The Core (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Jon Amiel (Director) Featurette-Making Of-To The Core And Back Featurette-Deconstruction Of The Visual Effects Deleted Scenes-With Optional Director's Commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	129:26
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (58:48)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jon Amiel
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Aaron Eckhart Christopher Shyer Ray Galletti Hilary Swank Tchéky Karyo Eileen Pedde Rekha Sharma Stanley Tucci Delroy Lindo Tom Scholte Bruce Greenwood Richard Jenkins Glenn Morshower
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Christopher Young

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English Audio Commentary Greek Hebrew Croatian Hungarian Portuguese Slovenian Serbian	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Pepsi and Mountain Dew
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, closing credits appear over Earth flypast

    The Core, from director Jon Amiel (Entrapment, Sommersby), is a science-fiction film with the emphasis very much on 'fiction'. The premise of the story is that the Earth's very core has come to a halt, thus endangering the very existence of this planet. Time is short, and a solution must be found to get the core moving on its merry way again...

    The solution: bring in a team of professionals (of whom all but one appear to be American), to get the job done. This team is made up of some rather clichéd characters, played to varying degrees of success by a cast possessing some reasonable talent. There is Dr Josh Keyes, played by Aaron Eckhart (The Pledge, Erin Brockovich), who is cool, young, confident and looks like an all-American football hero, but is actually one of the greatest brains in Physics.The other principal members of the team include Dr Zimsky, played in a nice over-the-top way by  Stanley Tucci (Maid in Manhattan), and Major Rebecca Childs, an attractive and young Space Shuttle co-pilot, played by Hilary Swank (Insomnia, The Gift). There is also Theodore Finch, played by DJ Qualls, who would have to be about the most clichéd computer hacker I've seen in a film. He's thin, pale, nerdy, fond of junk food, and yet arrogant and boastful about his computer abilities!

    Whilst some of the dialogue is a little cheesy and filled with clichés, it manages to steer clear of American flag-waving, unlike some other films, notably ID4, Armageddon and Deep Impact.

    The occasional hammy dialogue, together with the over-the-top performances from some cast, is reasonably well balanced overall by the comparatively weighty acting by Delroy Lindo (Romeo Must Die) as Dr Brazzleton, as well as by Tcheky Karyo as the French scientist Dr Serge Leveque.

Video

    The video transfer is presented in the film's original theatrical format of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is razor sharp and clear at all times. Shadow detail is good throughout. There was no evidence of grain nor any low-level noise.

    The colour transfer was rich at all times with no trace of oversaturation or colour bleed even in the very bright orange/red lava scenes. Skin tones are natural throughout.

    There were no film artefacts visible at all, as one would expect from such a recent theatrical release.

    There is some aliasing such as on the window blinds and chrome parts of equipment at 39:45.

    Subtitles are available in English and a number of other languages. I sampled the English and found them to be close to the spoken word, and timed well with the onscreen dialogue.

    The layer change occurred at 58:48 and was well placed at a natural 'break' in the film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This is a great, modern, action-type Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack filled with surround and subwoofer activity.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is available in English and Hungarian. Both are equally good as far as sound quality goes, with the latter being mastered at a slightly lower level.

    Dialogue is clear, even during scenes with plenty of background noise. The dialogue is in sync with the actors' lip movements at all times.

    The music, by Christopher Young (The Shipping News, Swordfish, The Gift) is a typical modern sci-fi film soundtrack. It's exciting, grandiose or suspenseful as it needs to be. His use of a large orchestra combined with choir adds a rich sound that is really quite enjoyable at times.

    The rear surround channels are used extensively throughout this film. There are plenty of discrete effects from all channels, as well as front to rear panning and panning across the rears. Some examples of the surround speaker usage include the traffic noises panning across the rear speakers at 1:52, the pigeons flying around at 7:51, and the helicopter rotors at 26:58.

    The subwoofer is well exercised in supporting deep sound effects during this film. Some particularly effective subwoofer 'moments' include the space shuttle orbiting overhead at 10:52 (of course, in films spacecraft always do make noise don't they?), the demonstration of the ultrasonic tunneller at 28:50, explosions at 47:30 and an almighty 'thump' at 114:16.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio and Animation

    The main menu is presented in an orange/red tone with changing scenes from the film. Soundtrack music is looped in the background.

Audio Commentary

   The audio commentary on this disc is an entertaining and informative one by the Director Jon Amiel.  Right from the outset, Amiel states that he will be highlighting the technical aspects of the film, which is great given that this is an effects-driven movie. He also covers the reasoning behind some of the camerawork and editing as well.

    He often praises Christopher Young's musical score which was apparently performed by a 120 piece orchestra together with a 48 member choir!

    Amiel provides a lot of background trivia about props, sets, locations and other aspects of the filming that fans will really enjoy. There are quite a few gaps in his commentary during which time the soundtrack from the film is increased in volume. Amiel does tend to 'talk up' the actors' performances too often. In fact, Amiel often pauses his commentary to allow the listener to hear the 'great' dialogue!

Featurette - Making Of:  "To the Core and Back" (10:52)

    Presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Basically a collection of clips from interviews with the Director, Screenwriters, Producer and a few of the cast members. There is a reasonable amount of behind-the-scenes footage. Scenes from the film are presented in 2.35:1 letterboxed.

    Hilary Swank does carry on a little about how tough she thought it was on herself to have to 'react' to visual effects that weren't actually in front of her. Poor girl...I guess that's why actors get paid so much.

Featurette: "Deconstruction of the Visual Effects"

    Five short interviews with the Director, Visual Effects Supervisor and other crew detailing the visual effects used in The Core. Presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen, each of the 5 interviews is only selectable separately. Given the brevity of each section, it would have been useful to have a 'play all' option.

    The first of the five interviews focuses on 'pre visualisation' techniques, whilst the remaining 4 are each focused on particular effects in the film. Overall, the interviews are very good and informative, though a little brief. There is plenty of information and footage of the CGI processes involved.

Deleted Scenes (runtime 14:27)

    Presented in 2.35:1 letterbox. Audio is the original soundtrack or commentary by the Director. The latter is far more interesting as he provides a detailed explanation of the scene and its reasons for being left out of the final cut.

    Most of the scenes provided are extensions to scenes in the final cut of the film and in some cases would have added some useful 'depth' to the storyline, especially via some extended characterisations. Other scenes just seemed to add time and the film didn't suffer their loss.

    These scenes were cut before any of the CGI was added though obviously still quite late in the filming process as they are of fairly high presentation quality. A highly worthwhile inclusion, especially as some scenes are reasonably lengthy.

    This movie has been released in Region 1 in two versions, a widescreen (16x9 enhanced) version, or a full-screen (pan & scan) version. Both contain the same extras as the R4 release.

    Unless you had to have the full-screen version, the R4 release is the recommended one, given that it's in PAL format and 16x9 enhanced.

    The Core is a much better film than other similar recent offerings such as ID4 or Armageddon, even though it didn't do terribly well in the cinemas, or at least nowhere nearly as well as these other far inferior films. The Core isn't a great or memorable science-fiction film by any means, but it is a great non-stop thrill ride which is pretty well executed overall. It's not a film that's going to challenge the viewer mentally, but then again it's not intended to. Just ignore the science in this film and just let the story, sound and visuals give you a fun time!

    Excellent audio and visual presentation combined with a great set of extras make this a worthwhile purchase if you're a fan of the threat-of-global-destruction subgenre of science fiction films.

    By the way, there's a CGI 'gag' in the form of a trout in place of one the pigeons during the Trafalgar Square scene. If you can't spot it, look carefully around runtime (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) 8:39.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall