Rating: 
Summary: A silly, but absurdly fun movie
Review: This is a movie that you know (or should know) the instant it starts, that it's going to be far-fetched. But, at least this one manages to be fun to watch, for the most part that is.Unless you're completely new to disaster films (or films in general, for that matter), you should know exactly how this one's going to go. The Core is a mix of Armageddon and Deep Impact. The casting is the best part about the Core. The cast is brilliant, led by Aaron Eckart (Possession) and Hilary Swank (Insomnia). But it's the supporting actors that steal the show in this one. In that list would be Bruce Greenwood (Below), Delroy Lindo (Heist) and Stanley Tucci (Maid in Manhattan, Big Trouble), who really makes this one good. BOTTOM LINE: If you're looking for an old-fashioned (and quite long) night at the movies with more great special effects than dialogue, than this is your ticket.
Rating: 
Summary: Should be zero stars
Review: This ranks as one of the worst movies ever made. It is totally unbelivable. You almost feel sorry for the actors who made this stinker, but not as bad as you'll feel for yourself. I was lucky, somebody else paid for my ticket or else I might have asked the theater for a refund, it's that bad...
Rating: 
Summary: Here's my Kung-Fu!
Review: So most people didn't like this movie, huh? Too bad. I liked it. A lot. Of course it's not a great movie, but it's entertaining. Who would go to see this movie expecting a great lesson in filmmaking? Anyone who does that is wrong from the start. If you see the trailer, you know this is a movie to watch while eating popcorn and just putting your brain on pause. It's far-fetched, it can get unbelievable at times, but who cares? If you've seen the trailer, you know what's this about. After a constant use and abuse of a sysmic underground weapon, the core of the earth gets damaged and it just stops spinning. This causes the atmosphere to become thinner and it's easier for the UV rays to hit the earth. Birds lose their sense of navigation and the constant EM pulses stop clocks and pacemakers. In one great sequence, a NASA shuttle re-entering the atmosphere deviates unintenionally and crashes in Los Angeles. And the worst is about to happen. That's when Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) and his friend, the sweet, ever loyal Serge Leveque (Tchéky Karyo) are called in by the military. In a mission that requires travelling into the center of the earth, formal Col. Bob Iverson (Bruce Greenwood) and tough-but-beautiful Major Rebecca Childs (Hilary Swank) are recruited to drive the vehicle of choice. Self-serving Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci), the shy geek Ed Brazzleton (Delroy Lindo) and the freaky nerd computer-kid Rat (DJ Qualls) also join the team which is assigned with the mission of detonating several nukes in the core of the earth in order to create a flow of energy in the right direction that will put the core into a spinning mode once again. That's it, you get your mission, there are your characters, now just sit back and enjoy the ride. Mind you, it is an enjoyable one. While the special effects are mostly good there are a few sequences which seem to be unfinished. Especially the scene where a lightning destroys a street in Rome or when the crew gets to a cave of cristals near the center of the earth. I am not into judging a movie by its special effects, since these are only mere tools designed to help the audience to believe that, what they're seeing, is real. Bad FX only remind you that this, indeed, is a movie. And I think that's the downside here. I don't know how many sequences use CGI, but there were sometimes when I felt I was looking at a videogame and when they're combined with actors or motion backgrounds, it just feels like a big B-movie. Being a fan of this type of movies allowed me to ignore all of this and just continue enjoying the film. In the end, I felt it worked anyway. The movie did give me a feeling that I actually went to the center of the earth and came back. Before the end credits, I took a deep breath remembering all the odds the characters had to face and it was a nice feeling. It was really nice to see, for a change, that even though there was some flirting between two of the characters, it never leads to anything. There's not even a romance kiss before the big finale... although there is one but it's just out of pure happiness. There's not a marrying couple at the end, there's only a heavy sadness about unspoken heroes. After seeing movies like Pearl Harbor, in which a major history event is just used as a backrgound for a cheap love story, this sure was a breath of fresh air. Acting is pretty good, especially Stanley Tucci, but the rest of the cast is great, so even when things seem a little far-fetched, the actors manage to give you a sense of reality, because their feelings seem to be pretty real. Scenes like Delroy Lindo breaking into tears out of frustration or Stanley Tucci suffering from a nervous breakdown were pretty much disturbing, in the way that you can relate to them and you can't blame because you know you'd possible act the same way if you were in that unreal situation. It's not that the destruction of the Golden Gate or Rome aren't impressive, but you can see that in every other movie. A fine cast such as this can make a smile or a tear way much heavier, emotionally, than a CGI destruction of a city. And that, I believe, is where the strenght of the film lies. Critics love to tear this film apart but don't let them fool you. If you're into this type of movies, give it a try. It sure won't win any oscars and it sure won't make it to Cannes but hey, for about two and a half hours, you can have a nice time.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining science fiction thriller
Review: I enjoyed The Core. In reality, traveling to the Earth's core is something that is almost certainly impossible, so criticizing this movie on scientific grounds is pointless. It is an escapist fable, and on that level it succeeds well. Or to put it another way, this is science fiction, not a documentary. For me the pseudo-science was fun -- the laser that could vaporize stone, the super-strong metal the earth-craft "Virgil" was made of, the subterranean geology, and so on. I thought the effects were interesting -- very colorful scenery as Virgil is passing through different layers, and the craft itself was pretty cool, like a hardened worm-drill. The characters were all well cast, especially the two leads. Hillary Swank was good as the pilot. The lesser characters were somewhat stereotypical but also well played. Stanley Tucci's self-centered star scientist Dr. Zimsky was sort of like this movie's Dr. Smith from Lost In Space. Actually, Donald Pleasance in Fantastic Voyage is an even better comparison. (The whole movie reminded me a little of Fantastic Voyage.) This is a movie where suspension of disbelief is a must, especially for real scientists or science teachers. But if you allow yourself to go along with the fantasy you should have fun.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: The disaster for this movie is not what the plot line involves, the diaster is the movie itself. I can't recall when I have seen such poor acting. The dialogue is so silly at times you begin to think you are watching a poorly written comedy. There is not one small tiny portion of the movie where you actually care what happens to the earth, the characters, or the core. I was hoping that everything, the core included, would just blow up and let the movie out of it's misery! If you have seen the previews, you have seen the "best" part so don't waste your money. Don't even buy the DVD. CORE has to be the worst movie of the season.
Rating:
Summary: PURE TORTURE!!!
Review: Giving it 1 star is giving it way to much credit. This is a promising cannidate and possible winner of worst movie of the year, and is definatly one of the most painful movies I've ever sat through, and I watch everything. Not too often does a film torture me, but in the last week I've been tortured by two movies, last week's View From The Top, and now The Core which is an hour longer, which makes it the worse of the 2 movies, STAY AWAY!!
Rating: 
Summary: And you thought
Review: Without giving anything away... If you thought "Armageddon" was far fetched, then (pardon the cliché) you ain't seen nothin' yet. Every disaster movie cliche that's ever been used is in this movie. It's cornball as ... . You'll cringe throughout the film's dialogue. I guarantee you'll laugh out loud at moments you aren't supposed to (or will hear other audience members do so and wonder why.) It'll be remembered as the worst movie in both Aaron Eckhart & Hilary Swank's careers. "Armageddon" was better because it had humor & a touch of romance. (Animal crackers.) A few months ago, this movie would've easily made [$million]. What's happening these days, who knows. I believe it'll make about 40-50% of it's domestic take in the first weekend regardless. This movie was made for interntional box office... Save your money folks. I give "The Core" 1½ stars. And no, I won't be buying it on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: I want my two hours back
Review: Dreadful. What started out with a promising pigeon attack scene ended so terribly in an impossible turn of events. The solid cast is the only thing that held the thin plot together. The plot holes, cheesy dialogue and impossible science - even obvious to the layperson -- undermined any hope that this movie could turn out to be anything other than another Hollywood bomb. I can't help but think that this would have been more successful as an animated feature. The suspension of disbelief can work so much better when you don't have to depend of shoddy special effects and "new math" physics. Not only did they create a special compound that can somehow withstand 9000 degree heat to protect the ship, the heat actually helps propel it. That on its own might be believable if that were the only thing. But, they had to add an ultrasonic laser blaster that can bore thru any material, a ship that was built in three months and is powered by a nuclear reactor, massive obstacles in underground space, and a really 80's musical score ... well, it just didn't fly with anyone in the audience. None of these are spoilers, mind you, as they're spelled out at the beginning of the movie. The only thing mildly entertaining were the natural disasters that punctuated the disproportionate timeline. They might as well have thrown in some giant ants and mutant killer bees attacking cities as well. I encourage you to spend your money elsewhere -- at a museum, on art film, or any other activity that doesn't dumb you down a few IQ points like this movie did to its audience.
Rating:
Summary: Empty Hole
Review: Journeyman director Jon Amiel, who gave us COPYCAT and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE looks like he's gone for B-movie territory somewhere between cliche-ridden disaster movie and tounge-in-cheek action. The special effects do look impressive, and it could be one of those dumb but fun popcorn munching flicks. But with a no-name cast (Except for Hilary Swank) and non-existent plot, this is one of the few upcoming movies that could go both ways. Not that many people care though.
Rating:
Summary: Roger Corman and Irwin Allen must have written the script...
Review: To say that this movie looks incredibly bad is an understatement. But the trailer did not change this viewpoint. It has very cheesy acting, and an overload of CGI effects. It looks like Roger Corman production values and Irwin Allen card board character all thrown into one picture. Haven't we seen enough of this?!
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