I have put this under Z because of the character Zimsky
Writer: Cooper Layne, John Rogers (Screenplay)
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Bruce Greenwood, Tcheky Karyo, Richard Jenkins
Plot: The only way to save Earth from catastrophe is to drill down to the core and set it spinning again.
Tagline – The only way out is in
Runtime: 2 Hours 15 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun Disaster Movie
Story: The Core starts when people from around the world die suddenly when their pacemakers all stop, bringing in scientist Josh (Eckhart) and Serge (Karyo) to confirm this isn’t just a weapon, it doesn’t take long before over events in nature start bringing a worrying reality to the world, this becomes clear when astronauts Commander Richard Iverson (Greenwood), Beck (Swank) and Timmins (Johnstone) see their landing plan thrown out the window, forcing them into a daring landing in downtown LA.
Turning to Zimsky (Tucci), Josh, Serge, Beck and Richard are selected for an impossible sounding mission with the invention of Dr Brazzelton (Lindo) that would take a team into the center of the Earth through the core of the planet in an attempt to kick start the planet once again, hoping to save the world from destruction, can they do the impossible or not?
Thoughts on The Core
Characters – Josh is a lecturer that gets assigned to help figure out what caused a sudden amount of deaths, he is a man that likes being able to use science to help solve problems and comes off like the cool teacher. His theory is what leads to the mission and he brings the brains to the operation. Beck is the astronaut who has always wanted to lead a mission, she is ready but held back, though she does know how to save the day for her craft, she is selected as one of the two pilots for this mission which sees her facing a task she has never seen before. Brazzelton is the man that has created the theory behind the ship which would take them to the core, he has seen himself become an outside in the science community, but the one they have to turn to, to save the day. Zimsky works for the president which shows him going to a different direction to his former partner Brazzelton, he does want to use this mission as his chance for his next best seller. He is the closest to a villain that you will see in this film.
Performances – Aaron Eckhart in the leading role is strong being the reluctant hero that is better with his brains that his actions, not having the physical image required for the role. Hilary Swank doesn’t have as much to do as her talent deserves, though she does get to show a strong female presence in the astronaut world. Stanley Tucci in the villainous role is amazingly smug with his character. Delroy Lindo as the one that is considered the crazy one does bring the genius scientist to life well.
Story – The story here follows a group of scientist that must go into the Earth’s core to restart the planet before the world comes to an end after a string of natural disasters have hinted the end is coming. When it comes to disaster movies, we started with the extremes of a realistic disaster, then this one comes along, building on the desire to have bigger bolder edgy ideas for total destruction in new ways. If you are happy to watch a wildly over the top idea for a disaster story this is a joy to watch, we do focus on the human side of the mission, where the crew must make difficult decisions along the way, not putting too much focus on the disasters happening back on the surface, the only time we go into the world is for snippets of what is happening. You will need to suspend your disbelief for this one and once you do this we are going to see.
Action/Sci-Fi – The action is big to see, we do get a couple of large scale disaster as well as the chase down through to the core, while this jump largely into sci-fi however much it wants to play on the idea the science could be real.
Settings – The film has the disasters in big cities, which is what we would expect, the poor Golden Gate Bridge didn’t stand a chance. Inside the core we get different ideas to what we could see in the different layers.
Special Effects – The effects in the film haven’t aged the as well as they could, these are mostly used to try and create a big moment or two along the way too.
Scene of the Movie – The dive down.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The effects have one or two bad spells.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun disaster movie that will do everything you want in a disaster movie, it has bonkers science which does work and an idea that is so far out there you can enjoy.
Overall: True Blast.
