Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Really Surprised!

Better Late Then Never

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

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.

I really am convinced that Antonio Margheriti is a good director, period. "Killer Fish" is an average, but decent action/disaster/thriller with just a few horror elements. Some might say this is a "Piranha" rip-off, but it's not. Because only in the second half of the movie we get to see some piranha action. And even that isn't much. It's more their constant being there that's causing the threatening atmosphere. This is as much a crime movie as it is a disaster movie, as it is a killer-fish movie. And I simply loved the great miniature effects when the dam broke. But what struck me most, was some of the very well-written and catchy dialogue. One guy says to Karen Black: "There I was thinking you've got some German blood in you...". Karen Black denies this by responding "Uh-uh... I WIN my wars.". Or the bad guy saying "Sometimes an unloaded gun is more effective than a loaded one." (you have to see that quote in the context of the scene). And there's much more good stuff like that coming from all characters. Lee Majors is in it too, and something hit me when I saw him in this film... If George Clooney would have been big in the 70's, he would have been Lee Majors! Surprisingly this flick was a bit less silly than "Tentacoli" (which coincidentally I saw a week before, or so), so I say "Killerfish" is a good, average and watchable film. A typical Margheriti cocktail, actually.

i am 32. i first saw this on TV in the UK about 18 years ago and thought it was basically a mess. A few years later after smoking something, it was on TV again and i can honestly say i have never seen myself or my friends laugh as hard. It is without doubt one of the most stunning examples of why lee majors should be shot dead. The man is an imbecile if he thought that he could forget about this one. To be completely honest i kind of feel sorry for the guy, he's obviously not right in the head. To his credit though, i did manage to get a copy of it on ebay for about £40 such was my fascination with the whole thing, so maybe he knew what he was doing. I doubt it though.4 years later, I still feel the same

Spoilers herein.Its a real experience for me when a film's being is inadvertently echoed in its story. That makes the film a good experience in some respect even though it stinks on all other grounds.In this case, you have a lovely woman (Hemingway) who is brought to Brazil for the purposes of making pictures using the exotic locale. And that's what this is, even to the point of being funded by (the then thuggish military dictatorship) government of Brazil.It all ends up (both the movie and the 'pictures' within the movie) as fishbait.Along the way, there's one (and only one) glamour shot, and it is posed as if it were an advertising still.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.