Extinção em Fúria

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)

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")

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.

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.

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.