Don't listen to the negative reviews

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

RELEASED TO TV IN 2002 and directed by James D.R. Hickox, "Sabretooth" chronicles events when a saberetooth cat, cloned via fossilized DNA, is unleashed into the Big Bear Valley wilderness where it preys on vacationers and a group of trainee guides (led by Jenna Gering & Josh Holloway). The two responsible for creating the creature (Vanessa Angel &John Rhys-Davies) hire a great white hunter to capture it (David Keith).The beginning introduces the main cast and it's too goofy for its own good, particularly in regards to the trainee program group. But the story surprisingly gets compelling, despite the goofiness, and there's a great romantic scene between Holloway's character and Lola (Nicole Tubiola). The cast is likable (rounded out by Lahmard J. Tate and Phillip Glasser) and there's a nice assortment of females but, for me, they all lacked genuine sex appeal, except for maybe Steffanie Busey (Kara), who is overlooked because her part's so peripheral. It's a fun flick and the locations are great, but the creature is too cartoony to suspend disbelief when its head or body is clearly shown. They should've limited views to quick, partial looks, like they did in the first half. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour & 30 minutes and was shot in Big Bear Lake area, San Bernardino National Forest, California. WRITERS: Scott Vandiver (concept) & Tom Woosley (script). GRADE: C/C- (4.5/10)

Sabretooth was not a good or great movie, but considering SyFy's track record it was better than anticipated. Special effects aside, it is not bad visually, with some good scenery and well-shot scenes, the music does at least have a tempo and had some excitement and atmosphere and the acting while not award-worthy is better than average, John Rhys-Davies deserved a better character and dialogue but like all other conscientious actors he gives it his best. On the other hand, the special effects are really crude and fake-looking, while there is some wit the script is on the whole dull and cheesy, the story is formulaic with nothing especially exciting or suspenseful and the characters are underdeveloped stereotypes. All in all, better than I thought it'd be but still not a movie I recommend. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I need a pleistocene pooper-scooper. This movie is flat-out awful on nearly every conceivable level: Script, acting, effects, believability, story etc...You may find yourself rooting for the poorly cg'ed sabretooth cat; hoping he'll kill again in order to stem the seemingly endless tide of awful dialog.I am sure that if the cat coulda talked, he'd have said "exit, stage left, for our careers, even" but alas...no such luck. It has been many years since I have seen a movie this bad.I wanted to give this a 0.5 because a 1 is a bit generous!

No way, this is a really bad movie... just like a millennium version of Roger Corman's, Samuel Z. Arkoff's or Ed Wood's monster oddities from the Fifties and Sixties... a bunch of scientists are fighting a genetic built sabretooth tiger on a lonely island... yawn, another Jurassic Park rip-off, but really, really bad this time.The story is dull, the actors seem to be cast from the spot with no acting experiences at all, although movie veteran David Keith has the "honor" to play the big hunter here... his girlfriend, the mad female scientist, is played by Vanessa Angel, who tries to threaten the monster tiger with words like "Piss off!" and has offending silicon lips that make even Ann Nicole Smith look naturally. There's another young couple with a sweet blonde who looks a bit like Poppy Montgomery and wears sexy shorts all the time, but that's not scaring the evil tiger, too.The worst thing about this movie is the really badly animated sabretooth tiger that looks like an early computer draft of an update for the Jungle Book's Balu or like an early nineties' video game animation or Kyoto Date internet avatar... every movement of this paper tiger looks so artificial and ridiculous that you expected our frightened heroes to burst out in laughter every second of the film... In the end of the movie... well, I guess you know what happens, but after having watched this nonsense you'd certainly like to see that fifty-year old monster highlights of Jack Arnold like "Tarantula" or "The Creature of the Black Lagoon" again that have much more thrills and better special effects than everything in this c-movie. Recommended for a good laugh only!