and watch this one. As cheesy as it seems, well, it was cheesy. But it was entertaining to see what the piranha might do and, like I said before, it had unique style as to where they were at and the characters involved. Check it out if there is nothing left to see at your local videostore. It gets a 4/10 from me.
James Cameron's cinematic debut is a fun piece of hot garbage
Woodyanders21 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
A tropical island resort finds itself under attack from lethal flesh-eating mutant piranha with the ability to fly. The goofy premise alone promises a certain deliciously cheesy form of low-rent entertainment that this movie most definitely delivers on. Done with an Italian producer and crew, this flick has an always welcome and refreshing blithely trashy Italian exploitation aesthetic complete with a ridiculous plot played ludicrously straight, cardboard characters, tasty gratuitous female nudity, tacky (not so) special effects, a pretty mean-spirited tone, and a handy helping of in-your-face graphic gore. Tricia O'Neil makes for a spunky and appealing heroine while Lance Henriksen keeps his dignity as the no-nonsense police chief. Foxy brunette Leslie Graves, busty babe Carole Davis, and slim blonde Connie Lynn Hadden all provide scrumptious eye candy. Special praise goes to Ancil Gloudon for his enjoyably two-fisted portrayal of take-charge macho fisherman Gabby. The scenes with the fake rubbery puppet fish flying and attacking people are positively hysterical. Oh yeah -- and that guy who went on to do a lot of bloated big budget blockbusters like "Titanic" and "Avatar" directed this film and co-wrote the script. A real schlocky blast.
Beaches, bikinis, babes and flying killer piranha - what more can you ask for?
Wilbur-106 November 2000
This really isn't too bad a film, and is certainly a worthy sequel to the original. 'Piranha' worked because it was tongue-in-cheek, making fun of the films it was parodying. 'Piranha II' tries to be more serious, but is so cheesy that it manages, by default, to be just as effective.
This time round the Piranha have moved from the river and are in the sea, able to fly as a result of scientists crossing genes to make the ultimate killing machine. After the opening scene which is similar to the one in Jaws 2, (except here the two divers are lovers trying for some underwater coupling), the film introduces a variety of characters, most of which are surprisingly endearing in a 'B' movie kind of way; particularly two topless good-time girls who get provisions from a stuttering chef with the promise of a threesome.
Lance Henriksen, who continued a lucrative association with Cameron, plays the police chief, who is a hybrid of Brody from 'Jaws' and Colonel Kilgore from 'Apocalypse Now'. He valiantly plays a straight role as all around him descends into chaotic fun. The flying piranha attack like vampire bats, going for the throats of their luckless victims; whilst they also have Alien-like trends, one bursting out of a dead body to attack a nurse.
As can be gathered, I found this film great fun - most production values are of a reasonable standard, particularly the underwater photography. The piranha themselves are a disappointment, but they play second fiddle to the characters and storyline.
People who slate the film need to watch the likes of 'Barracuda' or 'Evil in the Deep', both of which are fathoms below 'Piranha II'. Any film with dialogue like "Do you dive on your first date?" gets the thumbs up from me.
This time round the Piranha have moved from the river and are in the sea, able to fly as a result of scientists crossing genes to make the ultimate killing machine. After the opening scene which is similar to the one in Jaws 2, (except here the two divers are lovers trying for some underwater coupling), the film introduces a variety of characters, most of which are surprisingly endearing in a 'B' movie kind of way; particularly two topless good-time girls who get provisions from a stuttering chef with the promise of a threesome.
Lance Henriksen, who continued a lucrative association with Cameron, plays the police chief, who is a hybrid of Brody from 'Jaws' and Colonel Kilgore from 'Apocalypse Now'. He valiantly plays a straight role as all around him descends into chaotic fun. The flying piranha attack like vampire bats, going for the throats of their luckless victims; whilst they also have Alien-like trends, one bursting out of a dead body to attack a nurse.
As can be gathered, I found this film great fun - most production values are of a reasonable standard, particularly the underwater photography. The piranha themselves are a disappointment, but they play second fiddle to the characters and storyline.
People who slate the film need to watch the likes of 'Barracuda' or 'Evil in the Deep', both of which are fathoms below 'Piranha II'. Any film with dialogue like "Do you dive on your first date?" gets the thumbs up from me.
cheesy,but fun
john-bludgeoned9 April 2019
Hard to believe it's Cameron
PlotLuck14 September 1998
Cameron defends his first film opus as being, "without a doubt, the finest flying piranha movie ever made." I must agree with The King of the World on that one.
This movie just goes to show that none of us should take early knocks in our careers too hard. From here to Titanic in 17 years is pretty good.
This movie just goes to show that none of us should take early knocks in our careers too hard. From here to Titanic in 17 years is pretty good.
Not as much fun as you'd like it to be.
Hey_Sweden14 September 2018
Tricia O'Neil ("The Gumball Rally") stars as Anne Kimbrough, a scuba diving instructor for a fancy seaside resort. Also an expert on marine life, she's suspicious when divers start getting eaten. However, she couldn't have predicted what the culprits turn out to be: some sort of mutated piranha / grunion / flying fish hybrid, which naturally don't have to confine themselves to the sea. Periodically they attack various chumps in enjoyably gruesome ways. Anne works with both her husband Steve (Lance Henriksen), a police chief whom we must assume is estranged from her since she never refers to him as an "ex", and a hunky stranger-in-town, Tyler (Steve Marachuk, "Eyes of Laura Mars").
Extremely humble beginnings for James Cameron! The story is that he shot footage for about a week for executive producer Ovidio Assonitis ("Tentacles"), who became dissatisfied with what he was turning out and fired him. Assonitis then proceeded to film the balance of the movie himself. The sorry screenplay receives a pseudonymous "H.A. Milton" credit, but Assonitis, Cameron, and Charles H. Eglee all contributed. It's an unfortunate melange of bad writing and bad dialogue, and a collection of dopey characters, some of whom are of course on the make.
It's really too bad; with a premise like that, and a story that references the Joe Dante original, this should have delivered more fun. But the attack scenes are just not that frequent, and everybody involved takes the material just a little too seriously. At least Dante and John Sayles had a real sense of humour about their material.
Much of the cast is just plain amateurish, with Henriksen barely managing to retain his dignity. (Of course, he would work with Cameron again on "The Terminator" and "Aliens".) O'Neil doesn't have much of a presence as the heroine. Genre buffs will note the presence of Ricky Paull Goldin (Scott Jeskey in the remake of "The Blob") as O'Neil and Henriksens' son, and Captain Kidd Brewer, Jr. (who acted for Cameron eight years later in "The Abyss"). Stunning English babe Carole Davis ("If Looks Could Kill") has an amusing role as a conniving user.
The movie isn't a total loss; at least it racks up a respectable body count by the time it's over.
Creature effects and gore by the great Giannetto De Rossi.
Five out of 10.
Extremely humble beginnings for James Cameron! The story is that he shot footage for about a week for executive producer Ovidio Assonitis ("Tentacles"), who became dissatisfied with what he was turning out and fired him. Assonitis then proceeded to film the balance of the movie himself. The sorry screenplay receives a pseudonymous "H.A. Milton" credit, but Assonitis, Cameron, and Charles H. Eglee all contributed. It's an unfortunate melange of bad writing and bad dialogue, and a collection of dopey characters, some of whom are of course on the make.
It's really too bad; with a premise like that, and a story that references the Joe Dante original, this should have delivered more fun. But the attack scenes are just not that frequent, and everybody involved takes the material just a little too seriously. At least Dante and John Sayles had a real sense of humour about their material.
Much of the cast is just plain amateurish, with Henriksen barely managing to retain his dignity. (Of course, he would work with Cameron again on "The Terminator" and "Aliens".) O'Neil doesn't have much of a presence as the heroine. Genre buffs will note the presence of Ricky Paull Goldin (Scott Jeskey in the remake of "The Blob") as O'Neil and Henriksens' son, and Captain Kidd Brewer, Jr. (who acted for Cameron eight years later in "The Abyss"). Stunning English babe Carole Davis ("If Looks Could Kill") has an amusing role as a conniving user.
The movie isn't a total loss; at least it racks up a respectable body count by the time it's over.
Creature effects and gore by the great Giannetto De Rossi.
Five out of 10.
I still had a good time with it...
paulclaassen7 July 2022
Who would have thought the director of this low budget horror sequel would go on to make the greatest movies of all time (Titanic and Avatar)?
Anne (Tricia O'Neil) is a diving instructor at a hotel resort. She soon realizes something wrong when some of the divers don't return. Her estranged husband, Police Chief Steve (Lance Henriksen), investigates. A tourist, Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk) enjoys spending time with Anne, and - as the story develops - we notice there is more about him than meets the eye. As it turns out, he is linked to the events from 'Piranha', and the film also mentions the genetically modified piranhas bred for warfare from the first film.
In this sequel, the fish mutated and are now able to fly, so you're not even safe out of the water! The piranha effects are not great at all, with the fish looking stocky and lifeless. At times, it looked as if the actors were holding props.
The film received predominantly negative reviews and also flopped at the box office. I must be honest, I rather enjoyed this installment. The performances weren't all that bad (well, mostly), and I thought the story was interesting enough. The climax was over too quickly, and was a bit of an anti-climax. It was still entertaining. The original 'Piranha' was still miles better, and more memorable.
Would I watch it again? Maybe, yes.
Anne (Tricia O'Neil) is a diving instructor at a hotel resort. She soon realizes something wrong when some of the divers don't return. Her estranged husband, Police Chief Steve (Lance Henriksen), investigates. A tourist, Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk) enjoys spending time with Anne, and - as the story develops - we notice there is more about him than meets the eye. As it turns out, he is linked to the events from 'Piranha', and the film also mentions the genetically modified piranhas bred for warfare from the first film.
In this sequel, the fish mutated and are now able to fly, so you're not even safe out of the water! The piranha effects are not great at all, with the fish looking stocky and lifeless. At times, it looked as if the actors were holding props.
The film received predominantly negative reviews and also flopped at the box office. I must be honest, I rather enjoyed this installment. The performances weren't all that bad (well, mostly), and I thought the story was interesting enough. The climax was over too quickly, and was a bit of an anti-climax. It was still entertaining. The original 'Piranha' was still miles better, and more memorable.
Would I watch it again? Maybe, yes.
Add watch it again
djfrost-4678626 October 2018
WHY on Hollywood 's name! ¿WHYYYYY???
MrTacchi23 September 2003
OH MY GOD. When I saw this I felt bad for myself. How could I expose my brains to such abomination! I should have known, anyway. ¿Flying Piranhas? There's no way a movie about flying Piranhas could be actually good. Yeah, it's my fault.
The problem is, not only this movie was bad, it was BAAAAAD, so bad that made movies like Gigli look good. The filmmakers should hide all the copies, or even better, burn it, to completely erase this thrash from earth. I mean, to any person that participated in this film making, it's a negative point for their careers (and could actually flunk it if it's to be discovered that they had anything to do with it).
The only use of Piranha the Spawning is to be used as a blackmail device for getting some money from the disgraced actors that appeared in this movie (pretty sure they had been the last 20 years trying to forget this miserable mistake in their lives).
The problem is, not only this movie was bad, it was BAAAAAD, so bad that made movies like Gigli look good. The filmmakers should hide all the copies, or even better, burn it, to completely erase this thrash from earth. I mean, to any person that participated in this film making, it's a negative point for their careers (and could actually flunk it if it's to be discovered that they had anything to do with it).
The only use of Piranha the Spawning is to be used as a blackmail device for getting some money from the disgraced actors that appeared in this movie (pretty sure they had been the last 20 years trying to forget this miserable mistake in their lives).
Piranha Part Two: The Yawning
disdressed122 October 2010
this movie marks James Cameron's feature length film debut,(he also wrote the screenplay)and i gotta say,it's not good.unlike the first movie,which did not take itself seriously,this one is played straight,and that is its major failing.it's just too ridiculous too be taken seriously.plus,i found it to be one ginormous snooze fest.i really had to force myself to stay awake,in the hope that the movie would improve.sadly,it was all in vain.there's almost zero tension in the film.maybe if they had at least tried to inject some comedic elements in to it,it would have been more bearable.i can't in good conscience recommend this one.however,i have seen worse than this.for me,Piranha Part Two: The Spawning is a 3/10
It doesn't get much worse than this...
annuvin16 January 2005
This movie is certainly in the top 10 worst I have ever seen. It was so bad that I had pretty much forgotten about it until I saw it listed on the "Worst Ever" list on here. An utter and complete waste of film. The only worse movies I have ever had the misfortune of viewing had to be the asinine "Lost Highway" and the ridiculous "Pearl Harbour". At least Pearl Harbour starred Kate Beckinsale. Pirahna II: The Spawning has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
The plot is ridiculous, the acting is worse and even as a child I remember telling everyone I knew what tripe this movie was. As A child, I laughed about it for weeks. As an adult I just wince at the memories.
However, you may enjoy it if you like really bad movies. Unfortunately, it isn't so bad it's funny... It's so bad you want to kick your TV in after wasting your time watching it. Stay away. FAR away.
The plot is ridiculous, the acting is worse and even as a child I remember telling everyone I knew what tripe this movie was. As A child, I laughed about it for weeks. As an adult I just wince at the memories.
However, you may enjoy it if you like really bad movies. Unfortunately, it isn't so bad it's funny... It's so bad you want to kick your TV in after wasting your time watching it. Stay away. FAR away.
Unwatchable
redrocketb7 February 1999
From the first scene--where we see Cameron really likes sunken ships and sex therein-- to the incestuous relationship between several of the protagonists, you know after the first five minutes that any more of this movie is beyond the range of sane minds.
An under-appreciated gem
doctorsmoothlove6 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Everyone knows the story of James Cameron's involvement in Piranha 2 by now. He famously clashed with and was fired by producer Ovidio Assonitis who served as uncredited co-director. Whatever the circumstances, Piranha 2 is much better made than it has any right to be. Unlike many films of its pedigree and era, the film is both aware of how silly its premise is while simultaneously not devolving into lame genre parody. A fine line only occasionally visible to hold up a flying killer fish.
The film stars Tricia O'Neil as Anne, a married diving instructor estranged from her policeman husband, Steve, who loses a client one day to an unknown tragedy in a sunken ship. Anne and her horny son, Chris, who works as a deckhand for visitors to the coastal community. All three members of the family get plenty of screen time to develop their personalities as surly lovers and parents to a chipper joker teen. We never learn why Anne and Steve are separated but the film hints it has to do with their stubbornness. It is refreshing to see a female main character with agency both in the plot and in her sexual choices (there is a very funny scene with Steve) who never needs to be rescued and talks back to the men. Chris goes on to star in his own Blue Lagoon subplot with an alcoholic client's super hot daughter.
After the body of the dead tourist is discovered, Anne learns that mutated piranhas have been let loose. These fish have the ability to fly and love to munch on people's necks. If you think this is similar to Alien's facehuggers, you'd be right. The film's monsters are rubber dolls that cover their victims in blood and viscera. This special effect is so much more impressive than in the first film where we barely see any interaction between the victims and the piranhas.
What's even more impressive is that the film doesn't have disposable victims. Most of the main death scenes involve characters who have established themselves as jerks we root against. It's satisfying to see the two girls who trick a handicapped man into stealing food for them die. It's equally as sad to see a fisherman's son die when the fisherman has been established as the lovable crazy dude who throws dynamite all over the ocean.
The film has to end and does with a final underwater sequence in the sunken ship. These sequences look like they were shot by James Cameron. They are well lighted and the actors move well through the maze of the ship. The piranhas even attack people underwater and we don't get some cutaway shot or first person view.
Piranha 2 has a number of subplots like Chris's romance that only exist to be funny and for the most part they are. None of these are unique although their inclusion is welcome to fill the screen time. The delivery of lines is sometimes unintentionally funny due to dubbing but the jokes would be entertaining in any setting. I'll happily take sitcom humor in place of boring sex scenes or superfluous dialog about the creation of the monsters.
The film stars Tricia O'Neil as Anne, a married diving instructor estranged from her policeman husband, Steve, who loses a client one day to an unknown tragedy in a sunken ship. Anne and her horny son, Chris, who works as a deckhand for visitors to the coastal community. All three members of the family get plenty of screen time to develop their personalities as surly lovers and parents to a chipper joker teen. We never learn why Anne and Steve are separated but the film hints it has to do with their stubbornness. It is refreshing to see a female main character with agency both in the plot and in her sexual choices (there is a very funny scene with Steve) who never needs to be rescued and talks back to the men. Chris goes on to star in his own Blue Lagoon subplot with an alcoholic client's super hot daughter.
After the body of the dead tourist is discovered, Anne learns that mutated piranhas have been let loose. These fish have the ability to fly and love to munch on people's necks. If you think this is similar to Alien's facehuggers, you'd be right. The film's monsters are rubber dolls that cover their victims in blood and viscera. This special effect is so much more impressive than in the first film where we barely see any interaction between the victims and the piranhas.
What's even more impressive is that the film doesn't have disposable victims. Most of the main death scenes involve characters who have established themselves as jerks we root against. It's satisfying to see the two girls who trick a handicapped man into stealing food for them die. It's equally as sad to see a fisherman's son die when the fisherman has been established as the lovable crazy dude who throws dynamite all over the ocean.
The film has to end and does with a final underwater sequence in the sunken ship. These sequences look like they were shot by James Cameron. They are well lighted and the actors move well through the maze of the ship. The piranhas even attack people underwater and we don't get some cutaway shot or first person view.
Piranha 2 has a number of subplots like Chris's romance that only exist to be funny and for the most part they are. None of these are unique although their inclusion is welcome to fill the screen time. The delivery of lines is sometimes unintentionally funny due to dubbing but the jokes would be entertaining in any setting. I'll happily take sitcom humor in place of boring sex scenes or superfluous dialog about the creation of the monsters.
So Good It Hurts
gavin69429 March 2016
A scuba diving instructor, her biochemist boyfriend, and her police chief ex-husband try to link a series of bizarre deaths to a mutant strain of piranha fish whose lair is a sunken freighter ship off a Caribbean island resort.
This is just classic Italian-American horror sequel-making at its finest. We have a round table of directors, with James Cameron getting stuck with his name on the picture. This brings the film more attention in retrospect as Cameron has become huge. But the truth is that the "real" director, after Cameron was forced off, was really the producer.
I don't care how cheesy the fish effects are. I thought this was classic 1980s horror and I loved it. The silliness, the cliché plot and obvious death scenes. And Lance Henriksen before he really took off? This is must-see.
This is just classic Italian-American horror sequel-making at its finest. We have a round table of directors, with James Cameron getting stuck with his name on the picture. This brings the film more attention in retrospect as Cameron has become huge. But the truth is that the "real" director, after Cameron was forced off, was really the producer.
I don't care how cheesy the fish effects are. I thought this was classic 1980s horror and I loved it. The silliness, the cliché plot and obvious death scenes. And Lance Henriksen before he really took off? This is must-see.
A horror film with no bite (pun intended)
MaxBorg898 October 2010
While it's fairly common to dismiss horror sequels as cheap knock-offs that merely cash in on superior originals, most genre fans generally find one or two good things to say about these follow-ups. Not so with Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, a sequel so undeniably bad even its director, one James Cameron, prefers not to mention it, despite the fact that it's the first film he ever directed. His one ironic comment, "I think it was the best flying piranha film ever made", sums up the situation quite neatly.
So yes, this time the genetically altered killer fish can fly, and they've also reached the ocean (although that event is completely unrelated to the end of the first Piranha). Their lair is a sunken ship off the coast of a Caribbean island, and when a couple decide to go swimming nearby, the killing spree begins, with only a scuba diving instructor (Tricia O'Neil) a biochemist (Steve Marchuk) and the local sheriff (Lance Henriksen) willing to stop them.
Retaining only the effective piranha sound effect from the first film, The Spawning goes off into its own direction and derails almost immediately. One can attribute this to first-time director Cameron being kicked out of the cutting room and losing all kind of control over the project (which is why he generally considers The Terminator his directorial debut), but the truth is the project was flawed from the very beginning: taking the Corman-derived cheapness to the extreme, the movie is sunk by lackluster writing (at least the original had some kind of subtext beyond the mayhem), poor performances (even Henriksen looks completely lost) and, most disappointingly, scaled-down special effects, namely winged fish that look so fake they lose all their credibility after a few minutes.
All in all, there are several inferior sequels, but few are as shockingly embarrassing as Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, which also "stands out" as a tragic footnote in the otherwise admirable filmography of a great director.
3,5/10
So yes, this time the genetically altered killer fish can fly, and they've also reached the ocean (although that event is completely unrelated to the end of the first Piranha). Their lair is a sunken ship off the coast of a Caribbean island, and when a couple decide to go swimming nearby, the killing spree begins, with only a scuba diving instructor (Tricia O'Neil) a biochemist (Steve Marchuk) and the local sheriff (Lance Henriksen) willing to stop them.
Retaining only the effective piranha sound effect from the first film, The Spawning goes off into its own direction and derails almost immediately. One can attribute this to first-time director Cameron being kicked out of the cutting room and losing all kind of control over the project (which is why he generally considers The Terminator his directorial debut), but the truth is the project was flawed from the very beginning: taking the Corman-derived cheapness to the extreme, the movie is sunk by lackluster writing (at least the original had some kind of subtext beyond the mayhem), poor performances (even Henriksen looks completely lost) and, most disappointingly, scaled-down special effects, namely winged fish that look so fake they lose all their credibility after a few minutes.
All in all, there are several inferior sequels, but few are as shockingly embarrassing as Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, which also "stands out" as a tragic footnote in the otherwise admirable filmography of a great director.
3,5/10
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