The Core (2003)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Jon Amiel

Writers:

Cooper Layne (written by) and
John Rogers (written by)

Release Date:

28 March 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Earth has a deadline

Plot:

The only way to save Earth from catastrophe is to drill down to the core and set it spinning again.

Plot Keywords:

Earth | Core | Scientist | Disaster | Major

Cast

Aaron Eckhart	...	Dr. Josh Keyes
Christopher Shyer	...	Dave Perry
Ray Galletti	...	Paul
Hilary Swank	...	Maj. Rebecca Childs
Delroy Lindo	...	Dr. Ed 'Braz' Brazzleton
Eileen Pedde	...	Lynne
Rekha Sharma	...	Danni (as Rékha Sharma)
Stanley Tucci	...	Dr. Conrad Zimsky
DJ Qualls	...	Theodore Donald 'Rat' Finch
Tom Scholte	...	Acker
Richard Jenkins	...	Gen. Thomas Purcell
Glenn Morshower	...	FBI Agent
Bruce Greenwood	...	Cmdr. Robert Iverson
Anthony Harrison	...	FBI Agent
Tchéky Karyo	...	Serge (as Tcheky Karyo)

Also Known As:

Core (USA) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi life/death situations and brief strong language.

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Malaysia:U | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Brazil:Livre | Canada:PG (Canadian Home Video rating) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:PT | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | USA:PG-13 (No. 39398)

Filming Locations:

Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

David Foster Productions

Trivia:

When Beck is piloting Virgil around the diamonds, the control stick she's using is a Logitech Attack 3 joystick.

Goofs:

Continuity: While on the ship at sea looking for Josh and Beck, Rat's hair seems to grow shorter. When Rat is talking with the general inside, his hair is normal length, but when he runs to alert the general about the ultrasonics, his hair is at least an inch shorter.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dave Perry: [referring to his watch] It stopped.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Super Secret Movie Rules: Disaster Movies (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Echelon

Worth a Dollar if You Have Two Hours to Kill

How can you tell when a director is bad? I mean, assuming the director is given $50 million or so, competent actors, and a halfway-decent script, what would the film look like if he/she REALLY didn't know what he/she was doing? I think that film would look a lot like "The Core."

From the preview stage, this movie was on my "might see it but not pay for it" list, so I just now caught it on cable. Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart will definitely have Oscars someday, and most of the other actors who make it on the ship are of similar caliber. The comic relief generally works ("I'm going to need Xena tapes and lots of Hot Pockets"), and the plot is no more ridiculous than, say, "The Day After Tomorrow" (though it is slightly LESS ridiculous-- at least this movie attempts to offer a cause for the problem, however unlikely).

I remember watching "Entrapment," another John Amiel film, and thinking it was, in a word, awful. The editing was off, the plot lumbered ahead only through the will of Sean Connery's accent and Catherine Zeta-Jones spandex-clad anatomy. Watching "The Core," Amiel has decided his mistake was pacing, and turns up the volume to eleven and full speed ahead, hoping the charisma of his actors covers his butt. In the second half of the film, this works fine. In the first half, it just shows his limitations as a director... poor special effects during the space shuttle landing that could easily have been fixed with model work or different camera angles; birds going crazy and smacking into buildings look exactly like someone tossed a dummy against a building, then the editor cut it as close as possible. Truly, this is a man at the helm who doesn't know what a good film is supposed to look like. I wonder what an Ed Wood movie would have looked like, if someone had given THAT guy $50 million?

Characters die with clockwork predictability, and my only problem with the resolution was the actors were TOO good. They play geniuses, the absolute best in their fields, so when the movie ends I wanted to spend more time with them, see what incredible problems, discoveries, adventures they had next. The movie itself is barely a D+, thanks to the actors, occasionally adequate special effects (which we will call simply "effects"), and a really great score to hold it all together. I'd buy the score (not the pop songs over the credits) before I'd watch the movie again, but it's a thumbs up effort for everyone who isn't Amiel. Worth a dollar if you have two hours to kill.