Barnes & Noble

Despite its impressive cast and state-of-the-art special effects, The Core is at heart a cheesy sci-fi thriller of the type produced in the '50s and '60s by George Pal -- but that's not a criticism, it's a recommendation. The screenplay of Jon Amiel's sturdily mounted film flagrantly disregards the laws of physics and fairly abounds in stock characters, familiar situations, and cornball dialogue. In this case, the corny lines are read by superb actors who give them the necessary gravitas to make them convincing...convincing enough for the duration of the movie, anyway. Aaron Eckhart portrays scientist Josh Keyes, who analyzes seemingly unnatural phenomena and discovers that the earth's core has stopped spinning, causing a disruption in the planet's electromagnetic shield that renders it vulnerable to solar microwaves. Stuffy, egotistical physicist Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci), initially skeptical of Josh's findings, eventually concurs and helps convince the government to launch a top-secret project calculated to restart the stalled core with nuclear detonations. A cast-against-type Delroy Lindo is very effective as an eccentric scientist who builds a massive burrowing device equipped with laser guns powerful enough to bore through solid rock. No less daringly cast is Hilary Swank, all business as a space-shuttle pilot recruited to help operate the metal mole; her risk-averse commander is the always reliable Bruce Greenwood. Director Amiel must have known that he was working with hackneyed elements, but you can't guess that from the film, which takes itself seriously enough to obscure its scientific implausibility. The story unfolds at a breezy pace, gliding smoothly from one predictable situation to the next without pauses that might disrupt the suspension of disbelief. A thoroughly enjoyable "popcorn movie," The Core delivers everything sci-fi fans require and does so with considerable aplomb. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

An unlikely band of scientists and soldiers join forces to save the world from certain destruction in this action-drama. As the world is struck with a variety of inexplicable phenomena -- attacks by enormous swarms of birds in London, the explosion of the Colosseum in Rome, a potentially deadly malfunction which forces the Space Shuttle into a Los Angeles riverbed, and the simultaneous deaths of 32 people with pacemakers in Boston -- a team of top scientific minds from around the globe is assembled to determine what has thrown the world into such a frenzy. Dr. John Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) makes the startling discovery that the Earth's electromagnetic forces have begun to collapse, thanks to a sudden lack of movement of the molten ore at the center of the Earth. If the planet is to be saved, the core of the Earth needs a jump start, and Keyes assembles a team to burrow to the center of the planet and bomb the insides back into action. Joining Keyes on this dangerous, last-chance mission are the brilliant but arrogant Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci), French arms expert Dr. Serge Levesque (Tchéky Karyo, maverick researcher "Brazz" Brazzleton (Delroy Lindo), geeky computer genius Rat (DJ Qualls), and two no-nonsense military types, Commander Richard Iverson (Bruce Greenwood) and Major Rebecca Childs (Hilary Swank). However, as the crew digs deeper into the Earth, the more they discover what they haven't been told about their mission and what's really been causing the worldwide chaos. The Core was originally scheduled for release in the fall of 2002, but the movie didn't reach theaters until the spring of 2003 as special-effects experts perfected the film's more spectacular scenes. Mark Deming

Washington Post

A two-hour pleasure cruise. Michael O'Sullivan

Boston Globe

The Core is such a feat of go-for-broke heroism and you-gotta-be -kiddin'-me ridiculousness that it almost qualifies as a feel-good diversion -- with just a quarter of the runaway jingoism of your average disaster extravaganza. Wesley Morris

San Francisco Chronicle

The Core works because the characters are idiosyncratic enough to seem authentic but not so zany that they seem contrived. Mick LaSalle

Product Details

• UPC: 032429059710
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Time: 2:16:00