Review of The Core (2003) by Mark B — 05 May 2010

Here's a not so fantastic idea for a movie. Let's send a group of scientists and NASA officers to the center of the earth in a cool looking vehicle that can drill through earth, rock, mantle and crust. The purpose of this mission is to save the Earth. You see, weird and life threatening occurrences across the planet has been attributed to the slowing rotation of the core. This condition must be reversed. This cool looking vehicle's crew is going to detonate a nuclear bomb and fix things real fast.

I suppose the producers thought they could get away with some cheap but cool looking special effects, perhaps by throwing kaleidoscope patterns on the screen for an hour or so, and we would all be thrilled beyond belief. I wonder if the scene with the Space Shuttle landing in the Los Angeles River was added at the end when they realized they had a turd of a movie on their hands.

The talent they had on screen here is utterly amazing when you consider how bad the final product is. Aaron Eckhart, Stanley Tucci, and Hillary Swank have all contributed mightily to some great films. They should have taken a pass on this one.