Piñata: Survival Island

Rating:
Summary: Pinata
Review: Many moons ago a pre-Columbian Central American community was suffering from a bad malaise. A tribal shaman created two life sized clay piñatas, one evil and one good. They loaded the evil piñata with all the bad vibrations afflicting them and tossed it into the sea. Many moons later it washed up on a deserted island a short distance off the California coast...
The island is the stage for a challenge between two fraternity houses. Think "Survivor" with younger and louder and more obnoxious contestants. Soon enough the kids awaken the evil spirit within the piñata and begin falling like ten-pins.
PINATA: SURVIVAL ISLAND is no sillier than movies of this type. It's predictable and the CGI graphics are awful. A short documentary on the dvd tells us that the computer generations were all done post-production, after the movie was filmed and it was decided that a clay pot didn't look menacing enough. It's too bad; the unadorned clay pot had a cheesy charm that the cracking, lava fill computer creation can't touch.
This is a good movie for the technophobes. For the first time in recent memory there are NO cell phones in a movie about teenagers. Inconvenient for the frat brats, though. Their boats are destroyed and it's a fifteen mile shark infested swim to the mainline.
The actors are competent enough, although it's a little painful watching them work against such a balky story. I was especially taken with pixie-ish Lara Boyd Rhodes, who played petrified terror as well as it can be played.

Rating:
Summary: Pinata
Review: Many moons ago a pre-Columbian Central American community was suffering from a bad malaise. A tribal shaman created two life sized clay piñatas, one evil and one good. They loaded the evil piñata with all the bad vibrations afflicting them and tossed it into the sea. Many moons later it washed up on a deserted island a short distance off the California coast...
The island is the stage for a challenge between two fraternity houses. Think "Survivor" with younger and louder and more obnoxious contestants. Soon enough the kids awaken the evil spirit within the piñata and begin falling like ten-pins.
PINATA: SURVIVAL ISLAND is no sillier than movies of this type. It's predictable and the CGI graphics are awful. A short documentary on the dvd tells us that the computer generations were all done post-production, after the movie was filmed and it was decided that a clay pot didn't look menacing enough. It's too bad; the unadorned clay pot had a cheesy charm that the cracking, lava fill computer creation can't touch.
This is a good movie for the technophobes. For the first time in recent memory there are NO cell phones in a movie about teenagers. Inconvenient for the frat brats, though. Their boats are destroyed and it's a fifteen mile shark infested swim to the mainline.
The actors are competent enough, although it's a little painful watching them work against such a balky story. I was especially taken with pixie-ish Lara Boyd Rhodes, who played petrified terror as well as it can be played.

Rating:
Summary: When CGI goes bad, or the Box is Better Than the Movie
Review: Ok, it's obvious from the packaging (a box with three different changing 3D scenes) and a title that rips off several reality shows, that someone behind the film knows something about marketing. Unfortunately they know too little about film making.

Originally titled Pinata and with a different monster, this is a tale that is as easy to swallow as Hummer. A small town used to be prosperous until dark times came. The local Shaman build a special clay pinata to catch all of the evil in the town. The pinata was then dumped in the water to carry the evil away.

Enter our characters who are on a bizarre spring-break ritual where teachers and students go to a tropical island to hunt for underwear (yeah, you heard it right). Well, guess where the pinata has wound up?

One of the girls finds it and wants to know what is inside. Why she would thing a clay statue is hollow I don't know. So the pinata is opened and comes to life and quickly makes sure that the cast members don't have too many scenes.

Soon all that are left are Nicholas Brendan (of Buffy fame) and his ex-girlfriend. No hints as to how they overcome the murderous manakin.

While watching the special features you find out that the movie was originally shot with a man-in-a-monstersuit creature. Someone felt the monster was not scary enough so they replaced it with a total CGI monster (they should have worked on the plot instead). Unfortunately, this is a good example of how good CGI requires actual artistic talent for good effects. What we are left with is an ever-changing red-glowing thing that is never really seen clearly (as it runs, bits of it pop off and back on). It even turned into a levitating tadpole monster. They really should have kept the guy in the suit.

This is one that is so bad it is almost good (like Plan 9), but not quite bad enough to make it. It is just bad. Cool box though.

Rating:
Summary: If you like classy tense horror films... keep looking!
Review: Pinata (slapped with cheeseball title Survivial Island for video/dvd) isn't a good movie. It isn't scary and it isn't anything new. It is however, a lot of fun.

Broken down (and there's not a lot of plot details to brake down) a bunch of fraternity kids go to an island for an underwear scavenger hint and release a demon pinata which then proceeds to hunt them down. Sound stupid? It is.

So what's good here... well, quite a bit actually. There's a fairly solid cast. Nicholas Brendon (of Buffy fame) and Jaime Pressly make for likeable leads. Brendon in perticular has a charismatic and totally likeable presence. The direction is solid and there's some good scares and a few gruesome deaths for the gore fans.

The creature itself was originally shot with a little person in a suit which surprisingly, worked pretty well. The practical fx work are a good deal better then a lot of the digital ones. Many of the CGI effects are fairly lame and totally obvious but then again, if you're looking for ILM fx, direct to video horror movies probably aren't your films of choice. The creature's okay but would have worked better with more practical work and less hammy CGI.

There's some more utterly goofy moments in the film such as when a dead deer is found on the island... not sure if there are deer on tropical islands. I think not. Also, one of the characters describes when she first saw the creature in a ridiculous way. I challenge you not to smirk at the stupidity of her description.

Once again, not high class art here but if you're looking to have some goofy fun in the spirit of Killer Clowns from Outer Space... Pinata (here comes the lame play on words)is worth a crack.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: PINATA: SURVIVAL ISLAND is a conglomeration of countless other slasher, dumber than doodoo teenagers and few surprises. But, in spite of that, I found the movie entertaining in a perverse sort of way? The Hillenbrand brothers offer us hunky Nicholas Brendon and babe Jaime Pressly, and some other lesser known actors, trapped on an island with a killer pinata! Now, give them an A+ for originality on that one. The combination of CGI and mechanical effects worked for me. The pinata's ability to transform into some kind of flying monster is intriguing, and overall the effex are good for a movie with an obviously low budget. Credit the Hillenbrands for making it seem a lot more expensive. Brendon brings that boyishly handsome charm to his role as Kyle, the more mature underwear chaser, who has had a fight with his main squeeze, Ms. Pressly. This is of course secondary to watching the vengeful pinata spirit maim and dismember.
This is certainly not a classic, but it's better than average and I liked the end song, too!!!!

Rating:
Summary: CINCO DE MAYHEM
Review: PINATA: SURVIVAL ISLAND is a conglomeration of countless other slasher, dumber than doodoo teenagers and few surprises. But, in spite of that, I found the movie entertaining in a perverse sort of way? The Hillenbrand brothers offer us hunky Nicholas Brendon and babe Jaime Pressly, and some other lesser known actors, trapped on an island with a killer pinata! Now, give them an A+ for originality on that one. The combination of CGI and mechanical effects worked for me. The pinata's ability to transform into some kind of flying monster is intriguing, and overall the effex are good for a movie with an obviously low budget. Credit the Hillenbrands for making it seem a lot more expensive. Brendon brings that boyishly handsome charm to his role as Kyle, the more mature underwear chaser, who has had a fight with his main squeeze, Ms. Pressly. This is of course secondary to watching the vengeful pinata spirit maim and dismember.
This is certainly not a classic, but it's better than average and I liked the end song, too!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Pinata- it's another hollow movie
Review: Pinata: Survival Island was a movie I just had to see. Being the horror film critic I am, I just had to rip this movie. What is it about slasher flicks that have to have stereotypes and use the same form of suspense that prior horror films have already used. Again, Hollywood thinks up a good idea but then ruins it with cliches and over-used tactics to create suspense.

The plot you probably already know: a group of college brats go to some island to play some sort of game that includes finding underwear. Meanwhile, there are Pinatas hanging every where with booz in them. Naturally, that's all these kids care about: booz. You have to love the cliche college student(s) portrayed in this movie, the kind of characters you can find in practically any other slasher film.
Plus, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice what audience group is being targeted with this film: the younger generation, my generation. So Pinata follows the same cliche rules and has all the characters, minus two, that are young college kids as is the same in other horror films. Get the drift? This film is no different from other slasher flicks, the same kind of characters, in the same age group, all with typical reactions when the monster attacks.

I'm not even going to bother going over the characters in this movie, because I can't even remember most of their names. That's how shallow they were, which is common in most horror movies. Anytime in a horror movie, where the character's are so unoriginal that one cannot recall their names, it's a sure sign of a bad movie. Because it means those characters have no other purpose but to be future victims. Useless characters, sacrificed to the monster in order to create cheap suspense. Although, the character Lisa actually was developing more so than any of the other characters, and what does the movie do? It kills her off. Just goes to show how smart the screenplay was.

Let's talk about the monster. A killer Pinata swelled with evil spirits. I must admit and say the beginning really intrigued me, actually sent a chill or two up my spine, because it gave the monster a point to the movie, a reason for its horror. During its killing tirade, the Pinata Monster kind of switches between a guy in a suit and some animated red blob. The guy in the suit is much more scary than the graphics. This animation ruined the horror of the creature because it became like some sort of cartoon. Terrible special effects for this movie.

Also, the suspense of the film has been washed over from prior horror movies, so this movie presents no original way to keep you gripping. Such as the camera man approaching the unsuspecting victim from behind. How many horror movies do I see this in? Plenty.

Lastly, I think some of the gore in the movie is a little over-done. I especially didn't like the abundance of head bashing nor the killing of a lot of the cute girls. One even gets beheaded. Now, that's not scary, that just disturbs me to the point where I don't want to see this film again.

This film is suspenseful the first time around, maybe even scary at some points, but it doesn't last. It's not the kind of film you'll care to see more than once. It's a let down with the animation of the monster, the over use of gore, and the typical horror movie cliches that seem to be the trend in slashers. Pinata is a bust and there is no candy inside.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: There is nothing like a good horror flick...And this was NOTHING like a good horror flick. If you like em bad this is your film. I won't bother explaining the origins of the Pinata because it is done twice in the film, the first in the opening credits for about 10 painfully long minutes. I saw the last 10 or so minutes on AMC and had to rent it based on the terrible effects which bounced from a 4 foot midget in a rubber suit to a ten foot glowing devil beast of some kind. By the end of the movie the creature was looking like something from Ghost Busters.
What I found really odd was this pinata was made of clay and about 4 feet tall. That said, every frat kid in the film recognized it as a pinata! It looked NOTHING like what pinatas look like to me. The worst part, and there are many, was when the kids hide behind a tree for several hours while the pinata is on the other side of the tree. There are many points in the film where the Pinata can see the people and appears to be about 10 yards from them. They, however, don't even know he is there even though he sounds like a feeding lion pride mixed with the tazmanian devil. I was planning on writing more but I am realizing that I have already spent too much time with this HORRIBLE film.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable waste of 90 minutes
Review: This movie starts off nice, with a rather long sequence showing the creation of the evil pinata. It's rather "gothic" or at least a tad scary. Then fast forward to the present, with some rock 'n' roll, and a group of college students riding their boats out to an island.

It's your run-of-the-mill slasher flick as far as the plot.

The acting is rather above average for this sort of movie.

Overall, it's an enjoyable film. Nothing new here, but it moves along nicely.

Rating:
Summary: Just to comment on the DVD quality
Review: This movie was awful! I would rather watch the grass grow. The special effects were substandard and the actors were bad!