Rating: 
Summary: The Novelization is Better
Review: Watches stop. People with pacemakers drop dead. Thousands of pigeons (and one fish) fly into things at Trafalgar Square. All these things are symptoms of a greater problem.One scientist consulted on one of these problems does a little data compilation and reaches a terrifying conclusion: There is something wrong with the planet and we are all going to die. He asks for help from a more public scientist (a back-stabbing plagiarist) and his fears are confirmed. But military minds do not like defeat without a fight so they put every conceivable resource to bear on the problem. We wind up with an expedition to the core of the planet for the purpose of setting off a pile of nukes in hope of getting the core to spin properly again. Time is on the essence but gives way to billions of dollars and the expedition sets off. We are then treated to some serious assaults on science as we find a geode the size of the Superdome, diamonds the size of Cape Cod (theorized to exist in planets the size of Jupiter), and a ship without power that somehow races to the surface. The novelization was better as it did not suffer from the harsh editing. For example, the film skips over the crucial problem that the instructions fro the nukes are in French and their Frenchman is dead. The supposed change of heart in the plagiarist does not work when he says, "Yes, this ship is yours, but I wish it could have been ours." It comes off as if he wanted credit for yet another discovery of someone else's. All in all the movie is sort of like Armageddon with it's absurd science, but not quite as fun (space scenes a cooler than a shot of an uninteresting ship surrounded by red-orange whatever). Still, I am sure there are many who will enjoy this one and it is quite superior to Deepcore (the movie Terry Farrell left Deep Space Nine for).
Rating: 
Summary: And I Thought I Only Loved Horror Movies
Review: There is only one word for this movie. AWESOME! The characters in this film are very developed. Though this is kind of a science fiction action there are no boring parts. Hilary swank was awesome in this film. The Plot was Awesome. The earth stops rotation so 6 select people are going to the core to give it a boost so that the earth can heal itself again. There were really sad moments in this movie on account of great character development.There is also a guy who dies in order for the rest to continue on thier journey.This movie had me sitting back in my seat and eyes focused only on the screen. It made me feel like i was one of the people in the ship. Awesome movie awesome cast awesome effects i wish i could give this movie a 10! sweet dreams....
Rating:
Summary: More Fiction then Science, but still Entertaining
Review: This movie is pure entertainment, and if that's the type of film you're looking for then you will truly enjoy it. If you're looking for a movie that is based on pure scientific fact, you're going to be disapointed. In this disaster film, a la Armageddon, scientists discover that the core of the earth has stopped spinning. This will result in electromagnetic accidents that will eventually kill everyone and destroy the world. The only way to fix it is to go 3000 miles into the center of the Earth and start the core spinning again. How they were to accomplish making a ship that can accomplish this is less then three months will be a scientific unknown for years to come. They only dedicated about 15 minutes of screen time to explaining it, so obviously the writers didn't seem to have an idea either. I did enjoy this movie for it's action, special effects, and thrilling moments, but I can only suspend my disbelief so much. It was all based on the fact that scientists appear to know exactly how the interior of the Earth works, which isn't necessarily true. Also, scientific license was abused in this film as it was never adequately explained how the ship was made and how it was made so quickly. Obviously that was secondary to the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the dig through the Mariana Trench. In summary, it's an entertaining fluff piece, but not much more.
Rating: 
Summary: How dumb is this movie?
Review: How dumb is this movie? Let me count the ways. No, wait. I cannot count that high. But let me try anyway. This movie is so dumb I almost stopped watching it (more than once). This movie is so dumb I regretted spending nearly 4 dollars to rent it. This movie is so dumb the dialog reads like it was written in a high school drama class. This movie is so dumb the acting appears to be taken from a Saturday afternoon 1950s Sci-Fi movie convention. I could go on and on. But won't. Simply avoid this movie like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: My Kung Foo-Bar is Stronger
Review: Knowing full well that the movie going public panned this movie, I still wanted to see it, just because. So going into it, my expectations weren't all that high, and I can truthfully say I wasn't disappointed. To set the stage, college professor determines that the Earth's core has stopped turning and that the Earth is thus doomed in approximately 1 year. U.S. government assembles crack team of experts and misfits to tunnel to the Earth's core and fix things. The makings of a classic quest drama with a sci-fi slant. Unfortunately, amid the character sparring, techno-wiz-bang science and special effects they just could not pull off the concept. To start with, even with a healthy ability to suspend reality, there are just too many flaws to make this movie believable (I can believe the trip to the core, but all the evidence of poor planning that the movie uses as tension builders, just does me in). To continue, the stereotypical characters end up doing all the expected things, there just are not any twists or surprises. The special effects are good and if anything keeps you watching the movie it is that. So why should you see this movie? Boredom; you have already seen Armageddon, Abyss, etc. 15 times and want something new; or, like me you just could not let it lie without a firsthand experience to form your own opinion of this movie. P-)
Rating:
Summary: Check your logic at the door
Review: Hee hee...oh my, this movie is deliciously bad! Is it as bad as people say it is? Yep, it surely is...although I must admit, I do have a soft spot in my heart for this big budget flop-o-ramas, especially ones starring academy awards winning actors/actresses. The caramel nougat center of this movie is the core of the Earth has stopped spinning, causing problems in the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth, keeping the dangerous microwave and other bits of space radiation at bay. What caused the core of the Earth to stop spinning? Who knows? But I bet it was something we did...it's always something we did because if there is anything I've learned from Hollywood, its' that humans are a self destructive lot, and we're not happy unless we're cutting down trees, pollutin' the oceans, or tearing up the ozone. Anyway, in a plot mostly lifted from a slightly less crummy movie (Armageddon), a special team of scientists is assembled to travel in a specialized ship, made of (get this) Unobtanium, to the center of the Earth and jump-start the Earths' core using nuclear weapons. At a certain point in the movie (like five minutes in), you will have to turn the logical part of your brain off to be able to keep watching, as there are plot holes bigger than a house throughout the film. I'm no geology whiz or an expert on physics as such, but I can tell when someone's trying to feed me a humungous pile of droppings, even if it's on a silver spoon, the silver spoon being all the high tech special effects, which looked good at first, but then became sort of cartoonish after awhile. It's funny how a bad movie can turn almost anyone into a fortuneteller. By about an hour into the movie, I was able to correctly guess who was going to live and who was going to die within the crew with such accuracy that I was tempted to go out and buy a lottery ticket. Equally amazing was how I was able to almost predict the order and manner in which the deaths occurred. After determining that I have no divine powers of prognostication, I aptly realized that the script was actually telegraphing all the information needed to come to the conclusions that I did. If you are unable to discern who will bite it and who will survive, it's only because you've probably lost interest in the movie or are laughing so hard at all its' flaws and gaping holes that you missed said elements. I mean really, the only way it could have been made more obvious was if a neon sign appeared next to the character saying, "I'm going to die." So what happens? Is the Earth saved? Who survives? Who dies? Who cares...seriously, I felt all the actors did adequately well, but this turkey would have required nothing short of the hand of God for salvation. My favorite scene, which isn't in the movie, was located in the Deleted Scenes section of the disc. It involved the scientists witnessing a demonstration of a device that uses ultrasonic waves to pulverize rock. The device, being rather small, made a pencil size hole in a rock, followed by a poof of smoke. The one arrogant scientist then made a sarcastic statement about having to wear protective equipment for such a catastrophic event. The character I liked the least was Rat, played by DJ Qualls. He was the hacker supreme tasked with controlling all information regarding the catastrophic events caused by the loss of rotation of the Earths' core. Your classical nerdy computer geek, he often referred to his skills as a hacker as his 'kung-fu', making such inane statements like, "My kung-fu is strong." These attempts to make him an endearing character made me cringe, mostly because the movie offered little evidence that he was as good as he was supposed to be, creating programs and hacking sites and basically controlling information flow on the worldwide internet with relative ease. A few keystrokes and he could access security of the highest levels. If the Internet is as unsecured as it is in this movie, then we're all screwed. Overall, while I understand these types of movies usually require a certain level of suspension of disbelief, this film asks way too much of its' viewers in that manner. This movie is listed as a drama/sci-fi/action/thriller but really it's a fantasy. If you keep that in mind going into this movie, you may derive more enjoyment out of it than I did, but I doubt it as it's derivate plot, clichés and total lack of scientific credibility are so painfully obvious and the whole thing is just so damn predictable. The mantra in making this movie seems to have been 'If you can't intelligently work out a plot detail, just make something up'. I do acknowledge that this film has the appearance of a more traditional movie, but seeing as how this is the 21st century, using certain methods used in the past to work through the plot doesn't hold water as it did in the past. As our general knowledge increases through the myriad of outlets now available, we are generally more informed, and less likely to accept implausibilties as we were in the past in contemporary work such as this.
Rating:
Summary: As in "Rotten To The...."
Review: I bet it sounded great in the pitch session.... "Hey what if we crossed 'Armageddon' with 'Journey To The Center Of The Earth'? And what if we ignored just about every scientific or geological fact on record? And let's rip off a couple of older movies...wouldn't it be really cool to toss in a nod to Hitchcock at the beginning?" Yup, "The Core" is really that bad. So bad, that I was half expecting some stop action animated dinosaurs at the center of the earth as an explanation as to why the core had stopped rotating. But instead, we get the same old Military/Industrial complex conspiracy goop. At least "Armageddon" kept the politics to popcorn rah rah. And the less said about the derivative, cheesy disaster effects, the better. After "Independence Day" or "Deep Impact," if you're going to level a city, you'd better have more than boiling water and crazed pigeons. It gets two stars becuase Hilary Swank and Stanely Tucci don't totally embarrass themselves. But folks, if this is the best you can get, you need new agents.
Rating: 
Summary: MADE FOR TV?
Review: This could have easily been a made for TV movie but I guess TV wouldn't even play this one. A real loser movie. If you listen to the making of, they talk like thev've really done something new and exciting with this film. I'd much rather watch the Lost in Space remake from a few years ago and I thought IT was bad...
Rating:
Summary: It was a good effort in the disaster movie genre
Review: STORY: The core of the earth has stopped rotating, thus the EM field that protects this world from all the dangers of space and flying stellar microwaves is loosing stability and will eventually result in the earth being baked to a crisp. Thus, someone has to do something about the stopped core. MY FEEDBACK:
1) I didn't expect this to be any better in plot line than Armegeddon or Independence Day so I walked into it with a suspended disbelief. This allowed me to enjoy the movie for the adventure it was, but I think I like the overall action of Aremegeddon better. 2) Where this movie shines is in the dialogue between characters. There are some very witty, well delievered lines that build the characters and the relationships they have to one another. I think most people who didn't like this movie were only looking at the special effects and the plausibility of the disaster scenario. Thus, they missed out on some real enjoyable laughes and heartfelt friendship moments. 3) Special Effects were ok...when they blow up some models it looked like a model, unfortunately. As far as the crew traveling through the earth, that was cool and had some interesting events as they travelled from the surface to the center. This helped make up for any lack of special effects by adding a bit to the storyline. OVERALL: It is on par with the previously mentioned disaster flicks and thus rates as a take it or leave it flick. I still think my favorite post 1995 disaster flick is Deep Impact, so I'm going to watch that again instead of adding this movie to my DVD collection.
Rating:
Summary: Extreemly bad, horrible at every level.
Review: The number one problem this movie has is that it's a story we've been told before. A lot of elements have changed, but it's the same plot we saw in Bay/Bruckheimer's Armageddon in 98. While Armageddon upset a lot of critics, The Core is much worse. Even if you forgive the unrealistic nature of the plot, the problem is with the script, horrible dialog, under developed characters (including the leads), the savior of it all is a hacker that has no reason to be attached to the core team, yet he decides to help them as opposed doing what everyone else is telling him, also he seems to understand knowledge of all kinds of topics outside of computer science (magnetic fields, ozone, etc...). Regardless of how thick the blinders are, this movie is just horrible. It feels like a cheap Armageddon. Everyone involved in the production (save the actors) should never be allowed to work in Hollywood again.
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