The Sci Fi channel is home to a lot of really stupid movies. The thing is — they're supposed to be.
And "Mammoth" (tonight at 7 and 11 on Sci Fi) certainly fits the bill. It's enormously, gigantically stupid. And moderately humorous, which is moderately intentional — it's supposed to be a big 'ol comedy.
After all, we are talking about a TV movie about a 40,000-year-old mammoth frozen in a block of ice that comes to life when it's possessed by an alien force from outer space.
"Oh, you are one big hairy magnificent (expletive)," says paleontologist Frank Abernathy (Vincent Ventresca), whose museum houses the beast before it goes on a rampage.
Hey, you can sit down with a bowl of popcorn and guess who's going to die next.
It's not as easy being intentionally stupid and funny as it is to just be stupid. It's a very fine line, and "Mammoth" has a hard time walking that line — it's more often stupid than funny.
Whether it's the idiot sheriff and his idiot deputies, the idiot scientist with the severed hand or the guy in the monkey suit, there's a lot that's not funny. But "Mam-moth" has its moments.
And it does have a sense of humor about itself. When Abernathy tells his father (Tom Skerritt), "We have an alien-possessed mammoth on the loose, and if we don't stop it the government's going to kill all of us" — his dad bursts out laughing.
Ah, well. There's something to be said for a TV movie that knows it's stupid as opposed to all the films that don't.
AT THE OPPOSITE end of the TV-movie spectrum, CBS airs the latest Hallmark Hall of Fame production — "In From the Night" (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 2). It's well-written, wonderfully acted, beautifully produced and all about flawed characters who will touch your heart.
Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden stars as Vicki, a writer who's pretty much shut herself off from her family and real life. Her well-ordered world is upset when her troubled teenage nephew Bobby (Taylor Handley) suddenly shows up on her doorstep. He's a mess — mostly raised by his mentally ill parents.
We slowly learn what Bobby has gone through, and it's painful to watch. It's painful for Vicki to deal with, but — once committed — she carries through.
Eventually, these two people who can't connect with the world connect with each other.
As is so often the case with Hallmark Hall of Fame productions, "In From the Night" shows us how great TV movies can be.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com