Movie: 'The Core' (2003)

I like 'The Core'. This is my indecent admission, a confession of sorts. It's not the greatest movie but I like it anyway. Some people say it's a blatant ripoff of 'Armageddon', but I haven't seen that movie so I wouldn't know. What I do know is that the cheesiness of 'The Core' makes it endearing in a way that I don't see in any other movie. Long before the sarcasm provoked by the term 'Unobtainium' in 'Avatar', we find that material here. Long before Aaron Eckhart struck it big in 'The Dark Knight' or Stanley Tucci started making big waves they were here, as was Hilary Swank! It's a fabulously cast movie, and the actors should really do better than they do but the tone is gloriously cheesy and you buy it. Maybe it's the British sensibility of the director Jon Amiel winning me over to this tosh.

The plot, as much as it matters is this: The molten core of the Earth has stopped spinning and the planet's electromagnetic field (shield) is breaking down and will result in the world being burnt to a crisp by the Sun. As that shield begins to break down our hero Joshua Keyes spreads the news and ultimately ends up as the de facto leader of a mission to the core to restart the rotation via a nuclear detonation. He's de facto because Bruce Greenwood's pilot is going to inevitably be bumped off first, the first in a sequence of deaths at very regular intervals that ultimately leaves Joshua and Hilary Swank's Bec Child as the only remaining people. The crew is even eliminated in order of actor notoriety which makes it even hammier but I don't care because I like 'The Core'. Finally, at the middle of the world, after some political shenanigans at the surface and numerous realisations about things that have gone wrong and then the associated solutions, the world is saved and the two survivors are stuck there. Or are they?

It's a dopey movie. I like a lot of the science not making sense. I really like Tucci playing the worst cliche of an egocentric physicist who'd sell his mother for prestige and stole research from the mission ship's designer 'Braz', resulting in comical tension between the two. The dialogue is amazing, seemingly prepared in a drama workshop in a community college but delivered by classy actors, and totally ridiculous as a consequence. In many ways it's the opposite to the awesome dialogue of 'Joe Versus The Volcano'. I've used 'soul sick' ever since seeing that movie. Oh, that's a brilliant movie but is not to the point of 'The Core'.

Perhaps the overriding problem of 'The Core', even though I like it, is the convenience of the sequential deaths, of Zimsky's old project causing the problem to begin with, of Zimsky having bad history with Braz, of Bruce Greenwood giving the inspirational speech to Bec and then dying, of there still being a way to get to the surface even with the nuclear reactor gone, of Rat the Super Hacker making the final realisation about the whales, and finally of the French crew man Serge giving the wise words that allow everyone to not buckle under the pressure.

Technically it's an excellent movie, with brilliant effects and sound and a score by Christopher Young that is mildly acclaimed. Oh, if only it weren't associated with a movie that Mickey Mouse could credibly pop up in in a cameo.

Anyway, I will recommend 'The Core' and destroy my credibility in the process. Watch it, there's a good chance you'll hate it, but you might develop the same perverse love for it that I have. I like 'The Core'.

Thank you for your time.
O.

Postscript:
I did it! I finished the piece on 'The Core' that has been in progress for three weeks! This is the fourth version! Gonna do a little dance now!