Plot: What’s it about?
It’s movies like “The Core” that make you appreciate the really good movies that are available out there. It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that we had a rash of “Earth Destruction” movies in “Independence Day”, “Twister”, “Deep Impact” and the king of them all – “Armageddon”. Well, no less than five years later, we’re in for round two and the premise is still the same, but the movie is not. Yes, each one of the aforementioned movies did have charm on some level (“Twister” did have some great sound, “Independence Day” showed us that a movie about all of Earth dying can still make $300 million, “Deep Impact” showed us…well, something and “Armageddon” like it or not, did establish Ben Affleck as a star and gave us a pretty good music video). So what does “The Core” have to offer you for your hard-earned dollars? Not too much. The film simply has a new twist on the disaster movies of the 50’s – 70’s. Yet this time the cast is a little more star-studded and the effects are a better (albeit by just a little).
We begin as a space shuttle crashes to Earth (at a point in time where the real thing happened not even two months before the movie was releases). The pilot (Bruce Greenwood) is determined to land in Los Angeles, whereas his co-pilot (Hilary Swank) has other ideas. Now why did this happen, you might ask? Well, there is a problem with the Earth’s magnetic field and it has reeked havoc on the guidance control system. Naturally, this will put a damper on the landing and when all is said and done, they ask the inevitable question “ … what caused this …” As Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) explains (by lighting a peach on fire, no less), the Earth’s core has stopped spinning and in less than a year, we’ll all die from microwaves (the solar kind) that will literally cook us alive. It’s at this point in the movie that I can see a super slow-motion shot of a group of “hot shots” walking down an elongated corridor dressed in some cool regalia without smiles on their faces that are going to save the day. Pardon the previous run-on sentence.
You see, when the Earth’s core has stopped spinning, things go to hell (or at least they’ll feel like it). So it’s up to this group of people to take a machine that can literally burrow into the core of the Earth and detonate nuclear weapons to hopefully jumpstart it again. Yeah it might work, and monkey’s might fly out of my butt as Wayne might say…In any case, we know that they’re not going to show us a movie where the entire planet is incinerated and aside from a few precious landmarks getting burnt, we generally know the ride we’re in for. It’s movies like “The Core” that show us how stupid Hollywood really thinks we are. But we showed them, critics and audiences alike didn’t really like the film and now it’s on DVD for us to demolish. The cast, I feel, is wasted on another cookie-cutter storyline. We even have a few Oscar-winners in here as well (so don’t blame the actors). But there’s a part of the film that does warrant a watch, I can’t totally dislike the film, I did make it to the end. If there’s nothing else at the video store, then give this a rental; otherwise know that if the Earth’s core ever does stop spinning, we probably won’t be alive long enough to worry about it.
Video: How does it look?
The good thing about the Science-Fiction movies of today is that they’ll usually look and sound good. Such is the case with this movie. Presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, “The Core” looks great on DVD. For as dark as the subject matter is, the picture is really bright (not so bright that you notice it, but bright enough). The color palette is warm (no pun intended) and the colors are somewhat soft and I was surprised at how good this looked. Granted some of the effects are cheesy and we can tell when the computers take over, but this isn’t the fault of the DVD. Another example of how day and date movies transfer to DVD is shown here and as faulty as the movie is, the transfer is top notch.
Audio: How does it sound?
As I mentioned in the above “disaster” movies, this is something that’s been done before. But “The Core” sounds good and will give your system a workout. As you might imagine, the LFE do take over from time to time and the surrounds are almost constantly active. Dialogue is not all that important, but what we do care about does sound very clean and natural. The movie lives up to most everyone’s expectations when it comes to sound and the Dolby Digital 5.1 track doesn’t disappoint. For a good audio experience, you’ve found the right disc.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Paramount has offered up some nice supplements for us in the form of an audio commentary with Director Jon Amiel. Amiel’s track is failry decent, but he tends to pause and watch his creation on screen. Though screen-specific, it’s an average commentary at best. What’s more interesting are the featurettes. First up is “To the Core and Back: The Making of The Core” which is your standard EPK featurette. Interviews with actors and actresses, why they did the film and what they think it’s like aren’t of much interest to us. Still, it’s like an extended trailer (which isn’t on the disc) to get us psyched for the film. The “Deconstruction of the Visual Effects” is a far more entertaining segment in which a few key scenes are shown in both before and after shots. For as corny as the movie was, these make it seem pretty neat as far as what they can do with effects. Some 15 minutes of deleted scenes are shown and can be viewed with or without commentary. They don’t offer up a whole lot of information, but are interesting to watch nonetheless. The obligatory trailers are shown before the movie too, getting us really excited for what we all want to see – Indiana Jones!
