Lively action with no time wasted. A fun romp that could have been cheekier, in more ways to one, but overall gives the audience what it wants. Precious little screen time is given to the real talents of Barbara Steele and Kevin McCarthy unfortunately.

Goes beyond the level of fun B-movie junk food - which it ostensibly is, all the naked boobs (and boob-biting) one could expect littered throughout the man-eating fish mayhem. It does so in having Spielbergian elements above the level of a simple Jaws riff.

Steven Spielberg's favorite _Jaws_ rip-off. Although bloody and scary in parts, this plays better as a spoof, with a superior B cast abetted by a funny Sayles script and all the usual Dante winks. Who could ask for anything more? How about Steele as a svelte lady scientist with great cheekbones and an arched eyebrow? Miller as a Texas con man with a Brooklyn accent? Bartel as a bitchy head camp counselor? A beach bunny reading _Moby Dick_? It just never stops.

A bad knock-off that knows it's a bad knock off, and its self-awareness makes it fun - its campy goodheartedness makes up for its more nonexistent elements, like 'plot' and 'logic'. Surprisingly, there's a great deal of character, like the Camp Counselor. "GUTS!"

Really funny and bad movie. I love the sound the piranha make, it's hilarious. Also, fastforwarding the car was pretty funny too. So cheesy

Slightly spoofy thriller with a high death rate and a better than usual script. On the whole, an improvement on _Jaws_.

You know, the story of piranhas being so ravenous as to strip a cow to the bone is kind of an exaggeration. When Teddy Rooseveldt visited South America, they wanted to impress him so much that they isolated a school of pirahna and starved them for weeks so that by the time they lowered the cow into the water for teddy, they riped the cow to shreds. In truth, they are pretty docile. It's true, look it up.

Dante plays up the comedy a lot more than Cameron does (or ever has), turning his into both a working monster movie and a pretty funny send-up of one. Not very good, but decent.

Guy with socks and sandals fires a revolver next to a kid's head to kickoff a tube race in a gross lake.

Funny B movie. Obviously it has a sense of humor and doesn't take itself so seriously so that helps with the enjoyment factor.

A classic jaws rip-off done by legendary camp producer Roger Corman and Joe Dante who later had some mainstream success with his fun genre flicks. The characters are considerably well written and there are lots of funny one-liners thanks to writer John Sayles. Towards the end the film starts to show its weaknesses when instead of suspense filmmakers opted out for carnage - we get to see long and boring scenes of extras in unflattering swimsuits screaming and splashing the water.

A smart, stylish and legitimately witty rip off of Jaws. One of Dante's best films, with a great cast.

You can tell it's by Dante, and there are some fun things in it, but this is a generic and mostly boring monster movie.

Piranhas that jump in people is so bad that it is almost funny, but it is not.

cheesy but worth a look

Less fun than you think

Silly.

Unabashed Jaws ripoff with Roger Corman protege Dante at the helm. Pretty good cheesy gore and good for laughs, but not a good film per se. Dante worked with Sayles again on The Howling, a much better horror film with a similar tongue-in-cheek formula.