The Core

Two words: Suspend Disbelief.

That is what you MUST do to come out liking this good ol' popkorn flick. When up against other films of this type, such as Deep Impact and Independence Day, "The Core" easily bests them, but man, it's also easily the least probable.

The basic premise is that the core of the earth, which is molten lava, has stopped spinning and thus, the electro-magnetic shield way above our heads, breaks apart and starts wreaking havoc to all the little Earthlings.

The movie doesn't waste any time. The hook happens almost immediately aka people start dying. It's kinda freaky, pace makers stop and birds attack people, unintentionally ...so we meet Josh Keyes (played by Aaron Eckhart), a college professor and young geo-physicist. We also meet Sergei Leveque (played by the always brilliant Tcheky Karyo), a frenchman, who is also a geo-physicist. Saw that coming, right? Yup, the plot is pretty basic and simple enough for just about anybody to follow... the dialogue is even worse.

So, what happens next? Without giving away too much, they meet up with an older doctor, by the name of Conrad Zimsky (played by Stanley Tucci), who is just stellar here, and practically steals the movie. These characters talk about the impending doom of Earth, and this leads us to another wacky scientist, Dr. Edward Brazelton (played by Delroy Lindo), who is probably the smartest character in the film.

Oh yeah, back to the beginning, there's this small scene with a Space Shuttle... eerily similar to the Columbia tragedy, but it's way cool, it has to crash land. That's all I will say. It's just great filmmaking.

Back to the characters... the two other main ones are played by Bruce Greenwood (best known for JFK in Thirteen Days) and Hillary Swank, who I recognized right off the bat, except for her dang name. It was driving me crazy! I was like "I know that actress! What's her name!" So, those two are the pilots of the Journey to the Center of the Earth, ship.

Yes, this film is sorta based off that great Jules Verne novel, but I didn't see it in the credits, so I am guessing 'sorta' is an understatement. There's no Dinosaurs roaming around beneath the surface, thank God. I don't know if I would be willing to suspend disbelief if they wrote it like that.

That's the story of this film. It's a great popkorn flick, that has no nudity/sex, very little bad language, and a pretty simple plot that a first grader could follow and not get bored. So take the kids to this one... except there is some smoking in this, which was very unnecessary, as it's only a couple scenes, and has nothing to do with plot, but hey, it makes the character look cool!

If you're bored and have kids that won't shut-up, take 'em to see this, they'll get a kick out of the action and you'll enjoy it too, just don't go expecting great dialogue or plot, because you won't find any. That said, I will say that the entire cast, did an excellent job with what little of a script they had to work with, Stanley Tucci has a very memorable role here, and damn, Delroy Lindo just gets better and better with each new role! I love this guy!

Remember to suspend disbelief. This is sci-fi. Try not to think. Just enjoy.