Mammoth (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

Better than Mansquito

[codeguyj · 4/10 · 23 April 2006]

Not a *good* movie exactly, but a significant improvement over most Sci-Fi Channel original movies. It had some humor, and the movie worked best when it was its silliest. The more serious scenes tended to just slow the movie down.

If you like Vincent Ventresca (Invisible Man), he does some decent work with a not too great script. There are some other good actors too, but they don't quite manage to rise above the script as much.

Unfortunately, the best that can be said about Mammoth is that it is an improvement for Sci-Fi Channel. Hopefully their original movies will continue to improve.

Well, The Opening Credits Were Good...

[Clownbird · 5/10 · 23 April 2006]

I saw the last half of this movie on SciFi and then a few hours later, I saw the beginning when they replayed it. If I had seen it from the beginning, I would have been a lot more disappointed, because the opening sequence was amazing, and sadly, the rest of the film didn't quite measure up. But the opening? Great CGI effects giving way to traditional animation (of cave drawings) that gave us a taste of the backstory, with fun, appropriately theramin-heavy music - it could have been the opening to a theatrical film, it was just that good! I can tell what the director/writers/producers were going for with the rest of the film, with the over-the-top plot, characters, and humorous lines and references to classic 50s sci- fi schlock. But it just didn't quite come off. And for the hour that I saw of it, they could have benefited from a whole lot more mammoth, since that IS the title. Oh well. I bet the creators do better next time.

A Movie For 'Cheese' Lovers

[razorsharp2505-1 · 5/10 · 29 October 2007]

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.

2 thumbs and a big toe up

[ss-162 · 27 April 2006]

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.

Bad

[damien_74 · 1/10 · 23 July 2008]

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.

Another poor Sci-Fi Channel creature feature.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 2 February 2008]

Mammoth is set the town of Blackwater in Louisiana where Dr. Frank Abernathy (Vincent Ventresca) works at the local museum, he is currently examining the remains of a huge Mammoth frozen in a block of ice. The Mammoth is currently being prepared for exhibition, while drilling into the ice Frank comes across a strange blue substance which sends out some sort of homing signal into space which reaches a flying saucer which releases a probe which heads towards Earth & crash lands in the museum. The Mammoth is brought back to life by an alien life-force & needs to feed on people's life-force to survive. So there's a alien possessed zombie Mammoth running around Blackwater taking people's life essence to stay alive, in come Government agents Powers (Leila Arcieri) & Whitaker (Marcus Lyle Brown) who ask for Abernathy's help as if they can't kill the Mammoth the Government will drop a bomb on Blackwater destroying the whole town & everyone in it...

This made-for-TV Sci-Fi Channel original was co-executive produced, co-written & directed by Tim Cox & is pretty much like any other low budget creature feature flick that the Sci-Fi Channel seem to pump out endlessly. The script by Cox, Brook Durham & Sean Keller definitely tries for comedy & laughs as opposed to horror & scares. Unfortunately it's a spectacularly unfunny film in my opinion, in fact there wasn't one single occasion where I even smiled much less laughed. The film has a decent pace about it but it's just so silly & full of holes that I just didn't care about anything going on or who it was happening to. The character's are pretty poor & clichéd, the man who spends more time on his job than with his family, the resentful daughter, two shameless Men in Black (1997) rip-off secret Governemnt agents who dress in black suits & carry alien guns, the small town Sheriff & the daughter's boyfriend who the father doesn't like. They are all cardboard cutout clichéd character's whom you just cannot care for in the slightest. The actual story isn't that good either, I mean an alien possessed Mammoth could have been fun but the whole film is so routine, dull & somewhat random it isn't. For instance at the end when they set the trap for the Mammoth in the huge factory they don't lure the Mammoth there it just randomly shows up at just the right time, the Mammoth hides out in the woods for most of the film & again just turns up randomly on occasionally. I don't know, I've seen loads of these Sci-Fi Channel originals & Mammoth isn't anything special, in fact I didn't really like it at all.

Director Cox films with competence but not much else, the opening sequence with the alien space probe energetically whizzing through space is quite fun I suppose but otherwise Mammoth is fairly forgettable in all departments. The CGI computer effects are average, they aren't brilliant but I've seen worse. There's no gore whatsoever, in fact I can't remember a single drop of blood in it. It's not scary & there's no tension either, a pretty dull & forgettable way to pass 90 odd minutes. There are several references to other films here, the worst being a send up of a scene in Jurassic Park (1993) where the two kids see the water in a clear plastic cup rippling as the T-Rex approaches, here in Mammoth instead of just clear water in the cup an old guy puts his false teeth in & as the Mammoth approaches the water with the teeth starts to shake. Thats the sort of thing the makers of Mammoth considers funny.

With a supposed budget of about $2,300,000 one has to say this is reasonably well made but utterly forgettable. Set in America Mammoth was partly filmed in Bucharest in Romania. The acting isn't anything special, again competent but forgettable. Tom 'I was in the original Alien' Skerritt is the 'name' actor although not much of a name.

Mammoth isn't a film that I liked, it rip-off lots of other much better films & considering it's a comedy it's spectacularly unfunny. Not a film I would recommend or want to watch again.

Forgettable Flick

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 4 January 2009]

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")

"Mammoth" misfire.........

[merklekranz · 1/10 · 15 November 2008]

This uneasy attempt to blend U.F.O.s with paleontology is a mind numbing disaster. Never taking itself seriously, never cute, never funny, never scary, never interesting, never logical, never believable, never making any sense, is the only way to describe this unbelievably BAD movie. Most of the time the mammoth is flashed in darkness, with the computer generated images barely visible. This makes "Manticore" look like an "Academy Award" nominee. If you want to see the "cream of the crap" in Sci-Fi Channel movies, you might check out "Loch Ness Terror". It is "Oscar" material compared to "Mammoth". In summary, this is as bad as it gets. Bad concept, and a truly BAD movie. - MERK

Thawed out excitement.

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 26 January 2009]

Another made for the Sci-fi channel feature, which sees an alien-carrying meteor crash in a museum where the alien life form transports itself into a century's old frozen mammoth and virtually goes on the rampage in the quiet little town. It's up to Dr. Frank Abernathy, his daughter, father and two federal agents to find a way to stop it, before their time is up and the town would be no longer.

A total kooky throwback to the b-grade sci-fi 50's alien invasion / monsters on the rampage with the screenplay keeping it tongue-in-cheek, even with somewhat a lousy script. Pretty much it has fun at its own expense with a vibrant ray of performances. Vincent Ventresca nicely laps it up as the nervous, work-minded Dr. Frank Abernathy and Summer Glau brings brashness to her part as his daughter. Tom Skerritt looks like his having a good time and Leila Arcieri brings a calm intensity to her role.

Director Tim Cox does a moderate job blending the large dose of comical elements with sub-standard CGI effects (the gigantic mammoth) and cartoonish action. Suspense isn't generated, but the frenetic pace and chaos occurring remains amusingly fun and campy.

An enjoyable throwaway.

Vaguely humorous

[gtc83 · 2/10 · 23 April 2006]

I really wasn't expecting this thing to be an out-and-out comedy, but, there you go. It wasn't funny (these things never are), but it did provide, well, no, it didn't provide a chuckle or two. I was actually more interested in browsing through a musical instrument catalog than watching this - that's how engrossing it is.

We start with a scientist who works at a museum. They've recently acquired a complete woolly mammoth, and he's conducting an examination of it. He releases some sort of alien homing beacon which sends a message to a nearby flying saucer, and a little chrome plated ball comes to earth and starts flying around. The mammoth comes to life and of course starts killing people. The main story seems to be about how funny the scientist is because he's really absent minded. His daughter (Summer Glau from Firefly and Serenity) is having a birthday and sure enough, dad's completely forgotten about it. Isn't that hilarious? Nobody could ever accuse these characters of being clichéd. The daughter runs off with her boyfriend to a party, and we get what has to be the goofiest scene in this whole schlock-fest. In any descent movie, the kids would light up a joint or at least drink some beer, but here the kids put on their Ipod headphones and...for some reason I can't quite understand, start acting as if listening to this music is getting them stoned. Yeah. Kind of got me scratchin' my head too. Anyhow, the mammoth shows up and starts stomping on people and generally making a real nuisance of himself, dad arrives with a couple of CIA agents in tow, starts making bad movie puns and...I really don't need to tell you the rest of the plot, do I? If you've ever seen a low budget creature movie before, you know what happens in each scene for the rest of the movie.

Like I say, it was vaguely humorous. Vincent Ventresca does a fairly good job with his "funny" character in this thing, and he comes off as fairly likable. Tom Skerritt is in here, looking like the psycho-dad that Nick Nolte played in The Hulk. He seems to be here for no reason but to make anti-Bush jokes. Um, guys? You're in a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. That's sort of like being criticized by the village idiot. None of the characters really amount to anything. These folks could learn a thing or two about how to create deep, sympathetic characters from watching some Friday the 13th films. Seriously. The mammoth looked pretty typical for a Sci-Fi Channel original, which is to say, cheap CGI. If you've got absolutely nothing better to do, and it's either this or professional wrestling, I guess I'd choose this.

Trying Too Hard

[PhilipGHarris · 5/10 · 30 March 2008]

How can you run out of ideas for a re-animated by alien technology zombie soul sucking mammoth? This film shows you how and it's a real shame.

I appreciate that the film is not taking itself seriously (the Spaghetti Western showing it's intention for fun) but it takes ages for the comedy timing to hit form (in fact the autopsy room scene much later in the film) and most viewers will probably have lost track of the plot due to time spent flicking through TV pages, getting a brew etc.

This shows a lack of concentration by the development team and jokes that may have seemed funny during the writing process clearly fail on the screen.

Somewhat like The Faculty the film self references movies of its genre but unlike the aforementioned film Mammoth does this badly except on a few occasions (The Jurassic Park and "Werewolf howls" - Mammoth trumpeting parts). Having someone make movie references can work but they have to be logical choices and not used all the time.

Too many good ideas are not fully realised and the film needs to decide if it wants to be a comedy horror or played straight as different actors seem to have different ideas.

It is by no means the worst movie I have ever seen but it's definitely one for a very rainy afternoon.

Not that bad Sci-Fi Channel film

[slayrrr666 · 9/10 · 22 April 2006]

"Mammoth" is a pretty decent Sci-Fi Creature feature.

**SPOILERS**

Dr. Frank Abernathy, (Vincent Ventresca) is beyond thrilled that his museum acquires a frozen Wooly Mammoth, especially when he pulls a strange blue object out of it. A few days later, a meteor shower strikes the town, including the museum, and the Mammoth mysteriously vanishes. It turns up a few days later at a rave, fully reanimated, threatening his daughter, Jack, (Summer Glau) and her boyfriend, Squirelly, (Cole Williams) as well as the others. Agent Powers, (Leila Arcieri) of a special task force, informs them that the meteor was actually a UFO that has reanimated the mammoth. They team up together to put it's rampage to a stop.

The Good News: This wasn't all that bad of a film. There's a pretty high body count in here, so there's some nice, gory deaths involved. Several are trampled, one gets the tusks swung onto them, and another is gored in the stomach. There is more involved, so the film has a pretty sizable gore factor. More potent, though, is it's strong humorous tones. There's a lot more humor on display in here than you may think. Frank is a pretty clumsy scientist, always holding onto doors longer than necessary, constantly forgets where he has left keys and other items, and gets flustered very quickly. The two sheriff's deputies have a couple great lines and scenes among them, with their clumsy bungling and goofy banter at the most inappropriate times. The whole exchange in the morgue is definitely worthy of a few laughs, and is the overall best scene in the film. Inappropriate sound effects, though, gives away the fact that this was all pretty much intentional, and it scores more than it misses. It does have the typical fast-pace to it, so something is always happening in here that will keep your attention.

The Bad News: As usual with the Sci-Fi Channel's works, the title creature is so obviously CGI that it loses the impact it could've had. Naturally, due to the size of it, this had to be done like that, but it still becomes immensely distracting seeing the CGI mammoth. It just looks way too fake to be scary at all, and can be spotted pretty easily. There was a couple moments of extreme lapses in logic. The creature is said to be a nearly twenty ton animal, yet is able to sneak up on people quite easily. The thunderous footsteps are also heard way too close to people and places that a creature of it's size normally wouldn't do.

The Final Verdict: A couple lapses in logic and a pretty fake title creature hold this one back, but all Sci-Fi features have that as well. It is a little more humorous than others, so if you love these films and have a present funny bone, give this one a chance. There's been worse ones they've put out before.

Rated UR/R: Violence and some Language

C+/B movie that knows what it is

[geography_girl · 6/10 · 28 April 2006]

OK. It's made by the Sci-fi channel, one of the kings of B (ok too generous) C/D movie production. (Does anyone know if they ever made a good movie that wasn't a miniseries? Dune and Children of Dune were good. Does anyone actually expect Sci-fi to make a good made for TV movie that is not a miniseries?). The writers, director, and actors all know this and play to it. The movie is bad, but because everyone involved knows this, it actually becomes very funny at points. It even makes fun of some the classic horror movie clichés. The requisite couple having sex that dies early (everyone knows that the first people to have sex or get into their skibbies always dies) are two geriatric escapees from a nursing home. Realize what we all know, its bad, its meant to be bad, and enjoy, and revel in the badness.

(must have for B/C movie collectors)

A mammoth stinker!

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 22 April 2006]

A meteor slams into a museum in a small town in Louisiana and unleashes a partially frozen, 40,000 year-old woolly mammoth. Paleontologist Dr. Frank Abernathy(Vincent Ventresca), who has made this mammoth on display his life's work, is called on to help Special Government Agents Powers(Leila Arcieri)and Whitaker(Marcus Lyle Brown)track down the rampaging creature. It seems the mammoth is alien fueled and the clock is ticking away toward the community's doom. Part of the rescue team is Abernathy's father(Tom Skerritt), who is a B-movie and UFO fanatic.

Special effects are a joke; to be exact the movie comes off as a comedy more than horror flick. Ventresca becomes very obnoxious early and sustains the irritating role. I feel embarrassed for Skerritt, just how much does a real actor get paid to participate in crap like this? Also in the cast are: Summer Glau, Charles Carroll and Cole Williams. I'm surprised the mammoth didn't take a big CGI dump.

The Stupidest Movie I have ever Seen!!!!

[eliz7212-1 · 23 April 2006]

I know, I know, there is no such word as Stupidest!!! but honestly, what else would describe this drivel.

Absolutely horrible. And the acting!!! it's all camp and no drama. If they are going to make it like a Roger Corman, campy, Saturday afternoon at the movies, well, get better plots and keep out the comedy. I mean really. Reminded me of MARS ATTACKS!!

The special effects were not special, believe me. The only interesting thing was the female agent. I couldn't tell if she was a black woman or a white woman. She has the most amazing face. I looked it up and her mom is black and her father is Italian. What a beautiful combination. I did not understand the ending. If someone does, please let me know.

This reminded me of the Sabretooth and the Sasquatch, (those were better). Anything with David Keith and Lance Henricksen, well, I'll watch them any day. Also, Michael Ironside. Why don't they just make another Watchers Sequel? the Sci fi channel could use one of those.

Bad Acting+Tom Skerrit+Awful directors, writers, producers=MAMMOTH

[gothicgoblin1334 · 1/10 · 22 April 2006]

I just saw this load of garbage and let me say it is the worst pile of crap I've ever seen...well, what do you expect from a SCI-FI CHANNEL original? Sci-fi channel should REALLY put back some better cult-classic films, instead of these MADE-FOR-TV movie loads of sh*t. It thinks it's a funny, futuristic film but honestly it is a bad attempt. They only made this film because Tom Skerrit was available and they needed to make a film which would well, suck...They made this film for no reason and they're was not any creativity behind the film, so really, if you see the film on TV, Don't WATCH IT! Don't even bother, it is simply awful, awful, awful, awful AAAAWWWWFFFUUULLL!!!

Poor...

[cat_ranchero · 4/10 · 29 June 2012]

Having read the few lines we get on the on-screen TV guide, I was sure this would not be great. Poorly put together with some really average CGI, it was only (slightly) saved (for me) by the performance of Tom Skerritt as Simon Abernathy (Frank's father), he held the thing together. Even the presence of Summer Glau as Frank's daughter, Jack (silly name for a girl, I know) didn't make it any better. I'll give honourable mentions to; Vincent Ventresca as Dr. Frank Abernathy, Cole Williams as Squirrelly, Charles Carroll as Sheriff Marion Morrison (that's John Wayne's real name for those that don't know), Leila Arcieri as Agent Powers and Marcus Lyle Brown as Agent Whitaker.

For a script that was meant to be playing for laughs, I found very little to laugh about. To say the jokes were (for the most part) pretty lame would be putting it mildly. The plot was all over the place, there were holes in it you could drive a truck through… and at one point I think they did! It did try to rally at one point and almost grabbed my attention, but then lapsed back into banality yet again… Sadly. NOT RECOMMENDED, but the good films will look all the better for seeing it.

My score: 3.8/10

IMDb Score: 3.8/10 (based on 1,533 votes at the time of going to press).

MetaScore: No Data: (Based on 0 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: No Score Yet… (based on 1 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 18/100 'Liked It' (based on 838 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).

You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

Cheesy and ridiculous with a fake-looking mammoth, but is redeemable

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 20 August 2012]

For SyFy Mammoth is actually tolerable. The premise was silly in the first place, and I had low expectations but I watched with an open mind with little else constructive to do. It does have problems though, most typical of SyFy and were admittedly on my part expected. There are definitely worse looking creatures in other movies, but the mammoth does look very fake and un-menacing, and the editing does betray this at times. Think a giant vacuum on legs and you have the mammoth here. The script mostly is lazy, any attempts at humour come across as cheesy and unfunny, while the story suffers from predictability and one too many ridiculous scenes like the mammoth soul-sucking with its trunk and it managing to sneak up behind its victims without them hearing it(either it was a logic lapse, a case of character stupidity or both). The characters are mixed, a couple are surprisingly likable if rather clichéd but others verge on annoying and are not developed enough. On the plus side, it does move quickly and doesn't feel dull unlike other SyFy features. The editing is not too hackneyed, despite moments where it all too obviously betrays the cheapness of the effects, and the scenery and lighting have some atmosphere. The score is quirky and haunting, and I did enjoy some of the references and homages, they were fun to spot and didn't feel like rip-offs. The direction is competent enough and the acting is better than average, especially from Summer Glau and Tom Skerritt. Vincent Ventresca also does his best with little. In conclusion, a reasonably fun movie, cheesy, predictable and ridiculous and the mammoth is not convincing enough, but the acting, the fact that it never bored me, the music and the references and homages were enough to enable me to stick with it. 5/10 Bethany Cox

utter trash

[wyckeddreamz · 1/10 · 22 April 2006]

This movie looked like it was thrown together at the last minute, very typical of most Sci Fi channel originals. The acting was horrible, and some parts of the movie tried way too hard to show that this flick was "hip" and "with the times". I have to say that the only thing about this movie that remotely interested me was that "River" was in it. BTW, what was up with all of the cartoonish and zaney sound effects? Was this a movie or a real life versions of Looney Toons?

The government agents were totally unbelievable, and the fact that the Sci Fi channel has bombarded me all week with hyped up previews of this flick makes me sick now that I've seen it. The good parts, if you can call any parts of this good, are all the one-liners and scenes in the hyped up previews. Do yourself a favor, and channel up or down if you see this movie on, its not worth the time or effort. I feel much dumber for watching it all the way through.

Cheesy Pseudo-Sci Fi

[MWPollard · 3/10 · 22 April 2006]

This movie is promoted as serious science fiction, but even the credits were reminiscent of "Men in Black" or "Hitchhiker's Guide"-style comic. The sound effects are crazy - stuff like loud swooshes when somebody flips out an ID card, or whistles as something falls.

Honestly, I didn't even finish the thing; maybe I didn't give it a fair chance. I was looking for serious sci-fi and found cheese. I guess it was just mis-promoted. Probably good for someone wanting a light comedy with sci-fi aspects.

Possible spoiler: Cheesy part: pairs of people who talk the same words at the same time. Plot part: When I stopped 1/3 of the way through, the promoted plot had barely been mentioned.

Too easy to trash

[xredgarnetx · 5/10 · 13 January 2008]

MAMMOTH is one in an endless line of sci-flicks shot on the cheap for The Sci-Fi Channel. The plot is always the same: a group of people must face a CGI creation of some sort, whether it be a flying reptile, a smilodon, a giant spider, or in this case, a resurrected mammoth. Actually, the CGI in this one isn't all that bad, and no one takes the plot too seriously. Tom Skerritt is the only name actor, and is almost unrecognizable as the only "senior" in the group. Summer Glau of FIREFLY pops in, for the fanboy crowd. A time killer that actually is heads above the last couple of these CGI creature fests. But as usual, there's too much running around to pad out the running time, no pun intended.

goofy

[drystyx · 2/10 · 1 March 2008]

This movie is about giant mammoth exhibit that comes to life. It is meant to be comical camp, which is why I don't give the lowest rating. However, if even fails at that. This makes "Attack of the Killer Tomatos" look interesting. To be honest, it isn't any one person's fault. It had a bad script to begin with. The directing wasn't exactly crisp. It tries to copy the camp attitudes of "The Blob" and other movies, but those movies were fun, and were about a camaraderie that just doesn't exist today in America, which is why a director can't make such a film. Americans are pretty much all self righteous bastards. If we admit this to ourselves, maybe there's hope. But that's why camp rarely works in modern movies. The atmosphere is lost. A lot of detail and decent acting went into this film, which is another reason it fails. The more energy, time, and money spent, the more I expect. It is true, you can do a lot worse. And there are a multitude of worse movies. On a modern curb scale, this movie rates a 4, but when compared to movies from all time, it is still a 2.

Mammoth filled me with mirth!

[imdb-13511 · 10/10 · 4 May 2006]

This is a very funny film and a great take-off of horror from the 50's and 60's. The plot twists and turns paying homage along the way to many films that the committed buff will recognise. Although kitch in nature is is actually very sophisticated. Hats off to Tim Cox!

A welcome departure from the usual staple of monster/gore that we are used to from this channel. In fact, Mammoth is more like a feature movie and I would love to see it on the big screen.

A top cast really lifts this film. Summer Glau, I could watch all day long and Tom Skerritt just brings pure class.

Oh and BTW, the mammoth is terrific...

A Lot of Fun!

[rball12 · 7/10 · 24 April 2006]

I watched this over the weekend and thought it was one of the best SCI-FI originals I've seen. Sure, it's all over the map story-wise, and the Mammoth isn't very scary or visually impressive, but I laughed quite a bit and enjoyed the performances. The main cast is top-notch and they seemed to have fun working together. I kept thinking that I'd like to see these characters return in another movie or a series. Most of the characters in these SCI-FI flicks are just one- dimensional monster snacks. Tim Cox also does a nice job directing. I remember his short film, "The Man With No Eyes," airing during the "Exposure" series that SCI-FI ran several years ago.

Overall, a nice little '50s B-Movie throwback. Since they canceled "Farscape," these licks are the only reason I watch SCI-FI anymore. Good to see them finally using good actors and good directors. Hope to see more of that.

Good attempt ... but doesn't quite work ...

[Vic_max · 3/10 · 28 April 2008]

This is an unusual movie in that it tries to integrate campy, innocent humor with a 1950's sci-fi style. If you don't like the type of humor presented, then the movie can be somewhat annoying. The intro is also a bit bizarre (almost confusing), but the movie finally settles into a pretty standard sci-fi "find and destroy" plot.

The film is essentially about an alien presence that takes over a mammoth carcass in a museum. A small band of people attempt to stop it from causing destruction to the local city.

It's a typical sci-fi plot. There's an attempt to be a bit more complex in the beginning, but it's so confusingly done that it can be more irritating than entertaining. The big problem, however, is the attempt at humor. It's a bit amusing sometimes, but for the most part it's too excessive and makes the movie look amateurish.

While I respect the goal of trying make a sci-fi movie a bit differently, sometimes such efforts can end up badly. I recommend passing on this movie.