The Core Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Earth has a deadline
The only way out is in
This Spring, Mankind's Greatest Threat Is Earth Itself.
The core of the earth has stopped spinning[Belgian poster]
For reasons unknown, the earth's inner core has stopped rotating, causing the planet's electromagnetic field to rapidly deteriorate. Instantly, life around the globe begins to change dramatically. In Boston, 32 people with pacemakers, all within a 10-block radius, suddenly drop dead. In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge collapses, sending hundreds of people plunging to their deaths. In London's Trafalgar Square, flocks of pigeons lose their ability to navigate, flying into panicked crowds, slamming into windshields and causing drivers to lose control of their cars. And in Rome, as thousands of tourists watch helplessly, an electrical superstorm reduces the ancient Roman Colosseum to rubble. Scrambling to resolve the crisis, government and military officials call upon geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes and a team of the world's most gifted scientists to travel into the earth's core in a subterranean craft piloted by "terranauts" Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs and Commander Robert Iverson. Their mission: Detonate a nuclear device that will reactivate the core and save the world from sure destruction.
| Christopher Shyer | Dave Perry |
| Ray Galletti | Paul |
| Eileen Pedde | Lynne |
| Rekha Sharma | Danni |
| Tom Scholte | Acker |
| Aaron Eckhart | Dr. Josh Keyes |
| Anthony Harrison | FBI Agent |
| Tchéky Karyo | Dr. Serge Leveque |
| Richard Jenkins | Gen. Thomas Purcell |
| Bart Anderson | Dad |
| Nicole Leroux | Mom |
| Justin Callan | Little Boy |
| Chris Humphreys | GBTV Reporter - Trafalgar Square |
| Hilary Swank | Maj. Rebecca Childs |
| Jon Amiel |
5.30 out of 10 (13792 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Silly and goofy and makes no sense -- and I love it!
posted on 20 Aug 2009I love silly 1950s grade-b sci-fi. Two of my favorites are Monolith Monsters and This Island Earth -- movies that are so bad that they're great fun to watch. The Core fits right into the genre. The cast obviously had lots of fun making it (as director Amiel points out in the DVD commentary, they substituted a trout for a pigeon in one of the sequences.... just for the halibut, I guess). One of the fun parts is that no one takes themselves seriously, the actors all give earnest yet tongue-in-cheek performances, and they a play a super-stupid scientific (?!) idea with absolute deadpan. The core idea is a silly as the Van Allen belt "catching fire" in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but the movie's a lot more fun. Great way to waste a couple of hours.
The better Armageddon
posted on 12 Aug 2009Amid all those bad reviews and given the fact that Michael Bay´s Armageddon is one of the worst movies of all time, I didn´t expected very much from this one. I had some hope for this movie, because Jon Amiel also directed the wonderful "Sommersby" and the great but underrated "Copycat". The cast was as good as it can be in this kind of disaster movie, especially Stanley Tucci as Zimsky, who clearly had lots of fun with his role. The rest was ok. The camerawork was excellent, the film has some fine FX, especially the space shuttle sequence, and it unfolded at a good pace. To me it didn´t seem to run 135 minutes. Obviously logic isn´t something you should look for in this one, but most of the scientific and technical details can be swallowed, except for the material the "Virgil" is made of. Do I have to say "Unobtanium"? I laughed out loud, the moment Delroy Lindo took this word in his mouth (Watching this film in Germany, most of the other people in the cinema didn´t get it, because in the dubbed version they didn´t translated this word into german). All in all I really enjoyed this movie and can recommend it to everyone who likes this kind of popcorn flicks.
Twists and Turns aplenty.
posted on 12 Aug 2009Albeit some of the science seems a bit far fetched, however, looking beyond that this movie delivers a good bit of emotional drama and action that lots of movies seem to lack as of recent. This movie is based on a top secret project that really did operate in Alaska and playing on the fears people had of that, this movie put those fears to screen in a pretty believable fashion. The scene of the space shuttle Endeavour was for me a kind of sad affair since, 1. I live in Florida near the Space Center, so it means a great deal to me and 2. The fact that it wasn't long ago when we lost the Columbia in re-entry- which the shuttle was in the process of. However- it makes a scary, but safe landing, which was one of the most gripping moments of the film. This movie had the sense of action and wonder of like wise movies, 'Journey To The Center of The Earth' and 'Armaggedon'. The movie never gets stale and the story progress at a nice pace, a definate Saturday Night movie to go and see.
Sweet to The Core.
posted on 08 Aug 2009The Earth's core is coming to a screeching halt. In three months we'll all be toast, because the things that keep Earth from being the cat in the microwave will be destroyed. Someone has to get down there and give that sucker a goose!This is a fun, Jules Verne-ish, kind of movie, so never mind trying to pin down the technology. It is pulp science fiction, written with humor and heart. Never mind that Dr. Ed 'Braz' Brazzelton (Delroy Lindo)---a genius whose research was stolen by his former colleague, the archly slimy genius and careerist, Dr. Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci)--- has retreated to the desert where, with no apparent source of funds, he putters around building what appears to be a massive gattling-laser and develops materials with marvelous qualities found nowhere else on Earth. Never mind that Zimsky's own pet project, Destini, the most powerful weapon of mass destruction ever conceived looks something like a giant sparkplug. Never mind that billions are spent to build the core-boring ship (christened Virgil, after the poet who descended into Hell), a vessel that must withstand unimaginably high temperatures and pressures, and...when it gets stuck among giant crystals down there, the crew can get out in their thin little suits to work it free. Never mind that these top flight scientists and engineers calculate distances in feet and miles.Oh, and perhaps the oddest anomaly-when three of the crew have to choose which of them is to carry out a crucial, and perhaps fatal, task, they draw straws. Yep, three broom straws. You have to have experienced Virgil to appreciate the incongruity. Did the cleaning lady perhaps leave them behind while tidying up the ship?Somewhere in the film critics' restroom, there must be scrawled on the wall: "For a fun time, go see The Core."
Pretty terrible.
posted on 02 Aug 2009Faced with the possibility of earth going to hell in a handbag, six people go to the center of the earth to try to the core rotating again.Those who complained about "Armageddon" should check this out, because this is far worse.The visual effects are pretty bad, the length is way too long, and the acting is really,really, bad, i.e. after the character of Serge dies, Aaron Eckhart overacts so much it puts Pacino to shame.Rating:** (out of five)
The Core lacks a core, but I enjoyed it
posted on 25 Jul 2009I went to see The Core because I had nothing better to do yesterday evening, I like science fiction and because I had heard that it has a sense of humor about itself.Jon Amiel's `The Core' is a thread spun by the Hollywood Action/Adventure machine that ends up as a quilt of characters and plotlines from other movies. It's warm, thin, flat and you may find that after the film your toes are cold, even despite the 9000 degree heat on the screen.As this quilt unfolds, you find the arrogant scientist from `Contact' (better developed in that movie by Tom Skerritt) who has, in the end, an epiphany spun from a few puffs on a Camel Light. You see the kid (and part of the plot) from War Games only updated with a Hot Pocket habit and a scarier neck. You find the French guy with the heart of gold from...well.France, whose character you think must have been something before the cutting room floor. To the film's credit, there is a warmer, less generic version of Ben Affleck's character in Armageddon, better played in this move by Aaron Echhart.There are many, ahem, quotations (to put it nicely) of plot and character from such epics as Journey To The Center of the Earth, Fantastic Voyage (although without the onboard treachery), EARTHQUAKE!, and even `The Birds,' along with many other film fragments, all served up on floating lake of hot magma.Now I'm not a scientist, and I'm hopeful that the geology was relatively accurate, but I have a real problem with someone reaching in to an active nuclear reactor, flipping a few circuit breakers, yanking out the control rods and dragging some distance. Okay, even if I could suspend my disbelief about that, I just can't make the leap when, thereafter, there is a) no melt down, and b) no physical side-effects other than a pair of bandaged hands. It was the nuclear science of Dr. Christmas Jones in `The World Is Not Enough' more attractively played in that film by a jump-suited Denise `If I don't get that plutonium back, somebody's gonna have my butt' Richards.Good news and bad news on the special effects: `The Birds' thing was good, but the exterior shots of the ship running through ocean, crust, mantle, etc., looked like Irwin Allen's 1961 `Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea' - you could almost see the strings! And a note to Hollywood: please stop destroying San Francisco. Couldn't you pick some other town to destroy? I know it's an easy target, but c'mon.As the Griffin Mill character says in Altman's stunning 1992 film "The Player:' "I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here." Although The Core has no core - no magnetic force of writing or art that keeps it together -- I admit I enjoyed it. And that's my irony, and I'm sticking to it!
You'll laugh.... you'll laugh some more.... then
posted on 09 Jul 2009you'll likely die from laughter, "The Core" and the recently released dreck "Dreamcatcher" are easily two of the most laughably awful big budget flicks in the past 10 years, but during "The Core" I certainly didn't feel for the characters or ever consider one frame of this good at any point.(Possible Spoilers) First off, the plot has to do with the Earth's core suddenly coming to a halt. This will ultimately cause the end of the world in about a year. This coming disaster needs to be stopped, so the government enlists the help of a college professor (Aaron Eckhart), a NASA pilot (Hilary Swank) a cocky scientist (Stanley Tucci) and finally a nutty scientist (Delroy Lindo) who has developed a metal that can withstand the intense pressure of the Earth's core, and he has the plans to build a ship out of it all he needs is $15 billion (or maybe it's $50 billion, I couldn't really tell), which the government gladly pays and thus the construction begins. Now I'm not much of a science wiz, but it seems pretty unlikely any type of scientist would be able to develop a metal that could withstand the intense pressure of the Earth's mantle and especially the core itself. But then again any disaster film has plenty of sizeable leaps in logic, which can provide some good, if somewhat cheap fun, ("Armageddon" comes to mind).However, "The Core" is such an obvious and badly acted movie that any possible fun is washed away in the first 30 minutes, then the movie goes on for about another 2 hours, which just becomes a major exercise in patience after the first hour. Now onto the acting, Eckhart is laughable as Dr. Keyes, however it's not his fault, Swank is just stone-faced as Major Rebecca 'Beck' Childs, Lindo is just there as Dr. Edward Brazleton and Tucci chews up the scenery (if you want to call it that) as Dr. Conrad Zimsky. Of and there's also Tcheky Karyo (the French soldier from "The Patriot") and DJ Qualls ("The New Guy"). The special effects are pretty lousy, especially during the shuttle landing sequence in the first 20 minutes of the movie and the whole movie seems way overdone, while not accomplishing much at the same time. Overall, "The Core" is a disaster (literally and figuratively) and will hopefully put the dying "world in peril" or "disaster" genre to rest until a decent movie can be made or even a fun one. 0 stars.
Better than most b-movie sci-fi.
posted on 07 Jul 2009I went to this movie expecting another "Species." Despite the hacked plot, tired gimmicks, and so many cliche'd characters "gun-ho general" etc.... This movie works on a certain level. The special effects were dazzling and breathtaking.The movie obviously doesn't take itself too seriously and because of that, its a treat to watch. If you love action movies, then I believe you'd appreciate the subtle campiness of the film. They even recycled the old LA ravine that has been used in countless car chases. It gleefully leaps through plot loopholes, trumpeting that it knows that you know whats going to happen next.
I enjoyed it so much I bought the DVD
posted on 05 Jul 2009I never really understand why people complain about the science in science fiction films. The majority of science fiction is totally flawed when it comes to the science. Most of the time we don't care and enjoy it on the fantasy level which is what I'm sure the producers and director intended. I have to say I really enjoyed the Core. I first watched it as a naughty internet download and then bought it on DVD as I liked it so much. I've now watched that DVD three times and have always enjoyed it. A few of the effects are a bit weak, one or two lines could be better but I see nothing to hate here. I found Armageddon a weaker film with a higher amount of dull moments and a lot of irritating dialogue. I had less feeling for the characters in that film. I prefer Day after tomorrow though. Its definitely worth watching once in your life.
Suspend belief and enjoy it for what it is!
posted on 05 Jul 2009Yes, scientifically it's absolute garbage; it has more plot holes than half a tonne of Swiss cheese, and above all IT'S FUN! It annoys the hell out of me when reviewers "analyse" films like this, picking holes in every minute detail. Of course it's a load of old toffee, whereas Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Monsters Inc, The Terminator are all perfectly plausible, 100% accurate depictions of reality. If you want real life, look out the window. Sure this film isn't in the same league as the aforementioned, but it doesn't make any pretensions about being something it isn't. Its two hours of brainless entertainment. If I want heavy duty, I'll watch Truffaut, Bunel, or some hard hitting drama. If I want to relax, kick back, and forget about a crappy day, this is exactly the sort of film to do that.Who says all films have to accurate? A group of reviewers with their heads so stuck in trying to scientifically unravel the film, while trying to pull their heads out of their own orifices (or is that orifi?).This film is great action, suitably silly, visually and sonically decent, and an excellent load of fun to watch with a load of mates, a decent pizza and a few beers. Sure I like serious drama; I like films that move me to tears, films that make me laugh, and sometimes films that just entertain the hell out of me. This one definitely falls into that category!
This film is made of pure unobtainium
posted on 29 Jun 2009I don't know much about geology, but what little I do know suggests that the nature of the Earth's core is such as to be impervious to any merely human intervention, and that traveling to it is something human beings probably never will be able to do. Hence, any SF flick about humans doing one to rectify the other is likely to be as fanciful as The Wizard of Oz, so a big "caveat emptor" is attached to this movie. I figured that anyone audacious enough to cook up an eco-fable like this would have checked his science so as to make the movie more believable, but apparently I was wrong according to the legion of IMDb reviewers who have savaged this film.This film reminded me a bit of the 1966 film "Fantastic Voyage," in which a group of scientists and their craft are shrunk to the size of a microbe and injected into the body of a scientist (or was it a diplomat?) who has been wounded in an assassination attempt, in a race against time to save his life. "The Core" resembles "Fantastic Voyage" in several ways: First, the technological premise that makes possible travel to this inaccessible realm is so far-fetched as to be more magical than scientific. Second, in all but a few places, the inside of the body is naturally quite dark, and so, one would think, is the interior of the Earth; but in both movies, these unseen realms are aglow with light. Third, the sex ratio is similar: Four men, one woman, who of course is played by Raquel Welch. Fourth, none of the characters rises much above stereotype, since the story is driven by situation, not characters. Fifth, come to think of it, Hilary Swank, while not as voluptuous as the young Raquel Welch (who could be?), does slightly resemble her. Sixth, the events of the film are kept secret from the public, and Edmund O'Brien's General Carter is very similar to General Purcell, who is played by that excellent and serviceable character actor Richard Jenkins. (Unfortunately, every time I saw Jenkins, I was distracted by memories of his hilarious performance as Walter Wingfield in "Say It Isn't So.") I will say one thing in this film's defense: As absurd as it may be, and as uninspired in terms of plot, characterization, visual effects and believability, it did keep me watching to find out what would happen next all the way to the end.
Great Adventure
posted on 25 Jun 2009There are many comments here that say how bad this movie is, that this movie sucks, that the acting blows, etc... Well, what does the audience expect?
As movie buffs (that's why we take the time to write a comment here) we know that these kind of movies do not ever get Academy Award nominations for best actor/actress. They are just made to entertain us with amazing special effects and incredible CGI.
Some people also comment how unrealistic this movie is. Well of course... it has to be, it is a Sci-Fi movie, just like The Matrix, Star Wars, Starship Troopers, The Fifth Element, The Time Machine, ID4, E.T. and many others! That is what a movie in this genre will transmit to the audience.
If you do not like unrealistic "stuff" don't watch The Core or any other Sci-Fi Movie,instead watch a drama or something closer to life itself.Now, The Core is just a plain great adventure. The Plot: Scientists combine intellect to re-activate the core of the earth which stopped spinning. Impossible but very entertainig. The characters are OK, might need more development, but who cares? the movie goes so fast that it is not very noticeable. In general, The Core is a good movie. Something that I liked is that there weren't many one liners or clowns unlike Armaggedon.
The Core has its moments, it delivers action, drama, IT-comedy and suspense.
The funny side of Sci-Fi
posted on 23 Jun 2009This film is hilariously full of technical gaffes, not only to do with tunneling into the middle of the earth, but also several technical and scientific impossibilities which add to an already implausible plot line! But then I guess you could say light-sabres are also implausible... It certainly is fast-paced enough to keep you entertained, and the opening scene is good, so be sure not to miss it as it is quite short. However there didn't seem to be anything in the plot-line to make this stand out over other every other Hollywood disaster movie. In fact, 'The Core' is a textbook example of a disaster movie. Don't watch it if you have a degree in geology or geography, instead watch it with an alcoholic beverage or three, and enjoy it as an innocent piece of fun.
Much better than I had expected.
posted on 17 Jun 2009I went into the Core expecting to see the worst movie of all time. Perhaps because my hopes were so low for this movie I actually found it not as bad as I had feared. In fact, it was quite enjoyable.Sure, there are plenty of dumb moments in it and the science is questionable, at best. But it is moderately entertaining and fun. There are some spoilers ahead.The silly, but amusing stuff:Journeying to the centre of the Earth is bad enough - but did they have to do it in something that reminded me of my Hornby train set from when I was a kid?Just how does a penniless scientist living in the desert make (let alone invent) a substance that would revolutionise modern life?Why did that scientist not immediately patent and sell his substance and make a fortune from it, which he could then use to fund his Earth ship?I'm sorry, but the "Project Destiny stopped the Core spinning but it can't start it again" line doesn't wash with me.The computer hacker. Yawn.No kissing at the end, despite the obvious attraction of the two characters for each other.However, despite the above, I enjoyed the film and was able to overlook the silliness. There was one thing, though, which had me gritting my teeth and shaking my head.The manual release mechanism for the pod separation. Nobody would design it that way, even if they were under a deadline to complete the project. It's the equivalent of designing a plane with the landing gear release lever on the outside! Or a car with the gear lever in the boot/trunk! Stupid, just plain stupid.Up until that point I was enjoying the movie. That kind of killed it a bit, but I soldiered on and enjoyed the rest of the film in spite of it.All in all, much better than I had expected, and worth watching on a rainy day, or even a mildly cloudy one.
Core Blimey! The box office says it all for once!!!
posted on 13 Jun 2009HAh! in it's Opening weekend "The Core" made 12 million bucks. What does this portend? It means people are no longer interested in implausible and stupid disaster movies that are so bad that even Irwin Allen would be disgusted!!! Maybe now they'll stop wasting 999 gajillion dollars on computer generated monkeys flying around shooting painted window ladders at each other and make something good for once!! the movie sucked, by the way, it's your typical disaster flick with a half-assed everything.
Dumb fun... really dumb
posted on 13 Jun 2009As soon as the movie was over, my partner and I spent the next hour recounting every scientific flaw, stupid plot devise, banal piece of dialogue and character inconsistency peppered liberally throughout this actioner. And we then concluded that, yes, we still had fun. If you look even slightly close at the details -- like, how does lightning arc through the concrete of Rome's Coliseum? How can a pressure suit, made out of soft fabric, protect them against thousands of pounds of pressure? -- your mind will number faster than it would after 10 minutes of YuGiGo or reading a Grisham book. But it's also easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all. It pushes button with rote efficiency, and if it is rarely sensible, it is just as rarely dull.
I had so much fun watching this..
posted on 05 Jun 2009Cmon.. it's as plausible as any R.Emmerich disaster movie and just as entertaining. Witch is exactly my point: mostly unbelievable, at times ridiculously stupid... but the more it gets stupid, the more fun it gets! And not in an unintentional way! It has a mini-romance, lots of disasters, tons of good sci-fi and good action. Acting is more than decent form this pretty strong cast. I think i have watched it like 3 times now simply for its entertaining value, Believe me... even if it needs some pretty hard "suspension of disbelief" in this one, it so geek fun and entertaining you wont even notice how absurd it sometimes is. Rent it / Buy it. Will make a fun 2h!
Way better than "Armageddon" -- a drama in sci-fi clothing.
posted on 30 May 2009I don't know what people who saw this were expecting, but I thought it delivered, and I just watched it along with someone else, didn't even select it myself.First of all, look at the cast list. These are not people who normally appear in sci-fi films (although Alfre Woodard has), so you know it is not going to be your typical sci-fi fare. It is character driven. People who spend every scene overanaylzing what would actually possible and what would not are going to ruin it for themselves. These are great characters. Hilary Swank does not disappoint, although she is very subtle in her acting, which I like. (Stanley Tucci is not subtle. I normally LOVE him, but he does to this movie what Billy Zane did to "Titanic.") But the really great characters are Delroy Lindo's workaholic scientist and D.J. Qualls' computer hacker. Some of their comical moments that were cut from the film should have been left in. Also, Woodard and qualls should have had more screen time together, because they exhibit an odd sort of untapped chemistry (no, not that kind).Anyway, enough about the cast. The special effects are high quality and the inventions the filmmakers have, well, invented seem pretty real to me. This works as a sci-fi/fantasy as well as, if not better, than, many other possible-end-of-the-world themed films. (It's more like "Deep Impact" than "Armageddon", thank goodness.)But here is what stayed with me: the decisions faced by the crew members in this film. That is what resonates, life-or-death situations played out. Most of the best of the genre (like "Alien") touch on this, this film brings it to the forefront. It may be uncomfortable to watch, in fact, but so it should be. That is what I feel elevates this film and makes it A LOT better than many critics said it was. I went into it not expecting to like it, and went out of it wondering why anyone wouldn't. 'Nuff said.
I am proud of the work we did on this film.
posted on 14 May 2009I really feel that Jon Amiel did an amazing job with this film. It takes an extremely talented individual to combine performance and visual effects together. His ideas with regards to casting were brilliant and his story development allowed us to meet each character on their own terms. When tragedy strikes in the story I think we can genuinely sense a characters lose because we are allowed to know the person(s). The tragic irony of the recent shuttle accident and the opening scene in the movie does not go unnoticed. I congratulate Paramount with keeping the scene in the movie. That sequence was so well researched; there is no better visual way to explain a shuttles re-entry. How dangerous it really is and how fragile/vulnerable that spacecraft is in the scale of things. NASA does an amazing job and the men and women who fly those missions are not only very talented they are some of the bravest of the brave. We should watch that sequence knowing that the work they do is done willingly and with the betterment of humanity as their dream. Finally this is a movie and it does entertain. That said people need to learn to not take these stories so seriously. There will always be flaws in any movie you watch. It is really a miracle they ever make it to the theatres. There are so many creative elements that must come together to make a movie. THE CORE had a crew of over three hundred people. I would really love to see one of these critics try to work the hours we as a film crew work in order to put even a minutes worth of film in the can.I will close with, go to see The Core or any other movie for that matter, support our film industry by going to your local theatres. Be entertained, spend the money, and watch it on a big screen. That was the intention of the studio in the first place. These films are shot on film not video and as such they are designed to be projected onto a forty-foot screen for your viewing pleasure. Thanks.
Should have been called Coremageddon
posted on 26 Aug 2009Back in the days, I saw Armageddon on the big screen and even there it was a really, really bad movie. The Core manage to be even worse. It doesn't even make decent entertainment for the moment, you really just sit there and wonder when this disaster of a movie is going to end. It's the exact same film as Armageddon in every possible way. The only difference is that this time they go in to the core of the earth instead of out in space. They even manage to make the character-descriptions so shallow i wished the "good-guys" would die just to get rid of their über-predictable and unskilled performance. The fact that this movie is released on theaters instead of going straight to video is nothing less than humiliating. I warn you, this movie might not be worse than "Pups" but it sure is worse than "The Mangler 2" which scored 1,5 points here on IMDB.