Scott LeBrun 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.

Red-Barracuda Killer Fish is yet another Jaws inspired horror flick from the late 70's. Set in South America, it's about thieves who steal a box of diamonds and then throw it into a lake in order to hide them. The plan is to retrieve the booty once the heat dies down but unfortunately it turns out the lake is infested with piranhas making retrieval of the stolen goods a little tricky. Distrust and betrayal quickly set in amongst the thieves.This flick was directed by Antonio Margheriti who was a prolific but fairly middling Italian director responsible for the likes of Naked You Die (1968). This flick was obviously one of the many water-based horror flicks from the time but for the first two thirds of the movie it's more-or-less a crime film. The piranhas of the title take a while to get involved and it's only towards the end that we actually see them. But once a dam breaks and the killer fish are set loose around the surrounding area, the movie moves more squarely into horror territory. The cast isn't too bad all things considered. We have the cheesy Lee Majors in the ostensibly good guy role. The interesting Karen Black is one of the thieves torn between Majors and the brains behind the gang, James Franciscus. Black and Franciscus are better actors than Majors and have more interesting parts.It maybe could be argued that Killer Fish tries to do too much by being a hybrid crime/horror film. And maybe its focus can get a bit lost but it is a decent time-filler and is fairly well made and acted. It's pretty low-budgeted but there is some decent model work and effects in the opening power-plant assault mission as well as the dam bursting sequence. Of additional note, there is a rather hilarious scene where a fat photographer gets eaten by the piranhas – for some reason the group thinks it would be best to send out the only clinically obese member of the team on a pathetically flimsy raft first as a try out. Needless to say that idea ends in tears.

Paul Andrews Killer Fish is set in Brazil & starts as a gang of thieves carry out an elaborate raid on a mining company & manage to steal millions in valuable diamonds, as the police search for them they dump the diamonds into a lake. Safely back at their hotel discussing their plans the thieves decide to wait 60 days before collecting the diamonds & splitting them, criminal mastermind Paul Diller (James Franciscus) remains calm but other's get impatient & feel that they may be double crossed. Two of the gang decide to fish the diamonds out of the lake for themselves but find that the lake is full of deadly Piranha & become fish food, all part of Paul's plan the other's eventually retrieve the diamonds but find themselves stuck when their boat sinks. Trying to hitch a ride back in a boat used for a nearby fashion shoot a fierce storm breaks a dam & the boat is damaged & left slowing sinking in the middle of the Piranha infested lake...Also know under the title Deadly Treasure of the Piranha this Italian, British, Brazillian & American co-production was directed by Antonio Margheriti under his usual Anthony M. Dawson alias on English language versions I have known about this film for some time & always thought it sounded quite fun but have never had to opportunity to watch it before but it was shown on cable telly over here in the UK last week so jumped at the chance to finally see it. Was the wait worth it? Yes & no, while I didn't hate it & it has it's moments I was a little disappointed by it. The script is more a crime thriller than a straight horror film, the Piranha are more of a subplot to the arguing thieves & fashion shoots than anything else. The whole film feels silly, virtually everything that happens is dumb or daft, the vicious storm that lasts for about thirty seconds, the idea that if your going to steal some precious diamonds do it as noisily as possible so as to attract as much attention as possible, Piranha that attack people ten seconds after they enter the water, silly character's who are so one dimensional it's scary, a boat with a hole in it that takes ages to sink until everyone is off it then it sinks in about five seconds & some really stiff dialogue from the international cast. At just under 100 minutes once the group get stuck on the lake in the sinking boat during the second half it picks up but the preceding half is dull & boring with only an explosive start to get you interested. Killer Fish is a bit of a mess really, the plot doesn't hold up at all & as a crime thriller it's fairly dull while as a horror film it fails to deliver the goods. Having said that Killer Fish has a few unintentional laughs, it moves along at a fair pace & it's a decent enough way to pass a couple of hours if your bored one lazy afternoon. Just don't expect anything amazing or particularly believable.Killer Fish looks a little cheap, while there are plenty of explosions & things get blown up the model work is often embarrassing, part of the problem is you can't miniaturise water so little droplets of water in reality look like the size of cannonballs compared to the models & just doesn't convince. I still don't understand why the gang of thieves need to deliberately blow so many things up at the start, why draw so much attention to yourselves? The Piranha attack scenes are badly edited, you know the sort of thing where we see some actor splashing around in the water then quick shots of a few Piranha, it's all rather choppy. There's not much gore here, there are a couple of skeletons, a few Piranha bites, a bit of blood & that's it.Filmed in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil the locations are nice enough & I suspect most of the cast took a role in this for the free holiday. Lee Majors from The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-1978) & The Fall Guy (1981-1986) looks bored while the late James Franciscus is OK as the main bad guy.Killer Fish sounds better than it actually is, but then can't that be said about so many films? It passes the time & is silly & sometimes funny & has a few explosions in it & a few Piranha attacks but overall I didn't think it was anything special thanks to the dumbness of it all & a very poor set of character's.

Chase_Witherspoon A group of thieves dump the proceeds from a heist on the river bed before adjourning for a sixty day sunset pause, but before they can see out the self-imposed 'cooling off' period, betrayal emerges and greed threatens to unravel their 'perfect' crime. Fortunately, the river is home to a particularly aggressive strain of piranha who protect the treasure from recovery, ensuring no pain, no gain for anyone.Lee Majors makes a rare film appearance (somewhere between "Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Fall Guy") trying to compete with double crossing accomplices, while his love interest (Hemingway) and her entourage become embroiled in the web of deceit and double cross. Franciscus is a highlight as the shady mastermind and backgammon enthusiast, with a weak but very cold heart.Prolific Italian director Antonio Margheriti transforms this standard crime caper with his catchy title, the climax in particular aboard a stricken tour boat delivering a few toothy critters doing what they do best. An unusually strong cast including Gary Collins, Marisa Berenson, prolific Spaghetti westerner Anthony Steffen and the corpulent Roy Brocksmith add considerable depth and talent. Apart from some dubious sub-plots (e.g. the storm), sets and 'special' effects (miniatures), "Killerfish" is a reasonable creature-feature flavoured crime caper that should hold the interest in spite of being somewhat overlong.