Well what can I say other than The Asylum strikes again. It's the usual script – another Hollywood blockbuster is accompanied by yet another Asylum mockbuster. In this instance the big movie being ripped off for all that its worth is Piranha 3D, which in itself is a remake of an old 70's film. Ah modern cinema. Personally I have a lot more time for The Asylum's biscuit-taking cash-ins than the big-budget remakes they ape. At least these guys are a small independent company surviving by 'innovative' means, whereas the big studios lazily churn out countless remake/re-imagining/re-boots. The Asylum are simply following the longstanding grand tradition of ripping off the latest Hollywood smash hit, albeit in an admittedly memorably moronic way. In their latest offering – Mega Piranha – they seem to almost be cashing in on one of their own movies, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Not only do we once again have a Mega monster but hilariously specifically we also have a late 80's teen-pop singer as a biologist in one of the lead roles. In the former film it was Debbie Gibson, here it's Tiffany. Interestingly the latter makes Gibson seem like Faye Dunaway, such is her acting ability. All Tiffany seems to do in this movie is run from scene to scene spouting out exposition dialogue. Although in fairness she looks Shakespearean compared to her male co-star Paul Logan, I last saw him in the action boob-fest Return To Savage Beach, and it's only fair to say that his acting ability has improved approximately 0% in the intervening 12 years.
The story is the usual mix of nonsense that anyone who has seen Sci-Fi Channel movies would come to expect, i.e. some creatures become large and dangerous due to the meddling of science and wreak havoc, while a group of good guys and bad guys battle it out in the foreground. And that in a nutshell is what this movie is about. Make no mistake though, Mega Piranha is a much better film than Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. In the latter film you only really needed to see the trailer to see all of the best bits in the movie, the rest being padded out with tedious naval scenes, but this film is ram-packed with pure nonsense from the get-go and basically doesn't stop until the end. It's full of abysmal CGI effects that are almost heroically terrible and, generally speaking, the film is monumentally stupid.
I'm not sure how far The Asylum can take this mega-monster-starring-late-80's-pop-princess cycle of movies but I for one hope that one day they make Mega Ferret vs. Giant Badger starring Martika as a ..yep you guessed it, biologist.
The story is the usual mix of nonsense that anyone who has seen Sci-Fi Channel movies would come to expect, i.e. some creatures become large and dangerous due to the meddling of science and wreak havoc, while a group of good guys and bad guys battle it out in the foreground. And that in a nutshell is what this movie is about. Make no mistake though, Mega Piranha is a much better film than Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. In the latter film you only really needed to see the trailer to see all of the best bits in the movie, the rest being padded out with tedious naval scenes, but this film is ram-packed with pure nonsense from the get-go and basically doesn't stop until the end. It's full of abysmal CGI effects that are almost heroically terrible and, generally speaking, the film is monumentally stupid.
I'm not sure how far The Asylum can take this mega-monster-starring-late-80's-pop-princess cycle of movies but I for one hope that one day they make Mega Ferret vs. Giant Badger starring Martika as a ..yep you guessed it, biologist.