I thought the first movie was pretty bad, but at least it ripped off Jaws, shamelessly and in a fun way and it had action and a general fast pace.But the sequel, being a James Cameron movie, I expected it to be better than the original. When it fact it's worse. Much much worse.First of all the cheap look of this movie, makes The Terminator's low budget seem like an expensive movie. And the movie cost less than 145.000 dollars to make. But still, shooting on Jamaica, they could have taken advantage of the scenery and given us some nice land and sea shots. This movie has none of that. The weather is even pretty bad during the first part of the movie.Second of all, the actors are all hideously ugly. And the boy and his mom seem to have an incestuous disturbing relationship.The acting is embarrassing at best. Except from Lance Henriksen who is below average. But not much more than that Trisha O' Neil gives the best performance of the entire cast. She reminds me a little of Ripley in Aliens in looks and acting.Steve Marachuk is doing a decent job.But the feel of the movie is like watching some nasty 70'ies porn movie.And for James Cameron being the master of creature movies during the 80'ies: The Terminator and Aliens, the flying piranhas are embarrassingly badly done.Lots of gore. But almost no action what so ever. In the third act when all of the hotel guests are attacked by the flying piranhas, it would have been a great chance for some action, but even here the movie disappoints. That scene is over in a couple of minutes and is as badly done as every other scene with the piranhas. And don't even get me started on the toy-helicopter being blown up or the fake explosion of the underwater-wreck which is also a model combined with shaky camera and sound effects to create the illusion of the explosion.As for the story-part, I didn't even realized until the very end that the boy was Lance Henriksens son. And that's bad writing. Also not something I would expect from James Cameron.I' m amazed but also glad that he was allowed to direct The Terminator after directing this crap. Also amazing he could get a budget of 6 million dollars for The Terminator as he had not proved himself even remotely with Pirahnas 2.Avoid this crap at all cost.

"Piranha 2: The Spawning" looks exactly like what it is: two different movies made by two different people, using the same story, actors, and crew. Unfortunately, the less talented of the two also happened to be the producer, and he got his way. The result is an occasionally interesting, intermittently gripping, and mostly ridiculous pot of glop.I'm just making assumptions here, but I'm going to guess that you can see James Cameron's involvement in the straight, dramatic portions of the movie, including the murky but eerily pretty underwater sequences. Definitely the casting of a strong, resourceful, reasonably complex woman in the lead is a Cameron trademark. Producer Ovidio d'Assontis, I reckon, is responsible for most of the more slapstick, broad, typically B-movie material, of which there is a lamentable mountain. The movie's mixture of horror and comedy does not work *at all*. It's not even good comedy--stupid one-liners coming out of the mouths of third-rate Central Casting rejects and would-be Penthouse models. Next minute, it's Tricia O'Neil, Steve Marachuk, and Lance Henriksen playing it dead serious. Like downshifting to second gear from fifth at 80 mph.O'Neil is a quite good actress and gorgeous in a world-weary, edge-of-fortysomething way to boot, and Lance as the gaunt, stressed-out police chief/heroine's husband is a true professional as always, but Steve's wisecracking scientist/playboy gets really annoying really fast...and he's supposed to be the co-hero. The rest of the cast is just downhill (or is that rapidly sinking?) from there, mostly a tiresome assortment of cardboard goofballs, although Gabby the dynamite fisherman is a likable representative of movie-Caribbeana and probably the most interesting character of the lot. The romance between the two teens is interesting when you consider that Leslie Graves was actually close to ten years older than her 15-year-old paramour, Ricky Paull.I almost forgot about the fish, the reason all these people were assembled in the first place.Do you blame me, though? You don't really see them much, to be honest, as much as you hear them, making that sort of wooga-wooga-wooga warbling noise as they swim in for the krill...er, kill. And when you do seen them, you don't for very long because your eyes get all scrunched up from you laughing. They really are ridiculous looking things, or at least the special effects shots in which they star are so badly done that you can't take them seriously. Granted, it's a cheap movie and I have seen worse ("Up From The Depths", anyone?), but I would think that if a visionary like James Cameron had had his way he would have approached the task a little differently. In fact, from what I read he had been originally hired as the Effects Supervisor when d'Assontis snatched him to replace the original director. If only he'd been left in his original post...but then the good parts of the movie wouldn't have happened at all, probably.What's the final verdict, then? It's an interesting, modest footnote to the early career of one of our towering cinematic giants, a typical Italian-flavored horror B-movie of the period. Largely dumb, but not a complete waste. Of definite interest to underwater fans.

Funny to think, before Avatar, Titanic, True Lies, Terminator 2, Aliens, The Abyss, The Terminator, James Cameron was just trying to make it himself. After quitting being a truck driver, he was just the editor on Piranha 2 and somehow got shoved into the director's seat. I can see why he skims over this movie when in interviews people ask about what his life was like before The Terminator. It's fun to see what are the first works are of a huge Hollywood name. I did see this movie when I was a kid and even then I have to say that this was one of the silliest movies I had ever seen in my life. I mean, flying piranhas? I get it, they were trying to make the fish seem impossible to escape from at this point, under water or on land, you just couldn't get away from these monsters. But these monsters looked like something you could get at Spencer's Gifts for a Halloween party.Off the coast of a Caribbean island, a young couple flee the hotel to have sex in the sea. But they swim into a sunken wreck which is also a piranha lair and they are both killed and eaten by the unseen piranha. The next day, a group of tourists are taking the diving courses provided by Anne Kimbrough, an employee of the Hotel Elysium. One of her divers swims into the wreck, which she has strictly forbidden to her divers. Leaving Tyler to take over and lead the others to the surface, she discovers almost immediately that her 'missing' student has swum into the wreck and been killed there when his badly chewed up body is found. With the help of her estranged husband, Steve, they must figure a way to stop these evil flying piranha.Now one of the great things about this film I have to say is the first scene. This couple goes underwater to have sex, that is something I have to say I have never seen on the wackiness level for un-needed nudity. Other than that, I don't think there was anything that good about the film even on a camp level. But given the credit where it's due, you could really see talent behind James. As an editor, he did the best he could with what he had. It's like handing over a broken stick house and saying to fix it, he did the best he could, but just couldn't really save the film. But Lance Henriksen is the only actor in the film who actually puts a little effort into this movie and I could see why he made it above the other actors in this movie.I don't know if I could recommend this film, it just depends on the mood you're in. If you're looking to see all of James Cameron's work or Lance Henrikson, I would say to go for it. But just a warning in advance, this is an over the top silly movie. Some moments work and some don't, there are some laughable scenes, but most of the film is oddly boring for a film about flying fish. Now I would watch a documentary about these flying fish if James made one today, either that or he should've added the flying piranha to his blockbuster film Titanic. I think he would've gotten the full 11 out of 11 Oscar wins if he added those. Anyways, just don't expect anything special out of this movie, just remember, there was a time before his submarine missions deep below the seas being one of the most powerful men in Hollywood he slept on a friend's couch just trying to make a name for himself.2/10

Piranha 2 is not the best horror movie you will ever see. Its very tongue in cheek with several characters who appear very over the top or silly and the direction of key horror moments is poor. On the plus side I found the characters and acting quite good, unfortunately the special effects were not there to support the story so the action or horror moments don't really hit you as they should. As a fan of the original or horrors from the late 70s and early 80s i would recommend to add to your collection. Its has the synth music, cheesy gore and of course naked 80s chicks which is always a bonus. A vague follow up to the Joe Dante original in 1978 stars a solid Tricia O'Neal who finds herself in the middle of a series of horrible events as some of the guests and workers at an idyllic island resort are being eaten by something in the water. We get a recognisable face in Lance Henriksen who plays her ex husband and the Chief of Police - along with the ride there is her pointless son (who spends most of the movie completely away from what is going on in a dingy with a large breasted girl with no lines - mm nice) and a charming bloke who chats old Tricia up (she is tasty mind) It also has a decent ending which is nice. :) Anyway like I said it isn't a classic, but its a film of its time and anyone who enjoys the kind of cheesy 70s and 80s no budget movies like Galaxy of Terror or Forbidden World will appreciate it more than say someone who thinks the Scream movies are the ultimate in horror.