Piranha 3D - *** out of ****

"Piranha 3D" is an event film for a select audience. Although the 3D was added as an afterthought (something I'm strongly against), this time it seems to have worked very well. Body parts fly across the screen, tequila puke flies into your face, and, as promised, killer piranhas flood the screen. Sometimes it seems muddled (especially when underwater), but when making an event film, you have to give people a reason to see this with an audience. I'm sure that if "Snakes on a Plane" was released this summer, it would go for the same idea, being released in 3D.

I think I'll just spit out the plot and get it over with- a believably extinct race of cannibalistic piranhas are freed from their cave when an earthquake causes a shift. In the meantime, it's Spring Break, and tons of horny frat boys and sorority girls chug whatever alcohol is present and disobey the sheriff (Elisabeth Shue, an often forgotten treat). Also, a sleazy, coke-snorting 'director' of an adult video series called 'Wild Wild Girls' (try to guess the reference) takes the sheriff's son along as a local who knows the area. And there, reader, is your excuse for piranha victims and female nudity.

I was very surprised at how much the movie got away with. Supposedly, 8-9 minutes of footage was cut to obtain an R rating, but it will no doubt show up on the Unrated DVD. People lose many limbs (including the ironic loss of a certain reproductive organ), there is sometimes naked girl-on-girl action (motorboting and kissing, if you were wondering), the body count is probably over 100, and the lake runs almost as red as the fountains in "Kill Bill: Volume 1."

And there you have it- a fun little escapist summer movie that may have some kind of moral in it, but I wasn't paying any attention. Maybe when the sheriff and Ving Rhames tell you to get out of the water because of an emergency, you should. Or wait for the Unrated DVD. Or don't see it at all. It's up to you.

Rated R for sequences of strong bloody violence and gore, graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use.
Check your local theater for showtimes.