Survival Island (2002)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

I found this movie by mistake, while browsing at a used DVD store. I was looking for the movie, 'Survival Island' with Billy Zane and Kelly Brook. When I noticed that this film had Jaime Pressly in it (one of my faves), I bought it. I sure would like my $5 back. I cannot even BELIEVE that they allowed this garbage to be produced. The "monster" goes in between a man in a plastic suit, and a video-game "flash". Yes, you heard that right. It "flashes" to a screenshot of a video game monster, chasing them...I could make a murder look more realistic. The "blood" is so orange/red/fake-looking.....DO NOT EVER, under any circumstances, buy or rent this film. You will regret it, and you will be back here where I am, writing about how horrid it is. And this is coming from a die-hard "B" movie fan! I usually dig the "B", "campy" films...but this isn't even in that category. It's not "so-bad-it's-good"...it's just SO BAD.I am still confused as to why Ms. Pressly would agree to such a low-budget mess.

A MUST BUY for insomniatic nights!!!! If I could give it a -1 I would. I was stuck between 2 of my favorite late night reruns and looking for something to kill an hour until my show came on. Came across this and thought I'd watch for a while. How bad could it be? I mean at the very least I get to watch attractive college chicks run around the jungle in skimpy clothing, there's worse ways I could spend my hour... boy was I wrong In recent years I had grown accustomed to watching late night awful movies, Sci-Fi originals mostly. I always felt that you couldn't get much worse than "Ice Spiders", though once again this movie proved me wrong.I was frequently annoyed by the fact that through the "Pinata Vision" (aka predator ripoff) it looks like this birthday toy was a meer steps behind the victim, yet when the camera reverts to a view of the victim coming at the camera, its no where in sight. The fact that the creature has the ability to fly but yet can't catch these people has me bewildered. It has a hatchet that it is god awfully inaccurate at throwing, but luckily it works like a boomerang and comes back. I also love how one guy gets riped in half (or so they say) but everyone else meerly gets stabed. Or how about the first girl that sees it, watches it kill the guy, then later thinks the guy is in the tent.........Long story short, other than the occasional laughable stupidity of an attempt to make a scary movie, the movie is dull and boring. I attempted to stay up and see how it ended, though I couldn't do it. I fell asleep and missed my show. I might go buy the movie, simply for those insomniac moments.

I think the Hillenbrands wished they had been a part of Jurassic Park, and so, they made their own -- people trapped on a tropical island, being confused and frightened by ominous noises off-screen, being chased through the woods with no means of escape other than on foot. It probably would've been too obvious of a copycat had the Hillenbrands made a dinosaur the villain. Therefore, they are left with the obvious next best thing: a possessed piñata.The look of the computer-generated piñata completely changes a few times in the movie, from a Legend of the Hidden Temple-esq, ancient-style statue to a tall, lanky creature resembling one of the aliens from Men In Black (or Space Jam). The lack of continuity leaves one to believe the producers must've used this film to audition a few students from a local high school 3D Animation 101 class and didn't care enough in the end to fix it.The editing techniques and flashbacks are jumpy and cheesy. The entire movie has the feel of an early 90's flick. It's hard to believe this movie was in production at the same time as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.The script is also a disaster - no character development, shallow one-liners, etc. Had I worked on this production, I would've wept openly upon seeing the outcome and promptly changed careers.

Caught this movie on the Sci-Fi channel under the title of Pinata: Survival Island and decided to watch it because Jaime Pressly of My Name is Earl fame was in it (Although, I prefer to think of her as Violet from her turn as Poison Ivy.) Immediately I thought it was somewhat campy, but I couldn't decide if it was a good campy or a bad campy. Anyway, since the story involved a killer Pinata demon I decided to give it a chance and continued to watch. And as I watched, I started to kind of enjoy it. Yes, it has horrible acting, camera work, sound, special effects, and a ridiculous script, story and dialogue - it has it all! But, I couldn't stop watching and laughing.I was fascinated by the premise of a giant killer Pinata demon! (Who the hell thinks this stuff up? You know they had to be on drugs when they came up with this premise!) It also didn't hurt that the girls in the movie were eye candy. Ultimately, I have to say that the movie is definitely watchable if you're in the right frame of mind - there are worse cheesy horror flicks out there than this one. If you're looking for some horror laughs - and it doesn't get much funnier than this movie, this one is worth checking out.