Mammoth

I read the first review here after the original airing on April 21st 2006 and was flabbergasted at the negative response.

Having just rewatched it and then returning here to reread that review and those posted since, I can't help but feel that some people just don't appreciate fine cheese at its smelliness.

This is a great movie! I highly recommend it. As much as "Men in Black" was a spoof of the whole "extraterrestial on earth" genre, this is so much more as a spoof of that movie and so many more.

If you were looking for a serious sci-fi movie... then, sure, you can go along with the less than raving reviews by those who somehow thought the previews promised more.

If you need some good, if young (and at times runny, but always smelly), cheese that doesn't require much thought and/or attention-span and that will put a smile on your face then I'd have to recommend you switch to SciFi if this is on... don't waste any media recording it... I'm sure they'll be showing it again (and again).

Cheesy Script + Tom Skerritt + Sense of Humor = MAMMOTH.

Anyone who took MAMMOTH seriously = severely confused.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a great movie. I have long said SciFi Original is synonymous with "crap" when it comes to movies. They don't have a very good track record when it comes to movies, but I'm beginning to think that this one shows they know it.

The actors, mostly B-movie and TV types, with Summer Glau probably being the biggest name in it, aren't the worst actors SciFi has put in a movie. The writing actually has some quotable lines. The special effects are bad for modern era CGI, but we're talking about a low budget horror film. We've all seen them, and some of us actually enjoy them. So, if you like the corniness of so many horror films from the 50s and 60s, or maybe the camp of the Killer Tomatoes series or perhaps Tremors, you will actually enjoy this movie.

Well.. some out there is comparing this movie with other sci-fi channel movies and thinks that compared to them this is not that bad. I love sci-fi, but not sci-fi channel so usually I try to avoid anything of the sorts. So maybe they're right.

But to the core. This movie is bad, really bad. And claiming that the humor makes up for the bad acting and extremely poor effects is a joke.

Summary: bad acting, bad effects, bad "jokes". This movie is bad by all standards according to me. I do not think they've managed with any aspect at all. Even if it's not meant to be taken serious it still don't do anything for me since the idea of a good horror/comedy is based on some good acting working together with the humor (ex. Critters and Gremlins).

Short summary: bad movie, don't waste your time.

If you're looking for a movie to take your mind off life for an hour and a half, you could do a lot worse than Mammoth. OK, you could also do a lot better but this film doesn't pretend to be anything other than a low-budget cheesy horror.

In fact, part of the charm of Mammoth was that everyone had their tongue firmly in their cheek making this film, especially the delightfully nerdy scientist played by Vincent Ventresca. The special effects are naff in the extreme and the dialogue totally contrived but that just made me chuckle rather than roll my eyes in frustration.

I guess it depends how you like your genres. If you liked Snakes on a Plane, then you may well like it. Don't expect too much from it and you might be pleasantly entertained.

In Louisiana, the clumsy director of the local museum, Dr. Frank Abernathy (Vincent Ventresca), removes a weird device from a frozen 17 ton mammoth, actually a GPS that brings a spacecraft with an alien entity to Earth that falls into the local museum and revives the mammoth that hosts the lifeforce. The animal attacks the security guard first and the population later. Special Agents Powers (Leila Arcieri) and Whitaker (Marcus Lyle Brown) seek out the paleontologist Dr. Frank to help them to destroy the mammoth; otherwise the government will blast the town. Dr. Frank concludes that the animal must be frozen and together with his father and fan of sci-fi movies, Simon Abernathy (Tom Skerritt) and his sixteen year-old daughter (Summer Glau), they plot a plan to capture the mammoth.

The forgettable "Mammoth" is an attempt of remaking those sci-fi movies from the 50's and 60's that unfortunately fails. There are references to many sci-fi classics, but the silly story does not work well alternating humor that is not funny and fiction. For example, the unnecessary death of Squirrelly is stupid and moralist and for the purpose of the plot, is absolutely useless. Simon Abernathy seems to be a lunatic in many moments and his son Franks is never funny, only clumsy. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Extinção em Fúria" ("Extinction in Fury")