Frank: I've got to be Frank with you--
Agent: --Doctor? You are Frank.

I'll be straight with you here, there's really only a few reasons why I watched "Mammoth" and it's not the reasons you may think. I admit I watched "Mammoth" simply because it stars two actors whom have starred in two of the best science fiction series ever made. Vincent Ventresca of "Invisible Man" and Summer Glau of "Firefly". Both are very good actors, and both are truly underrated. "Mammoth" is a B movie, from start to finish. It's not a B movie pretending to be an A film, it's a B movie that knows it's a B movie, so it flaunts that fact. And for that, you just have to respect it. It has aliens, it has screaming folks, it has a giant monster from the prehistoric era, what more could you ask for? Ventresca plays a bumbling and awfully physical man named Frank, an archaeologist attempting to discover the origins of a Mammoth kept in suspended animation fossilized. A meteor from space crashes in to the very museum housing the giant mammoth, which so happens to be harboring an alien device that brings the mammoth to life! Now, that's creative!

With the use of split screens, and a wonderful score, "Mammoth" is an honest attempt at shameless science fiction monster mania, that seeks out to do nothing but entertain the audience with a guilt-free escapist adventure. Meanwhile, across town his daughter Jack played by the utterly gorgeous Summer Glau (who oddly always sounds like she's crying when she speaks) and Frank's grandfather Simon (the one and only Tom Skerritt) both of whom are put upon and angered at his lack of involvement in their lives, but the giant mammoth is loose in town and wreaking havoc. Cue a strict sheriff, bumbling deputies, government agents, and a hell of a lot of towns people running for their lives. "Mammoth" is a pure homage to the B movies of the fifties, and I had fun. Plus, it's not that bad watching Summer Glau all dirty. Ventresca milks the role for all its worth pulling in a pretty fun and funny performance as the mencshy, and inept doctor trying to get a grasp on what's going on. The special effects for "Mammoth" are also pretty damn good, watching the mammoth use his trunk to suck the life force from his victims. "Mammoth" is a fun romp, and it's above par to what you'd see on the Sci-fi channel.

Whether it's watching Jack get high in one of the most under-crowded raves, or watching the under-used and bland Tom Skerritt do nothing but drive around and trying to find a way to stop the mammoth with everyone else, "Mammoth" sadly begins to lose touch of its own premise in the second half. I came to terms with the fact that the mammoth--the central focus of the movie and title--only really shows up for a combine total of forty five minutes, but the second half of the film gets too caught up in really weak character focus. Glau's Jack is your typical angsty daughter, Ventresca is the doting father, and Skerritt is an unnecessary character altogether.

Meanwhile the lead-up to the final battle to stop the mammoth meanders in to this thirty minute sequence where the group is in a lab attempting to find out why the mammoth came to life...which is never explained. We instead drift in to a ridiculous sub-plot involving a severed hand that became possessed by aliens, and then the wheels come off completely. The film then becomes dull with forced melodrama, a lot of dialogue, and much exposition in to the aliens that are never explained (Why did the alien possess the mammoth again? What was their plan?). And then it becomes a complete comedy halfway through. While the mammoth is on the loose, we go at least twenty-five minutes with nothing but the characters throwing quick one-liners, and goofy dialogue at each other. It was like a "His Girl Friday" moment during a "Godzilla" film.

I would have given "Mammoth" a strong rating based on the first half alone, but if it would have kept a steady consistency of monster movie madness instead of forcing drama and comedy on us to compensate for the lack of mammoth appearances, it ended up as a truly uneven movie with two movie syndrome. One half is monster movie fun, the other is ridiculous forced comedy.

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