by David Blackwell

 

CAST:  Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Stanlet Tucci, DJ Qualls, Delroy Lindo, Bruce Greenwood, Alfre Woodward, Tcheky Karyo

WRITTEN by Cooper Lane and John Rogers

DIRECTED by Jon Amiel

 

EXTRAS: 10 deleted/extended scenes with opitional commentary, director commentary, From The Core and Back: The Making of The Core, 5 visual featurettes: Pre-visualization, Traflagar Square, Rome, Golden Gate Bridge, Geode

 

"They often say that editing is the last and most important rewrite that you do."- director Jon Amiel from THE CORE commentary track

THE CORE is a fun sci-fi that is strong on characters that you care abouut and a story that keeps moving, but it is weak on real science. This is the type of movie that should be released in the summer and take down the effects ladden movies that are weak on stories and characters. Sadly this movie was released in March and not many people saw it, but hopefully it will have a popular life on DVD.

THE CORE is the offspring of such 1960s movies like VYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and FANTASTIC VOYAGE. You have intelligent people teaming up to save the planet and restart the planet's core (to get it spinning again) with nuclear warheads. They travel in a ship called Virgil that is made of somestrong metal called Unatanium. THE CORE has a strong cast of great actors: Hillary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Bruce Greenwood, Alfre Woodward, Tcheky Karyo, Delroy Lindo, and Stanley Tucci. As they travel to the Earth's core, you see a new world that will amaze you and leave you with a sense of wonder as our fellow characters face danger on the way while the clcok ticks down for the planet as electromagnetic storms and microwaves wreck havoc.

THE CORE has a few extras. The five visual effect featurettes go behind how the visual effects were done on four sequences and how they used pre-visualization to get the look of the special effects before they had them done (and they used pre-visualized sequences in editing to get the movie figured out correctly). The commentary track by director Jon Amiel covers many things from how the actors worked a scene, the filming locations, and what scenes were cut among other things

When it came to the ten deleted/extended scenes, I got the feeling that Jon Amiel cut more than 15 minutes from THE CORE after he said he only included the best scenes that were cut (on the DVD). All the deleted scenes are great to watch, but I only hope more deleted scenes will be included if Paramount ever does a special edition of THE CORE.

The deleted scenes are:

1. Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) gives a couple of his college students (who have a crush on each other) his American Express to get a hotel room. At the end of the scene, you see the computer monitor saying Earth will reach an extinction level event in 92 days.

2. Brazzleton (Delroy Lindo) shows a small laser test.

3. Keyes expresses his doubts to the General Purcell on going in the Virgil since Keyes has claustraphobia.

4. Construction work on the Virgil.

5. Brazzleton and Nimsky argue between each other that comes to blows.

6. Suit try out scene where the flame thrower gets tested on Nimsky's terranaut suit (with Nimsky in the suit).

7. Rat and Keyes talk, Keyes asks the General that people should know about the danger the Earth is in, and Rat tells Keyes about Project Destiny.

8. Hull breach in the Virgil which is revealed to be Nimsky smoking.

9. Keyes tries to repair bridge monitor and there is talk about beck (Hillary Swank) being the first to go to the center of the Earth like Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon.

10. Nimsky searchs for his computer and finds a cigarette. He lights it.

As for the picture quality of the movie, it is very good except the edge enhancement is too noticeable in the first few minutes. The sound mix is great due to the fact that the music and sound effects don't drown out the dialogue like with many stereo mixes for many DVDs (with the LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS DVD being a prime offender). I enjoyed the movie and I was entertained by the extras. If you are looking for a good movie to buy or rent, get THE CORE.

 

Quick DVD reviews-

STAR TREK: NEMESIS- The director's commentary is technical and dry. Behind-the-scenes features don't cover much because they seem to cover teh same ground in each one. There are some interesting deleted scenes which were cut in editing, but sadly only 20 minutes of the 45 minutes cut are included on the DVD.

THE HUNTED- The movie is a good thriller. The deleted scenes include scenes that would ruin the way the movie was edited and some that show extra tracking scenes with Tommy lee Jones (except one contradicts his character).