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

Colour:

Colour

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:

Christopher Young's score employed a 120 person orchestra and over 40 choristers.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Rat is trying to "hack" his way into the DoE's "Intranet Database", on his first try to access a file he gets an error "404 - Access Denied". Actually, web server error message 404 corresponds to "File Not Found", while 403 is "Forbidden / Access Denied". Since Rat is working from a seemingly secured computer - he seems to have no trouble at all accessing the DoE's "Intranet" as clearly stated on the screen - probably the correct error message should have been "401 - Unauthorized".

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 10.5 (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Sunblind

Good God don't disasters hit the non-tourist areas.

The Core: 5/10: Disaster movies always seem to do better when the disaster is local in scope. A city threatened by avalanche, a tower threatened by an inferno, a Poseidon threatened by an adventure, that kind of thing. Earth killer movies are always a harder road.

You have your 4 standard horseman of the earth disaster; nuclear war, space invaders, plagues (esp. those that create zombies), and meteors. Lately earth killing movies have gotten creative and lets face it stupid, global warming (The Day after Tomorrow), President George W Bush (Fahrenheit 911) and now The Core with it's well… I'm still not sure what broke.

The core of the earth stopped spinning (not the earth itself mind you) which is causing the electromagnetic field to dissipate. Okay, that sounds serious. So that would cause what exactly? Apparently the movie wasn't all that sure so we get scenes of some the lamest and implausible disasters ever. Lets put two under the scientific microphone shall we.

One involves birds going all Hitchcock in London due to their inability to navigate using the magnetic field. Okay that may effect the birds ability to fly south (Oh my god the pigeons they're going east!), but even the Mr. Magoo of the avian world wouldn't start flying into statues and buses.

In another all too short montage a lightning storm destroys the Roman Coliseum. I'm not sure what is more unlikely, lighting striking relatively short rock structures, or the granite exploding when it does. Lightning, last time I checked, was attracted to metal.

But what would you expect from a movie that puts a giant windshield in a rock-drilling machine (Made with that magic metal Unobtainium). Keep in mind I've only scratched the surface of the silliness.

Acting wise Stanley Tucci is a joy, Hillary Swank still kind of looks like a guy, and everyone else is forgettable. The Core is enjoyable in that bad 50's sci-fi kind of way. But they needed more (and more plausible) disasters, and much less well everything else.