The Core [2003]

As you would excpect the plan to save the Earth goes wrong and it's up to the our brave heros to come up with a plan before the US government can use a super weapon in a final act of desperation. With the expected acts of heroism and self sacrifice they manage to pull it off and save all life on Earth.

Special effects wise the film does well, while not as spectacular as other movies they are still good. Watching Rome being devastated by the Lightning storm and San Fransisco being cooked by microwaves was preety cool and the scenes inside the planet looked nice...

As movies go this one wasn't special but it's still worth watching, if you like a film that you can just watch without giving it much thought and has plenty of eye candy then this movie is worth buying.


brilliant film! just don't take it too seriously   August 29, 2003
JR Wright (UK)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful

i saw this film at the cinema when it came out and i came out with a smile on my face. this is a brilliant disaster movie but should in no way be taken in any seriousness as this would make the film less enjoyable. you do not need to sit there and question evrything saying 'that can't happen' for example when one of the guys walks into a room which is around 9000c wearing a special suit designed to withstand 'high' temperatures. if u just watch the film and without questioning it then u will find it a very enjoyable and highly entertaining experience. the film also has great special effects, especially when rome is destroyed by a massive lightning storm. buy it.


Disengage brain and enjoy!   March 18, 2004
Nick Edwards
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Whilst this is without doubt the most scientifically unbelievable film I have ever seen, it is one of those that, if you can suspend reality for a couple of hours, you will probably enjoy.

The plot is simple enough - the Earth is about to get cooked because the outer core has stopped spinning, which.....does anyone really care why? All you need to know is that a bunch of scientists have to get the the Earths core to set off some bombs in order to save the planet. We all know that in reality it can't be done, but hey, this is SciFi, so just accept it!

The reason this film works for me is quite simply the wonderful casting. Sure, there are no Hollywood superstars here, but those cast have excellent reputations as solid actors in their own right. As with so many good films, the chemistry between the actors is what draws you in, and helps you suspend your scepticism whilst the film lasts.

The film is choc full of cliche's:

The young, talented pilot out to prove a point to the older more experienced pilot (who gets killed)
The brilliant loner scientist
The "geeky" IT expert
The "celbrity" scientist and his unknown but equally brilliant ex-partner and there loathing of eachother
The plan that goes wrong
The self sacrifice in the name of the mission
The last minute repreive
(I was disappointed there was no faithful dog that sat at home waiting for the dead pilot, but that probably would have been too much)

You get the point - but the thing here is that they all work so well in the context of the film.

The CGI was excellent for the destruction scenes, but a little bit pants for the underground stuff, which would be one criticism.

All in all, a good film which you will probably watch more than once, and certainly worth a place in the collection of anyone interested in SciFi or disaster movies.


Worst Movie Ever!   July 27, 2004
8 out of 11 found this review helpful

I started watching this film after seeing Armageddon and Deep Impact, thinking that this might be in a similar vein. Whilst the sci-fi genre is certainly similar, the story and science is so bad that it was painful.

Fortunately, this pain is short lived; and you can then start enjoying it just because it is so bad. In fact, it holds the title of the Worst Physics Movie Ever (at http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/core.html).

The story is also pretty lame; as soon as it starts, you get a feeling of the typical characters and you can guess the order in which they are going to die (have a go; write out the list of characters, or even look it up in IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/ and create the list before seeing the movie.

I originally thought of selling my copy; but it's so funny (and note that this isn't supposed to be a comedy!) that it's worth keeping just to watch something when drunk ...


better than armageddon and deep impact   September 6, 2003
paul kenyon (wigan, lancashire United Kingdom)
5 out of 25 found this review helpful

I enjoyed 'the core' because it was better than 'oh my god there's an asteroid 6 miles wide heading towards earth and we've only months to build an improbable nuclear bomb powered space shuttle to fly out to it, land on it, plant improbable boring nuclear devices on it, lose some unknown actor in the process, blast it into two pieces, because we need to hold cinemagoers attention for the destruction of new york by a huge tidal wave,watch the love interest make it to the safety of high ground,watch a highly respected actor[robert duval] make the ultimate sacrifice for mankind and the more respected actor [morgan freeman] make a stirring speech about how mankind will recover from this disaster'or how about 'oh my god there's an asteroid the size of texas heading towards earth that will wipe out everything including bacteria but we just happen to have two improbable superspaceshuttles,bruce willis,billy bob thornton,ben affleck and a whole host of b,list actor's to fly out to it drill an 800 foot deep hole with an imaginary wheeled drilling rig take off again [without the main star the aforementioned bruce willis making the ultimate sacrifice for mankind] and everybody else returning as hero's. oh sorry not everyone, some z list actors had to die to hold the cinemagoer's interest about half way through'. and after all that the core doesn't seem that improbable because it's only handicap is the fact that it didn't include any superstars in it's cast and that is why it was slated by all and sundry because it dared to go where only 'journey to the centre of the earth' had gone before.thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable and imaginative flix