Too much of everything

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The only reason I had to watch this movie was because a friend was on the crew. He told me that it was widely regarded on set as one of the worst productions ever. We watched it together and he gave a running commentary. Despite the low budget, it was actually pretty entertaining. However, instead of relying on primitive CGI to animate their clay demon, the directors should have shot the movie the way Spielberg shot around finicky mechanical sharks for "Jaws." The piñata wasn't bad-looking, but when it transformed via cheesy CGI, it really drew attention to itself. There were some very effective practical gore effects, so it wasn't as if they didn't have options. The cast was serviceable and the girls were hot (Lara Wickes was adorable and I fell madly in love), but the filmmakers violated the sacred pact between the horror genre and its male viewers—namely, if we're going to watch your no-budget movie, we want some nekkid boobies in return. The single instance of partial boobage from Daphnee Duplaix was pretty weak, and also raised some questions. For one, you can't get a Playboy Playmate to disrobe? And for two, how exactly does a director ask for the shot they used? "OK, guy, pull her top down a little--CUT! Moving on..."So in the end, not so terrible. Here's a tip, though: Mute the TV and play the soundtrack to "Predator" instead. You'd be surprised at how much better the movie seems.

Yes, I saw this movie on AMC, which stands for American Movie Classics. How a movie that came out in 2002 and might have came out the same year it was shown on the channel is considered a classic I will never know. How a horrible movie that is not worth your time to watch it turned up on a station that claims it only does classics is beyond me. The story is about what is essentially a killer piñata, which is kind of absurd in the first place. However, you add lots of blood and nudity to the mix and you have yourself a good fun time. Well, the makers of this movie did not want to take that route apparently and thought they were on to making the next great horror movie. And who can blame them, their movie went apparently straight to the American movie classics station where they showed it repeatedly that first October when it premiered. I thought I would give it a look see as I was expecting some sort of horror movie from the 1970's that possibly slipped by my radar, but no just another bad horror movie with bad special effects and virtually no good kills to be found.

I don't understand why this movie isn't on the Worst 100 list. I've seen 7 movies on that list, and this one is worse than any of those. If I gave a 10th grade class an assignment to create special effects and they turned in the ones in this movie, I might feel sorry enough for them to give them a D. I hope they didn't pay the special effects team more than $500. Not only are they embarrassing poor, the animated figure doesn't look like the costumed figured used in the close ups.Meanwhile the acting is so stiff that one is left wondering if the final footage came from the 2nd or 3rd reading of the script. Or if the script was simply being written an hour before the filming.If you are looking for a silly horror movie to watch with a group of friends for laughs, this is a very good candidate. On that scale, I would give it an 8.

I'm awake at 3 am here in lovely Las Vegas, and they have chosen to show this particular *piece* of "American Cinema" on AMC. Is this a classic? I think not. Let's see... a piñata... that kills fraternity and sorority kids... on an island. If you decide to watch it knowing this, which I didn't, you really need to be at least two sheets to the wind. Sadly, I'm not, so it's really not all that entertaining except for the fact that a piñata, with the heart of a pig, is killing college kids. Don't waste one second of your life on this disaster if you actually cherish your time on this Earth. Seriously. What really baffles me is that they put it on AMC. Does that not stand for American Movie Classics? This must be a joke, right? What did the Programming Director smoke before he, or she, decided to add this to the lineup? Probably the same stuff the college kids did in this movie.