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Piranha Review

For Families provided by Common Sense Media

Iffy for 16+

Extremely gory Jaws rip-off is too much for kids.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that gore and violence are this movie's primary reason to exist, with extensive (if chaotic) underwater shots of people bloodily devoured by small, sharp-toothed fish, sometimes right down to exposed skeletons and severed limbs. Child characters as well as grownups get chewed (though the lens mainly dwells on adult casualties). There is some profanity and a fair amount of drinking (hints that the hero is an alcoholic). There's also female nudity and skinny-dipping. Questionable behavior includes trespassing, bad driving, and stealing police property. US government, military, cops, mayors, and authority figures right up to camp counselors are portrayed as unsavory and untrustworthy. This is not to be confused with a deluxe Piranha 3D remake from 2010.

  • Families can talk about the entertainment value of scary movies. What's the appeal of watching piranhas eat people? Does the humorous and social commentary here help?
  • Do scary movies always have to feature gore? Are gory movies always scary?

The good stuff
  • message true0

    Messages: Message is anti-establishment: The US military, politicians, and businessmen are in a corrupt alliance to create, then cover up, the nasty piranhas as potential eco-weapons.

  • rolemodels true0

    Role models: Lead characters, a nervy girl investigator and a semi-hermit single dad, are a little less savory traditional goody-goody types, even though they perform heroically against the piranha-mongers. There are stereotypical evil-businessman types and evil-Army-officer types (and evil-businessman-Army-officer types).

What to watch for
  • violence false5

    Violence: Gory violence is mainly blood and ill-focused body parts floating in water, though there are some grisly out-of-water scenes of corpses, bite-ridden torsos, mutilated faces, and exposed bones. There's a car wreck, and two characters beat each other up.

  • sex false3

    Sex: Toplessness, as the sexually-profligate heroine flashes her bare breasts to distract a guard. A girl and her boyfriend go skinny-dipping. Hint that the leads have had premarital sex. Comical wondering if a minor character is gay. Bikinis and swimsuits in the big piranha-attack finale.

  • language false2

    Language: "Ass," the s-word, "hell," "balls," "dammit," "a-hole," "Jesus Christ."

  • consumerism false0

    Consumerism: Not an issue

  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3

    Drinking, drugs and smoking: Whiskey drinking by the good guys (a habit the good guy cultivated after his divorce) and much dialogue about alcoholic spirits and drinking problems. A drunken old man is killed by the piranhas. A sheriff smokes (near a "NO SMOKING" sign).

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© Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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