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The Core (Widescreen Edition)

The Core (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $12.99
Your Price: $11.69
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Good Rental
Review: People dropping dead in New York, birds attacking tourists in London, an American shuttle crew missing their landing spot, strange sky phenomena entertaining millions - all of these clues lead Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) to believe that the core of the Earth has stopped rotating. After his research is confirmed by the world's leading scientist, Dr. Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci), Dr. Keyes finds himself spearheading a plan to take an amazing machine down to the center of the Earth and get the core rotating again. While preparing for the project, he meets Rebecca Childs (Hilary Swank), who desperately wants to prove herself as a pilot. Of course, once they get underneath the crust of the earth, it is anyone's guess as to what will happen and if they will succeed in saving all of humanity...

The Core is a typical science fiction/action movie in that it is built off of some Hollywood formula that they have been using for years to make some quick and easy money off of the movie going public without, in fact, doing anything new or particularly interesting. I wouldn't say that it is a bad movie, but neither would I say that it is particularly good. I agree with some other reviewers in that the first part of the movie is quite good and raises your hopes that perhaps this movie is better than you thought and then they actually go on the mission to save the earth and it is cheeseball city down there. It is way too easy to figure out who is going to die and how and figure out what is going to happen, which was disappointing, but that it why it is a 3 star movie and not anything higher!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Top 10 Worst Movies of All Time
Review: What was it about this movie that I hated so much? Was it the horrible acting? Was it the unbelievably stupid storyline? Was it the B-rate special effects?

It was all of the above. Don't waste your money.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Armageddon, only below ground
Review: For reasons unknown, the earth's inner core has stopped rotating. 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 Major Rebecca Childs (Hilary Swank)and Commander Robert Iverson. Their mission: Detonate a nuclear device that will reactivate the core and save the world from sure destruction. This movie was very predictable. Problem arises, the government is called in, a device is made and the world is saved. The End. If you've seen Armageddon with Bruce Willis, there's no need to see this. The only difference is that this movie takes place at the earth's core.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hey, it's not that bad
Review: I don't know why so many reviewers are so angry about this movie. Pseudoscience is fun.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Getting to the middle of things
Review: I've noticed that a lot of people have blasted this DVD for lacking in scientific veracity. Well, gosh, although I slept through Geology 101 in college, I'll bet there are little more than kernels of truth in what the story contends about the Earth's electromagnetic field. However, I must ask the obvious $60,000 question to the vociferous critics of this movie: WHAT did you expect, exactly?

If you want a natural disaster movie that isn't happy-go-lucky where everyone goes on a suicide mission and miracuously all come back, then this one is worth a look. If you want a film with some eye-candy special effects, then look no further!

There have been a few movies / cartoons in the past where an inventer would create a machine with a giant drill at the front end. This contraption would take he and his crew to the center of the Earth, or at least far down.

In the present story the method of drilling is updated: the ship uses lasers to blow its way through the Earth's mantle. Is it believable? Certainly not. However, it is far more "watchable" than the giant drill-nose machine.

For myself, I did enjoy the allusion to Dante's DIVINE COMEDY. The inventor of the ship names it the VIRGIL, after the Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro. In the INFERNO it is the dead Virgil who leads Dante the Pilgrim through the lower depths of hell and up to the top of Mount Purgatory. Nice touch.

The acting is decent, although I think they could have done better than the fellow they recruited to play the computer hacker nerd. The highlight of the film is Hilary Swank. She's certainly not hard on the eyes and also lends a nice feminine dynamic as the only non-male member of the crew.

All in all, this one is worth purchasing. No, it's not scientifically accurate, but then again neither is Jules Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (yet I don't hear people shooting that one down because of its lack of credible science). Just remember: at the end of the day it's a MOVIE! If you can keep that in mind, you'll be all set to begin your journey to the core.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Hollywood action/special effects film that does the job!
Review: "Hang on -- this isn't going to be subtle!" says the hotshot NASA pilot as he prepares to crash-land the space shuttle in the dry concrete basin of the L.A. River... As good an introduction to this film as you're likely to get. This science fiction/natural disaster movie was a very pleasant surprise! It's about an intrepid group of super-scientists who take a fantastic voyage to the Earth's molten core, in order to prevent global catastrophe. Y'see, it seems the lava inside the planet has stopped spinning for some reason, causing all of nature to go haywire, and threatens our very existence. Which is very bad. So, the US government assembles a scrappy little Scooby team, and off they go, to die one-by-one and make heroic sacrifices as they meet their dates with Destiny. This flick was pretty fun & funny in a complete-suspension-of-disbelief kinda way... It doesn't take itself too seriously, and thus never flounders by trying to make everything seem "real." In fact, the humor (which draws on some great, casual one-liners and fine performances all around, particularly the laconic, good-natured college professor, played by Aaron Eckhart) skillfully disarms us to the special effects sequences are all the more enjoyable. The "science" is ridiculous, but who cares? The film is a gas!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Science is Accurate - Movie is Good
Review: I haven't seen this movie yet, but would like to address the reviewer who said the science was wrong. I read an excellent review of The Core in Discover magazine (a science mag), in which they complimented the movie, not only because it was fun but because the science was quite accurate, much more so than most movies of this genre.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Where was the "science advisor" for this movie?
Review: I have little to add to the comments of other reviewers concerning characterization, intraction between them, and so on. But I had an extremely hard time getting past the movie being wrong about just about every scientific premise. For one thing, the earth's magnetic field is constantly going through a cycle of gradually increaing to a maximum value, declines (gradually) until it reaches zero, increases (gradually and with opposite polarity) then starts decreasing again. We are now in a "decreasing" mode.
It is true that cosmic rays will not be deflected by a weakened EM field but it will be nothing like a blowtorch hitting a peach (as described in the movie.) There might be more cancers and mutations over a period of centuries but absolutely nothing like what was shown in this movie.

My advice: love or hate the movie to your heart's content but PLEASE do not base any scientific knowledge from it!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Boring
Review: If the story for "The Core" was a remake of Jules Vern's "Journey to the center of the earth", if and only if would stand half a chance as a great movie, as it is, I call the movie boring. Its like the story writer was watching the Discovery Channel and thinking about volcanos, earth deep drilling, and magma flow and decided too make a movie. The acting is not funny, the cast is terrible, it lacks any romantic themes, and no suspense. Rather good acting is replaced by billigerant dialogues and including numerous scenes of screaming and hysteria. The plot revolves around a machine capable of journeying to the center of the earth, plunk down into a hole, nuclear weapons synergically used to jump start the core, and eventual escape too the surface (James Bond with no charsima). Thats the whole extend of the plot. There is no guessing about what is going to happen and no refund for renting the movie. I find this movie was marketed as a summer blockbuster movie, a real let down.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: above average disaster flick
Review: If you dons't think about it too much, and throw everything you ever learned about science out the window, then "The Core" is a really good disater movie. The core of the Earth has stopped turning, and it is up to a group of scientist (the usual suspects) to go into the center of the Earth and detenate several nuclear bombs in order to "jump start it". It's nuts, I know. But if you just go with it, it's an entertaining two hours. The cast is Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo (those are the memorable ones). The shinning star is Christopher Shyer, a Frenchman who puts saving the world into a manageble perspective with a very nice speech about why he's going. The special effects dominate the movie, but that is to be expected. All in all, I liked it, and I am pretty sure you will too.


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