The Core: Movie Review, DVD Review (2003)
9/21/2007 Posted by Admin
Taking to the terra firma with a terror (Originally published 2003)
Directed by Jon Amiel, written by Cooper Layne and John Rogers, 135 minutes, PG-13.
In the new big-budget, B-movie disaster flick, "The Core," world annihilation is the order of the day but then so is the crash landing of the space shuttle “Endeavor,” which plummets from the sky in the film's uncomfortable opening moments to slam into the Los Angeles River.
Given Hollywood's increasing reticence to release anything that might generate even the slightest whiff of scandal or that might suggest--God forbid--that the studios are insensitive to current events or to the current mood of the country, the film's appearance in theaters comes as something of a surprise.
But not a shock. This is Hollywood after all, and nobody is ever going to accuse it of having good taste.
As directed by Jon Amiel from a script by Cooper Layne, "The Core" is a big, bawdy, end-of-the-world potboiler with a pedigree, one that includes such sci-fi bonanzas as "Fantastic Voyage," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Armageddon," "Deep Impact," "Independence Day" and "Crack in the World," to name a few.
The film is all about heart--the Earth's heart, that is (or its core, to be more specific), which has stopped spinning, a doomsday occurrence that causes all sorts of strange events, such as the sudden deaths of hundreds in Boston, an electrical storm that flattens most of Rome, the disintegration of the Golden Gate Bridge and, in the film’s best scene, a riff on Hitchcock’s “The Birds” that suggests Tippi Hedren might want to steer clear of London for a while.
In an effort to jumpstart the core before we’re all barbequed by the sun, a ragtag team of scientists are plucked from their everyday lives, armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons and given what can only be described as the world’s largest drill bit, a gleaming phallus outfitted with supercharged laser beams strong enough to cut through almost anything, except, as we learn in one scene, “diamonds the size of Cape Cod.”
Taking to the terra firma with a terror, this gung-ho group—played by Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Tcheky Karyo and Bruce Greenwood--starts drilling toward the Earth’s core, where they hope to deploy the bombs in an effort to start a ripple that will get the core spinning.
You know, sort of like your head is spinning now.
What’s unique about “The Core” is that it keeps its testosterone in check, going for a more pseudocerebral tone rather than one that reflects the Cro-Magnon period “Armageddon” and “Independence Day” embraced with such reckless abandon. The scientists and terranauts have none of the swagger and strut contemporary audiences have come to expect from these sorts of films, which will likely be a relief to some, though that isn’t to suggest that the film isn’t without energy. In fact, “The Core” is all about energy.
Boosted by a fine cast that manages to sell Layne’s purple script, the movie never really seems to stop. It just keeps going, just keeps drilling, just keeps moving, offering a wild ride in the process, one that’s just absurd enough to enjoy.
Grade: B
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Directed by Jon Amiel, written by Cooper Layne and John Rogers, 135 minutes, PG-13.
In the new big-budget, B-movie disaster flick, "The Core," world annihilation is the order of the day but then so is the crash landing of the space shuttle “Endeavor,” which plummets from the sky in the film's uncomfortable opening moments to slam into the Los Angeles River.
Given Hollywood's increasing reticence to release anything that might generate even the slightest whiff of scandal or that might suggest--God forbid--that the studios are insensitive to current events or to the current mood of the country, the film's appearance in theaters comes as something of a surprise.
But not a shock. This is Hollywood after all, and nobody is ever going to accuse it of having good taste.
As directed by Jon Amiel from a script by Cooper Layne, "The Core" is a big, bawdy, end-of-the-world potboiler with a pedigree, one that includes such sci-fi bonanzas as "Fantastic Voyage," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Armageddon," "Deep Impact," "Independence Day" and "Crack in the World," to name a few.
The film is all about heart--the Earth's heart, that is (or its core, to be more specific), which has stopped spinning, a doomsday occurrence that causes all sorts of strange events, such as the sudden deaths of hundreds in Boston, an electrical storm that flattens most of Rome, the disintegration of the Golden Gate Bridge and, in the film’s best scene, a riff on Hitchcock’s “The Birds” that suggests Tippi Hedren might want to steer clear of London for a while.
In an effort to jumpstart the core before we’re all barbequed by the sun, a ragtag team of scientists are plucked from their everyday lives, armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons and given what can only be described as the world’s largest drill bit, a gleaming phallus outfitted with supercharged laser beams strong enough to cut through almost anything, except, as we learn in one scene, “diamonds the size of Cape Cod.”
Taking to the terra firma with a terror, this gung-ho group—played by Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Tcheky Karyo and Bruce Greenwood--starts drilling toward the Earth’s core, where they hope to deploy the bombs in an effort to start a ripple that will get the core spinning.
You know, sort of like your head is spinning now.
What’s unique about “The Core” is that it keeps its testosterone in check, going for a more pseudocerebral tone rather than one that reflects the Cro-Magnon period “Armageddon” and “Independence Day” embraced with such reckless abandon. The scientists and terranauts have none of the swagger and strut contemporary audiences have come to expect from these sorts of films, which will likely be a relief to some, though that isn’t to suggest that the film isn’t without energy. In fact, “The Core” is all about energy.
Boosted by a fine cast that manages to sell Layne’s purple script, the movie never really seems to stop. It just keeps going, just keeps drilling, just keeps moving, offering a wild ride in the process, one that’s just absurd enough to enjoy.
Grade: B
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