Rating: 
Summary: Stupid, but not a bore
Review: I originally went to see this movie for laughs, because I heard it was horrible. It was a really dumb, but I was entertained nonetheless. Don't see this is you are expecting a good movie just because it has a good cast. But if your looking to laugh at a bad movie, then you will find this quite entertaining. I'll just give you a quick summary of what this movie is about. It stars Hilary Swank as a brilliant scientist/earthship pilot. The world is about to be destroyed because the earth's core has stopped rotating, and everything is chaos. In order to fix this little problem, Swank and some others must go down into the earth's core and shoot it with missiles or something along those lines, and get the roatation back in business.
Rating: 
Summary: A riveting excursion below the ocean, what an adventure!
Review: Stanley Tucci did a stand-up job as Zimsky in this end of the world type presentation. Actually, it featured a casual (in every way) professor of physics at the University of Chicago who is flown in a jet to decipher some geo-magnetics codes. His casual dress and wild haircut are typical of U. of C. personnel, even for a lecture on the electromagnetic field at the Pentagon. I recognized the Art Institute in downtown Chicago in one of the scenes. Believe me, it is not that easy to get a Ph.D. from that institution. I know first hand -- actually second-hand, as my son achieved that distinction some years ago. We travel a bit in this movie, from London where the pigeons have gone amok causing havoc, to watch the space shuttle Endeavor crash land on a ball field in L.A., to see the ghost lights in Washington, DC, and on to Utah. In Rome, there is an orange cat scampering through the devastation as the Coliseum collapses. We see super storms, solar winds, and the possibility of the sun burning the earth into a crisp. The inner core of the planet is solid, with outer core being liquid. A new metal called unobtanium is what the scientists say converts heat into energy. There is panic and chaos everywhere. The computer hacker they choose (Rat -- even looks like one) made the comment that "all science is 'best guess'" and that the simplest things are the hardest to do. Rat is very instrumental to the project at hand. A woman is chosen as the leader (pilot of the vehicle per se), not to add a woman's touch but to take responsibility if failure occurs. She is chosen because of her political connections and her propensity to winning whatever she attempts. One of her mentors told her, "You are not a leader until you've lost." She is in effect the fall guy to take the blame if this attempt to save the world does not succeed. The professor gives a Carl Sagan narration as Virgil is rapidly developed; a toast is given in the pouring rain of the South Pacific to the core of the earth as they descend through a crystal Grand Canyon which is magnificent and unbelievable. Built in segments (like a train with its cars, caboose, etc.), each part is ejected remotely. The worst incident was when Bob Iverson was lost seven hundred miles below the surface of the earth. One by one they are lost in overwhelming circumstances, trying to do the impossible. They show much bravery under pressure. Marvelous graphics help define the scientific jargon. Rat uses computer codes to break into DESTINY. The mission is accomplished but at what cost? Besides the woman pilot, only the college professor is left, proving that knowledge surpasses brawn. There are three segments of the vehicle when they make the return trip more rapidly than the descent; it is spectacular. They relax and "go with the flow." His desire is to have one of the Chicago deep dish pizzas, one of which I enjoyed (the spinach) during my first visit there. Singing whales near Hawaii lead the ships to the rescue. Rat in his nifty hat exposes DESTINY on the internet.
Rating: 
Summary: "The Core" is in the same thrilling spirit as "Armageddon"!!
Review: "The Core" is, hands down, the best natural disaster action film that reminds us as to why we go to the movies in the first place! It is also one of the best earth-shattering thrillers since 1998's blockbuster, "Armageddon"! On another note, "The Core" was supposed to come out on Nov. 1 of last year, but got pushed up to March 28 due to better special effects, and man, it was worth the wait! The special effects of "The Core" was outstanding from start to finish! Directed with sheer intensity by Jon Amiel ("Entrapment", "Copycat"), "The Core" stars the explosive talents of Aaron Eckhart ("Possession"), Hilary Swank ("Insomnia"), Delroy Lindo ("Get Shorty"), Stanley Tucci ("Maid in Manhattan"), D.J. Qualls ("The New Guy"), Tcheky Karyo ("Wing Commander"), Richard Jenkins ("Changing Lanes"), Bruce Greenwood ("Double Jeopardy"), and Alfre Woodard ("Star Trek: First Contact") in their finest performances ever! "The Core" turns the attention to a geophysics professor named Josh Keyes (Eckhart), who is called by the government in order to investigate some strange goings-on in the Earth. And sure enough, the Earth's core has stopped spinning, causing, for example, birds to destroy a neighborhood in England, the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco and the Colosseum in Rome being destroyed, and the space shuttle 'Endeavour' being forced to make a crash landing. During the movie, Josh enlists the help of a Carl Sagan-like celebrity named Dr. Conrad Zimsky (Tucci) in order to find a solution for the problem. The solution: To go into the center of the Earth with some nuclear weapons and give the core a jumpstart...or everyone on earth is dead within a year. For the mission, a team is selected, including Josh, Dr. Zimsky, Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Swank), from the salvaged space shuttle, Dr. Serge Leveque (Karyo), French scientist and Josh's best friend, Commander Robert Iverson (Greenwood), Beck's mentor/shuttle commander, Taz "Rat" Finch (Qualls), a young computer hacker, and Dr. Edward "Braz" Brazzelton (Lindo), a reclusive scientist and Zimsky's former colleague. Brazzelton has developed a weapon that will cut a hole into a giant rock in a matter of seconds, etc. Much to the approval of everyone, the weapon is placed onto a ship that is designed to tunnel into the earth, etc. The lives of many will depend on a team of scientists and astronauts, dubbed "terranauts", as they take on the biggest challenge of their lives as they go on a white-knuckle voyage into...the core! In conclusion, "The Core" has it all! An outstanding cast (hey, even Tucci's character is fun to hate!), powerful storytelling, action, suspense, and special effects that will keep you on the edge of your seat! 50% "Armageddon" + 50% "Deep Impact" = 100% pure excitement! "The Core" is not better than "Armageddon", but it is better than 1998's other blockbuster, "Deep Impact"! Yet, "The Core" is just as effective as "Armageddon". "The Core" is,without a doubt, a DVD-must have when released!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Enough
Review: Yes, this movie is loaded with cliches and bad science. However, it was just the kind of movie that lets me turn off my tired brain and enjoy a couple of hours of mindless entertainment at the end of a long week. It is much better than "Armageddon" because that movie took itself way too seriously. This one doesn't pretend to be something it's not. Bonus: no stupid romances involving Ben Affleck, a poor actor a best and a lousy romantic lead (how many more movies must be ruined a la Pearl Harbor before directors realize the man can't act?).
Rating: 
Summary: bland disaster flick
Review: "Journey to the Center of the Earth" meets "Armageddon" meets "Fantastic Voyage." "The Core" is one of those inane, hokey disaster pictures in which a group of egghead types - armed with all sorts of preposterous high tech gadgetry - is sent on a secret mission to save the earth from certain destruction. In this case, the [danger] comes from the earth itself, since it would appear that the planet's molten outer core has suddenly stopped spinning - resulting in unimaginable havoc for life on the surface, including sudden, inexplicable mass deaths, horrific electrical storms and deadly microwaves that literally cook everything that gets in their path. In an act of desperation, the United States government comes up with a plan to fund the building of a special vehicle that will be able to break through the thousands of miles of rock comprising the crust and the mantle in order to detonate some nuclear explosives in the hope of getting the core spinning again. "The Core" might have been a decently entertaining "bad" movie did it not suffer from one fatal structural flaw - which is that, once the capsule is "launched," we are as trapped inside the plummeting vehicle as the hapless scientists chosen for the mission. At least in "Fantastic Voyage" the microscopic crew got to meander through the human body. There's at least a little variety in that domain. But here in the center of the earth there's little else but rocks, rocks and more rocks (with a little molten lava thrown in for good measure) for the crew to keep plowing its way through. This might not have been so bad did the film not drone on for 136 dreary minutes. To fill up that time we are subjected to oodles of mind-numbing pseudo-scientific jargon, internecine squabbling among the characters, cartoon heroics, jejune philosophizing and cheesy special effects that look like a bad "laserium" show from the 1970's. The best moment of unintentional hilarity comes early on in the film when science professor Dr. Josh Keyes, in a scene that looks as if it were pulled straight out of the war room sequence in "Dr. Strangelove," gives a stoned-faced lesson in 6th grade science (explaining the four components of the earth's interior) to a roomful of astonished high level government officials. ...
Rating:
Summary: Failed Potential
Review: This had all the makings of a potentially great blockbuster in the vein of hits like "Armageddon" and "Independence Day". Plotwise, this is basically "Armageddon" underground. The core of the earth has stopped spinning and the result is the dying of the earth's protective electromagnetic "shield". The result: earthquakes, apocalyptic electrical storms and deadly microwaves from the sun cooking the earth. The result is that every person on earth will be dead within a year. That is unless several astronauts and scientists can pilot an experimental vehicle to the center of the earth and use 1,000 megatons of nuclear weapons to "jump start" the core again. In my mind, the greatest failure of this movie was its failure to develop the characters. We really know little more about them at the end of the movie than we did when we first met them. We get only superficial clues regarding who they are or what their motivations are. We feel no real sympathy for them when things go wrong and don't really triumph with them when things go well. "Armageddon", on the other hand, had a great cast of characters that we could sympathize with, loathe and love. And it made for a great movie. The other thing that really bothered me with "The Core" is the fact that submarines cannot communicate via radio while hundreds of feet underwater. How in the world could this vehicle have perfect radio communication from not just the bottom of the ocean, but thousands of miles inside the earth? This is a great rental movie. But not worth the money to watch at the theater.
Rating:
Summary: TOTAL FANTASY, TOTAL FUN
Review: I LOVED THIS MOVIE! Someone somewhere else said you'll either hate it or love it, and you can see by the reviews that's truly the case. This movie had just the right mix of sci-fi fantasy that required minimal thought, and there was no gratuitous sex, violence, foul language. It was your basic joy ride. I personally don't want to spend all my time watching movies that require thought or reflection or serve as metaphors for cultural differences or make some type of political or artsy statement. This movie didn't try to be anything else but what it was - a good sci-fi flick. Yes, the cast is terrific - especially Stanley Tucci - and the concept was unrealistic - so what? - but the film was well-made, well-meaning, and well-done. I will definitely purchase this movie, just so I can escape reality once in a while and have some plain ol' fun.
Rating:
Summary: Dumb, but goofily entertaining, disaster flick
Review: Let's make one thing absolutely clear here: you do not go to see a movie like "The Core" expecting to see high level film-making like "The Godfather" or "Citizen Kane". Heck, you don't even go expecting to see something on the level of "Enemy of the State" or "Crimson Tide". A movie like "The Core" falls firmly in that campy genre known as the 'disaster' film. Hollywood became enamored with and perfected the formula for the disaster film in the early 1970's, with such movies like the "Airport" series, "Poseidon Adventure", "The Swarm", and just about any film involving George Kennedy. The past decade has shown a resurgence in this genre with "Twister" in the 1996, the dueling 'volcano' movies in 1997, and the dueling 'asteroid hits the Earth' movies in 1998. "The Core" is just the latest in a long line of movies to fill that genre.
"The Core" comes complete with all the elements that make a disaster film work. It has the hammy, over-the-top acting. It has the cheesy, yet somewhat compelling, special effects. It has the feeling of impending doom looming over a group of people (or the entire world) if a motley group of heroes can't achieve their goal. Finally, it is entertaining. As "The Core" possesses all of these characteristics, there are worse ways to spend two hours and a few bucks than on this movie.
The plot, such as it is, of "The Core" centers around the impending destruction of the Earth as a result of one of the military's nefarious experiments. It seems there is this project called "Project Destiny" which is designed to create earthquakes anywhere in the world at any time to destroy the U.S.'s enemies. Alas, the experimentation with this project has caused the Earth's core to stop rotating. As a result, the magnetic field around the planet that protects the us from the Sun's harmful rays is slowly disappearing, leading to the eventual 'roasting' of the entire planet. Of course, there's a desperate plan that can save the planet before the final disaster strikes. It seems that there is a reclusive scientist who has developed a material that withstand the pressures and heat of the interior of the Earth. The material is called, of course, "Unobtanium", which is a science-fiction parlance for any material that is needed to have magical properties that allow the plot to progress. In this case, a ship is built from this material with the goal of going to the center of the early and setting off nuclear bombs to 'restart' the core.
The plot sounds pretty preposterous, and it is. Also, don't try to develop an understanding of real science based on this movie. The motley group assigned to go on this mission is your typical band of stereotypical movie types. The actors chew scenery faster than the ship chews up earth. Yet, there is no denying the fact that this movie is fun to watch. No matter how ludicrous the premise, bad the acting or flimsy the plot, any film that you can come out of and say "That was a fun movie" is worthy of a recommendation. "The Core" is one of those kinds of movies.
Rating:
Summary: Triumph at the Center of the Earth
Review: My partner loves disaster movies, so when we first saw the trailers for The Core I knew we were going to see it opening night. If it's got a volcano, an earthquake, a killer asteroid, she's there. Even better if it's named for one of these catastrophes. She and I weren't disappointed. The premise of The Core is that the natural engine that creates the Earth's EM field, the spinning liquid outer core of the earth, has stopped spinning. As the EM field degrades the earth experiences escalating effects, from northern lights down south, to intense microwave bombardments, which will eventually toast the surface. The challenge is to find a way to give the core a jumpstart, within less than a year. Forgive the science of the movie, like you would that of Star Trek or a comic book. Just accept it, and that some things work the way that they work because it makes a good, fun story. Enjoy the characters that are just a hair beyond two-dimensions. Revel in the somewhat predictable transofrmations and developments. Feel the anticipation as the movie flirts with not making a Hollywood ending. Don't expect great f/x or excellent camera work. The first are decent, the second is more reminiscent of television. Have fun. The Core is good.
Rating:
Summary: "The Core" is Very Entertaining!!
Review: I have been waiting for this movie to come out since to was delayed from Nov. 1st.
It was worth the wait!!
I loved it! It was funny, exciting, thrilling, and overall fun! Hillary Swank was perfect, and Aaron Eckhart was great, Stanley Tucci was also fun to hate. The special effects are amazing! Go see it and you will love it! You never take your eyes off the screen. Its totally riviting! I'm going to buy the DVD they day it comes. Go see it! Its entertaining and amazing!
It was written and directed style. The cast was so perfect.
Its a wild ride and be sure to take it! You wont regret it.
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