Hollywood has always had an infatuation with films that deal with natural disasters. However, the portrayal of such disasters is usually far over-blown for the sake of dramatic effect. But these films can't be taken seriously, as their purpose is nothing more than to give their audience an exciting, wild ride. This was the case in `The Core,' the new film from director Jon Amiel whose last film was 1999s `Entrapment,' which starred Sean Connery and Catherin Zeta-Jones. At first glance, `The Core' appears to be a science fiction/disaster flick about the end of the world. However, after analyzing the film, it's safe to say that this film is about 25% science fiction, and about 75% absurdity. But don't let that stop you from seeing it. Despite its silly story, `The Core' is a likable film that actually had me cracking up more than shivering with fear.
The film opens with various minor catastrophes occurring worldwide, from 32 sudden deaths in a major American city to flocks of birds flying into crowds of people and buildings (an apparent rip-off of Hitchcock's, `The Birds'). Scientists are brought in to examine these occurances and they hypothesize that the core of the earth has stopped spinning. They now need to find a way to get the core rotating once again in order to stop the cataclismic events from taking place. With the help of world's best scientists, they create a ship, properly titled as `Virgil,' designed to travel to the center of the earth, dump off a nuclear payload of about four bombs, and then as Aaron Eckhart's character, Josh says, `then we outrun the biggest shock wave in history.' `The Core' has some great talent. Eckhart (`Erin Brockovich') and Tcheky Karyo (`The Patriot') portray professors brought on to study the devastation of the super storms and strange deaths that are happening. Stanley Tucci (`Road To Perdition') plays a famed scientist with a severe ego problem. Hilary Swank, the Oscar winning actress of `Boys Don't Cry' plays a NASA astronaut sent to maneuver the ship through the earth's interior, along with Bruce Greenwood of `Double Jeopardy.' Richard Jenkins, who has appeared in several Farrelly brother's films including `There's Something About Mary,' and `Me, Myself, and Irene' appears as a general in charge of the mission.
Perhaps the film's most humorous points transpire when DJ Qualls (`The New Guy') enters the film has a hacker recruited to keep the media out of the public's eye by hacking the Internet and rooting out those who know of this secret mission to save the planet. If word of the events did get out, naturally as in any disaster flick, the fear of rioting and social unrest could take place. `The Core' is filled with clichés. It's easy to sit there and point out scenes that have taken place in other films, especially `Deep Impact,' and `Armageddon.' However, I found it to be forgivable. I liked `The Core' and found it to be fun escapism, not to be taken to heart. Disaster films have always been ridiculous, especially the greatest disaster schlock film of all, `Earthquake,' which starred Charlton Heston and George Kennedy. In recent years though, the idea of Earth's destruction from a force that mankind has no hold over has grabbed both the film industry and the public's attention, most notably with `Armageddon.' Quite frankly, I don't see why so many people loved `Armageddon' what with its stupidity, exaggerated direction from Michael Bay (`Pearl Harbor') and its dumbfounded performances from Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis. `Deep Impact' was a far superior film that was a box-office success in its time, but wasn't remembered because of mass appeal of `Armageddon.' Nonetheless, `The Core' is a decent flick that the average person can check his or her brain at the door of the theater with and veg-out to. ***
