Who payed the critics

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Director Antonio Margheriti ("Take a Hard Ride") guides this amusing diversion. Yes, it's true that Joe Dantes' "Piranha" from the previous year was a better film to feature these fish, but this is fun exploitation. Provided the viewer doesn't take it too seriously, they can enjoy it. It's filmed on location in Brazil and certainly looks quite nice. It also hits the ground running with a decent action set piece. The piranha attack scenes are actually pretty good once we get to actually see them. The cast is variable, but some of the actors come off well enough.A team of professional thieves pulls off a daring heist of millions of dollars worth of jewels, then deposit the loot in a dam for retrieval six months later. However, greed takes over, and some team members try to obtain the jewels early, thereby becoming aware of the danger. There are piranha in this water! While betrayal among the group takes place, a photo shoot with model Gabrielle (Margaux Hemingway, "Lipstick") is on location, and several of the characters end up stranded on a tour boat thanks to a storm that also destroys the dam.Lee Majors is at his charisma-free worst as our tougher than tough hero, who in one hysterical moment gets so mad at James Franciscus (playing mastermind Paul Diller) that he jumps into the water and swims towards him, regardless of what's in the water with him. Karen Black is commanding and sexy, as is Marisa Berenson. There's a number of familiar faces in this cast: Gary Collins as Tom the pilot, Anthony Steffen as Max, football player Dan Pastorini as Hans, Frank Pesce as Warren, and Roy Brocksmith as corpulent fashion photographer Ollie. The scene with Ann and Ollie on the makeshift raft is ridiculous enough to induce head shakes.There's a fair bit of blood here, but not much gore, and no skin in this diverting exploitation nonsense. The twist ending adds to the overall entertainment.Seven out of 10.

When jewel thieves stash their loot at the bottom of a lake in Brazil belonging to a man named Paul Diller (James Franciscus - "Concorde Affair"), he finds out about it and decides to stock the lake with Red-Bellied Piranha, those vicious razor-sharp toothed killers found in the Amazon River to stop anyone from recovering the jewels.As it turns out, the stolen jewels - emeralds and diamonds - actually belong to him and if he can't have them, he quickly decides that no-one can! When one man tries to recover the jewels, he is devoured by the fish. Along the way, his Brother and a scuba diver too fall victim to the Piranha.It is at this point that Kate Neville (Karen Black - "Airport 1975"), one of the group of thieves, discovers that Paul is the one responsible for the lake being filled with Piranha after herself and Lasky (Lee Majors - TV's "The Six Million Dollar Man") witness one of the attacks and she runs to Paul's château and see's that he has many tanks of the Red-Bellied Piranha. She tells no-one else, but they find out soon enough when many others fall prey to the fish and it soon becomes a race against time as Kate and Paul must team together to recover the stolen jewels and avoid becoming fish food for the Piranha.Meanwhile, some guests at the lake, who are doing a magazine photoshoot also become involved in the Piranha attacks. Beauty Model Gabrielle (Margaux Hemingway - "Lipstick") and her agent Ann (Marisa Berenson - TV's "Sins") and photographer Ollie (Roy Brocksmith - "Psycho") encounter the Piranha during the film's climax when they all attempt to make it to shore after a tornado hits their boat on the lake and shipwrecks them on the rocks while the Piranha swarm around the damaged boat.The film reaches a thrilling and twisting sequence at this point when everyone fights for survival and tries to make it onto shore with a share of the jewels for themselves. Some win, some loose, but either way, it's an edge-of-your seat action-packed finale!

Next to Joe Dante's minor exploitation classic, this is already the second "Jaws"-rip off that revolves on piranhas, but the comparison stops right there with the mutual choice of killer fish as the sea monsters. Dante's film is of course better and more relevant, but "Killer Fish" is a typical Italian exploitation product and thus delivers too many grotesque story lines, some neat gore and an unusual cast. Heck, I'm not even sure this film fully qualifies as a "Jaws"-rip off since the main plot involves a diamond heist instead of a besieged tourist resort. Although... it has that, too! A well-organized bunch of thieves successfully complete their diamond robbery and lower the loot to the bottom of the lake for safety reasons. After 60 days – if the police give up their search – they will collect the diamonds again and split. In order to guard his precious jewels, criminal mastermind Paul Diller infested the lake with ravenous piranhas that can regularly nibble from the double-crossing team members. Meanwhile, one of the crooks falls for a model with a speech-defect and a tropical hurricane busts a large dam, allowing the piranhas to spread themselves all across the touristy waters. Antonio Margheriti's "Killer Fish" suffers from a slightly tedious and hesitant opening half hour, but it get more adventurous once the first victim is devoured under the water. The piranha effects as well as the underwater cinematography are a bit disappointing but this film has an irresistible 70's charm, complete with cool soundtrack and stereotypical characters. Lee Majors is excellent as the macho with more hair on his chest than brains in his skull and Karen Black is a great shrew. Not as good as I hoped, but a fun piece of Italian trash nonetheless.

I had a lot of fun with this movie, which is not the same thing as having a lot of fun at it. There was something cozy about its simple plot and its even simpler faith in tried and true conventions. It could be accused of many things, including laughable dialogue, hysterical performances and insane camera angles, but it could not be accused of dishonesty.