Piranha 3D is silly, bloodsoaked, and overflowing with gratuitous nudity, but when it comes to films about prehistoric piranha wreaking havoc on unsuspecting twenty somethings during spring break, it is--HANDS DOWN-- the best film of the summer. No, this isn't a rebirth of the modern horror picture, but it is a sick and twisted bit of over the top fun.

Brought to you by Alexandre Aja--the horror meister behind Haute Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, and Mirrors--Piranha 3D is a lose update of Joe Dante's wildly entertaining Jaws homage Piranha from 1978. Make no mistakes though. The only two things these films really have in common are their titles and the underwater critters that inspired their titles. Piranha 3D is much more playful in tone than Aja's previous films and it pulls its most uproarious humor from very perverse and tittilating situations. Yes, Piranha 3D is extreme and to audience members who come out offended, you probably had no business watching it in the first place.

This is an exploitation film to the grandest sense and it actually would have been perfectly at home as part of that terrific Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse flick from a few years back. I had so much fun with Piranha 3D, that I had no problem forgiving it for its lapses in logic, lack of character development, and cheesy acting. I simply didn't care. Aja has created the ultimate spring break buffet, and he's brought along some terrific bit players for the ride. Richard Dreyfuss is positively joyful in an all too brief role that I'm extremely hesitant to elaborate on, so I won't. Christopher Lloyd also shows up as a scientific expert with all the answers, and he gives his eccentric character an obvious Doc Brown spin. Elizabeth Shue and Ving Rhames appear as members of local law enforcement and they serve as the heroic figures in the film. A hilariously entertaining Jerry O'Connell chews scenery as a "Girls Gone Wild" producer type while horror director Eli Roth livens the proceedings as an MC for a wet t-shirt contest.

The final twenty minutes of this picture offers up some of the most audacious gore I've seen in a film in a really long time (and during broad daylight no less), and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Piranha 3D knows exactly what it is, and films like this should cross the line. That's what exploitation movies were designed to do. As for the 3D, Piranha wasn't actually shot in the third dimension. The water based locales made it extremely difficult to shoot with 3D cameras, but the entire project was shot with 3D in mind and the film offers up a vastly superior post conversion process than the one used for Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender. Again, Piranha 3D will not be everybody's cup of tea, but if you like your tea with bags of blood, detached body parts, and glorious nakedness, then this is definitely a movie for you.

Grade: B