Some movies are good, some are bad. Other times they can be so bad, they’re actually good. In this space each week, I will be weeding through the films others have labeled as some of the worst ever made and
Some movies are good, some are bad. Other times they can be so bad, they’re actually good.
In this space each week, I will be weeding through the films others have labeled as some of the worst ever made and give you a reason to rent or ridicule.
First up was 2003’s “The Core,” which packed in a star-studded cast including Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci and Delroy Lindo among other notable and accomplished actors. The casting director certainly deserves a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for acquiring such a terrific ensemble for such a ridiculous script.
The Core follows the same formula as other “end of days” style films such as Armageddon, Deep Impact and The Day After Tomorrow. A natural (or unnatural?) event has sent the earth into its final countdown, with a rag-tag group of military and civilians as the only hope to save the planet.
It’s not a meteor or drastic weather patterns this time, but the lack of rotation from the earth’s core that has caused havoc on the electromagnetic waves that protect the earth and help navigate daily life.
So what do we do? We go to the earth’s core, of course.
Forget the unknown material, unmapped route and ungodly heat in the way. Convenient solutions will arise, trust me.
There are plenty of laughs in this adventure, though many of them are likely unintentional. It is unclear throughout how seriously the movie takes itself. If it is tongue-in-cheek, then much of it is quite passable. If not, well…
Many of the special effects are not up to par. Birds flying into windows, slow-motion sequences, implausible lightning strikes and other clichés fill the movie’s first hour, making the viewer feel like it was using decade-old technology, while far superior imagery was rampant through other disaster films of its time.
One scene supposed to take place deep inside the earth’s crust appears to be just an empty soundstage filled with jagged foam pieces meant to be crystals.
For the most part, the cast does its best to keep the movie fresh and entertaining.
Eckhart is truly superb, as is Lindo. Character actor Tcheky Karyo is terrific as Eckhart’s buddy and another member of the heroic crew.
Tucci plays his character completely over the top and leaves all subtlety at the door.
Swank left much to be desired in her portrayal of a young, accomplished astronaut, though the character was pretty stiff to begin with.
The script and dialogue had many lines the viewer can see coming a mile away, though the cast had good chemistry while it was just riffing with one another. Had the whole movie been done improvisationally, it would likely have been much better.
Many of the individual death scenes are more funny than tragic, though some do tug slightly at the heart.
Some of the plot points, if they can be called that, seem to be ripped right off the screen from Armageddon — military having “need to know” information, a secret backup plan that jeopardizes the heroes, an insider sabotaging the government to give the original plan more time, etc.
If the viewer is able to put aside reality for the entire 134 minutes and accept the movie at face value, for instance, believing that a NASA rocket can re-enter the atmosphere over 100 miles off course as the co-pilot navigates to a narrow embankment and land in one foot of water with little to no bumpiness along the way, then this can be an enjoyable viewing.
Overall, there are more smiles than eye-rolls and although there are easily 20 minutes that could be shaved off, The Core is mostly bad in a good way.
