Piranha 3DD

After the terror unleashed on Lake Victoria in Piranha 3D, the prehistoric school of blood-thirsty piranhas are back and this time no one is safe from the flesh-eating fish as they sink their razor-sharp teeth into the visitors of summer's best attraction, The Big Wet Water Park. Piranha 3DD brings double the action, double the horror, and double the D's. (Tricia Spears)

Included in the set is a 3D Blu-ray Disc™, a 2D Blu-ray Disc, a DVD, and a digital copy. Special features include commentary by Director John Gulager, Producer Joel Soisson, and Co-Writer Marcus Dunstan; three deleted scenes; The Story Behind The DD (HD 07:49); The Hofftastic World Of David Hasselhoff (HD 02:09); Busey's Bloopers (HD 02:04); Wet And Wild With David Koechner (HD 01:37); A Lesson With John McEnroe short film (HD 03:53); and upfront ads. Be sure and catch the bloopers at the end, which mainly feature David Hasselhoff.

As with the previous Piranha 3D in which Director Alexandre Aja created an intense 3D experience that was made such that everything projects and flies out of the screen, so has Director John Gulager followed suit to heighten the immersive effect 3D can create for the viewer. The film was designed for 3D but not captured originally in 3D. Instead, a 2D-to-3D conversion was performed by Factory VFX and Local Hero Post, with stereoscopic supervision by Juan Melgoza. Shot using the Red One digital camera system, the end result of the 1.85:1 1080p MVC 3D Blu-ray is an intensely visceral, over-the-top 3D experience. As with the first title release, the 3D is intended to be gimmicky, and the movie delivers an intenseness that is not often experienced in this genre. Some scenes exhibit in-your-face nudity. Each scene builds as fear and suspense is heightened by the immersive effect 3D creates for the viewer. Compared to the 2D version, the intensity is far, far greater, due to the effectiveness of the 3D. As with the 2D version, resolution is excellent and reveals fine textural variations in facial features, clothing, and water park surfaces. The color palette is nicely saturated and emphasizes warm, sun-drenched yellow and orange hues. Blacks are generally revealing, as is shadow delineation. The underwater imagery is dramatic, with respectable depth perception. Overall, depth and perspective perception is quite good and natural. Characters are nicely offset against backgrounds, and one can easily differentiate foreground and background objects and the spatial relationships between characters and objects. Various 3D gimmick effects are included, which heightens the squirmy visceral feel and grotesqueness. Surprisingly, even though a conversion, this is an effective horrific 3D experience that, as with the Piranha 3D, delivers a lot of excitement. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is loud, at times aggressively enveloping. Water sounds subtle to intense-especially as the camera view shifts to underwater perspectives, the water engulfs and pressurizes the entire soundfield with an immersive sense of depth. The .1 LFE and the five main channels deliver prominent low bass, to provide a strong low-frequency foundation. During intense piranha attack scenes the sonics are manifest in complex motion sounds, to heighten the sense of an aquatic water park soundscape. This is all accompanied by the sounds of screaming swimmers and an aggressive dance music-tinged music score during the pool scenes. Below the water are frantic piranha swimming and pressurized water rumblings. All sounds are strongly directionalized in the surround channels, to create an intense holosonic® immersive experience. Atmospheric and sound effects are reinforced with a dynamic-sounding music score that is sweeping in its soundstage presence. Dialogue manages to stay intelligent, but spatial integration is wanting. This, as with Piranha 3D, is a high-energy sonic experience that intensifies the 3D visual experience, making this an even more intense experience. (Gary Reber)