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Piñata: Survival Island

Piñata: Survival Island

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Gory But Corny
Review: "Pinata: Survival Island" is about a group of friends from a sorority and fraternity at Woodson College who go on an annual Cince De Mayo scavenger hunt. Like every other horror movie, all are having fun until one of the friends does something stupid. Thinking that they have just found a pinata filled with alcohol and other "prizes" two high partners open an ancient pinata that was used years ago to contain evil that was wreaking havoc on an Indian village. The rest of the film is like all the others in that the evil pinata, one-by-one, kills off the group of friends unti their are only two people left (of course it's the two that once dated each other and are struggling with being around each other). They have to fight the evil pinata and send the evil back to hell.

Even though the story is lacking, this film is very gory. I was very surprised by that. There is a scene where the pinata hits a girl over the head repeated with a shovel and you will be taken back by the gore. People with weak stomachs might want to skip this film. The CGI effects also run rampant through this film, almost to the point to where it's silly. The monster changes form and mutates so often that it seems like there is more than one monster running around the island.

Some may like this and some may not. I will leave that decision entirely up to you. However, for me it was a poor and silly attempt at a horror film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The funniest horror film I've seen
Review: A killer pinata? That kills people by beating them with a stick until they crack open? It was almost too funny to believe. Nothing in this film should be taken seriously; the acting is terrible but the digital monster looks pretty cool.

Typical B-Movie fare with an original twist.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sweet Merciful Crap
Review: Alright, I'm gonna admit right up front that I've only seen this on TV, but it's so spectacularly godawful, and the gore effects I did get to see are so weak that I doubt I missed anything of interest. Simply put, this may well be the worst movie ever. Well, actually, I'm sure there are plenty of films which are about this bad, but it's genuinely difficult to imagine anyone making one notably worse than this. I'm actually a fan of horror films, so I'm in the target audience, and I can and do put up with productions values that are far lower than the ones in this film. However, this film lacks any sort of low-budget charm, or any intelligence or ingenuity or even craft that would make me want to ignore the technical problems. This isn't even a 'so bad it's good' film. It is kinda hypnotizing in it's wretchedness, but not entertaining. I've actually watched this film 1.75 times. I didn't really want to watch it the second time, mind you, but I wanted to review it, and it wouldn't feel right to do so if I hadn't seen the whole thing, especially since I'm only seeing a TV version. I went through this pain for you, gentle reader. Do not make it be in vain.

After the tedious introduction, which is usually a waste of time, even in good horror films, the movie consists of about 4 different shots, which are each shown a million times a piece- 1. The CGI pinata running amuck in extreme closeup 2. Headache inducing, triangular pinata-cam 3. People walking around 4. People dying. This film literally seems to just be pieced together, as nothing is related to anything else. They just wander through the jungle, and there are random pinata shots, and then someone dies in a not particularly interesting fashion. We never see the Pinata in frame with anything we recognize except when it's already killing someone, so there's no hope of generating any suspense, as it could be anywhere, and it also makes every part of the film exactly the same, which simultaneously makes it virtually incoherent. Of course, the pinata itself is pathetic. I find it particularly amusing that they decided to add in a whole bunch of bargain basement CGI after the fact, which undoubtedly made the film even lamer and more incoherent. The pinata can take a number different forms, from a big, 15 foot horned demon to flying head and whatnot, but whenever it gets down to killing someone it transforms back into a lil 3 1/2 foot dude. This is done for obvious reasons, as they use the guy in the suit for whenever it gets down and personal, but it's still pretty damn funny. When it's chasing people around its alright to be big and tough or fly, but when it comes to killing ya gotta give em a fair chance and become small again. The random use of CGI is used to best effect at one point when the pinata sets a trap for someone, who gets hung, and then pulls up out of where anyone else can see him. Clearly, they originally intended for the pinata not to be in the scene at all, but they decided to add it in CGI afterwards. This is great, because everybody is standing around, wondering what happened to the guy, and we can see that they are standing right below him. However, in other shots, we can see the pinata, 15 feet tall, standing directly in front of him as well, and doing absolutely nothing as well. Apparently, the cast and the pinata exist in parallel universe, both of which contain the hanging guy, but neither of which contain both the rest of the cast and the pinata. They also added in lots of howling, shrieking noises for whenever the pinata is doing anything, which are not scary, but are incredibly irritating. I also like how they find a gutted deer at one point. This is fun, because this movie takes place practically inside a jungle.(There are ferns everywhere) Do deer really live in climes like that? I'm not absolutely sure if that they don't, but I can't help but wonder. These technical problems and continuity problems barely matter, in the whole scheme of things. Take them out, and whatever little pleasure there was in seeing the film is completely destroyed. They are the only distraction from the mindnumbing tedium.

As far as positive traits go, well, Jamie Pressly is pretty hot, I guess. That's it, though. Give me the same budget this film had, and I'll make a movie that is at the very least no more tedious than this one is. In fact, I think I, with no training whatsoever, could make something at least slightly better. I am 100% serious here. This film is literally unbelievably terrible.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: fun for a little while then sorta dumbs out in the middle
Review: being a Nicholas Brendon fan, when hes on Buffy, is great but this movie made him look like a doofus, him and Pressly are great for a while, then sorta bank in the sand a little in the middle and the story goes nowhere. though Brendon has some good scenes. not much fun

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't break this pinata open!
Review: First I would like to congratulate myself for making through this entire film -- it was certainly a monkish feat and a testament to my patience. Let's get to the movie, if you can call it that. The "basic" premise of the film is that a group of college students travels to an island to join in a scavenger hunt... they open up a pinata that contains all the bad vibes from an ancient tribe. People run, monster chases them, people are killed. There's nothing in the film to really make you jump out of your seat (if you haven't fallen asleep yet) and the intensity level was nil. Problems with the film: the character development is non-existant so you never really care if one of them get's killed by the obviously computer animated pinata-monster. They could of at least gotten good looking actors / actresses or written a script. If you thought Scooby-Doo was scary and Ishtar was exciting I highly recommend Pinata... otherwise stay far far away from this mess.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: filmic genius
Review: from the brilliant minds of King Cobra, the hillenbrand brothers, come this piece of historic art. Long delayed and kept from the general public, Pinata is both contraversal and breathtaking. 7 teens on an island; a sort of scavenger hunt gone terribly wrong. writing on par with the Bible here folks! Jamie Prestley takes her role and more or less morphs into her character. the result is a seemless gift to the silver screen. Beyond all of the structual and obvious done-rights lies the central diamond in this golden ring.... a killer pinata! mr. spielberg you would do good to take notes. this film deserves much more than 5 stars so i have broken it down into my own rating scale:

Story and presentation: 555,993,399 stars

Visual effects: how many stars in the universe?

acting: (too high for numbers, interpreted in an abstract equation) 48log (8 X 1600) - 65log

overall: citizen kane has been dethroned

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not Great, but there is many that are far worse
Review: Have to Give this credit on a couple things: It has some good gore/blood in it, some interesting kills! As others mentioned, a bit comical at times. Really good picture and sound quality. Being a survivor fan, the island / competition between teams kind off interested me about this film. Its worth a watch, But I must say, it is a bit generic, and as said before, no one is winning any awards for their acting in this one. This is the kind monster that I would laugh at not be scared of! Final verdict not bad/ not good, but definitely worth seeing- rent first! Then if you like it buy it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Low Budget Horror Film
Review: Hunky boys and cute sexy girls are running around an island being chased by a pinata monster. The actors and actresses appear to be college-age and most likely had a good time making the movie. Actually, the acting is not bad, and if you believe in monsters the story is believable. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very decent movie
Review: I expected to watch a b movie, and I found a very decent movie, good filming, directing. acting and special effects.
Good location and very pretty girl. Great performance of our common friend Xander, from the Buffy series...
For ounce a horror movie in which the actors do behave realistically considering the circumstances.
It is not a great movi it is a good movie, but I gave it a five stars because of cure of the details and the presence of Xander, and Jaime Pressly

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hold me, Trill me, Kiss me, Kill me.
Review: I like it. Good Movie. Definately worth of seeing it. Especially for those who likes "Scream" and "I know what you did last summer". Good piece for fans of J. Preslie and N. Brandon. I think directors have managed to achieve a good mix of trill and fun, which makes a diffirence. Final battle could be more trilling but hey, it's just a movie. Forgive me my English. Regards.


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