Mammoth: A Movie Review

Mammoth is a horror & sci-fi movie produced for the Sci-Fi Channel. The movie originally aired in 2006 on the Sci-Fi Channel and is now available to rent from Blockbuster. The basic plot is Dr. Frank Abernathy (Vincent Ventresca) has to stop an alien possessed mammoth from destroying his town and family or the government will step in and vaporize the town.

The DVD box cover is very misleading. The box cover shows a very scary looking mammoth. I thought the movie was going to be a horror movie about a rampaging mammoth. Instead the movie is more like a comedy. Blockbuster's box covers have fooled me again. The mammoth on the cover is not the same mammoth in the movie. The movie mammoth is a crappy CGI that is usually poorly lit so you can't really tell what it looks like completely.

The movie isn't a complete loss because it is actually a very funny comedy with a great cast. Vincent Ventresca plays the lead as a forgetful paleontologist. Tom Skerritt is his UFO fanatic father. Summer Glau plays his 16-year-old daughter. Leila Arcieri is the government agent sent to stop the alien menace. Cole Williams rounds out the cast as Squirelly, Summer's love interest.

I was not familiar with Cole Williams before this movie but his performance was excellent and I look forward to seeing him in other movies.

Mammoth is definitely not a horror movie. I can't think of a single scene that scared me. Well maybe the corn field scene but only because corn fields personally scare me. The special effects are very lame. The only interesting special effect was an animated hand, which was from a major plot hole. Mammoth has some major plot holes and inconsistencies but that is to be expected since it is a B movie.

I can forgive the plot holes because most of the scenes made me laugh out loud. The main cast has some great quotable lines. My favorite is when Dr. Frank Abernathy asks Agent powers "Can I be frank with you?" She says "You are, Frank" and he says "I know." Trust me; it is very funny in the movie.

Mammoth is more about the Abernathy family dynamics then it is about a killer mammoth. The main actors work well together and made the movie very enjoyable. I would recommend the movie to anyone who likes B-movies with a campy style. Also stay tuned for the credits because the funniest scene is right after "The End" scene.