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The Core (2003)

tomatometer

42

Average Rating: 5.3/10
Reviews Counted: 151
Fresh: 63 | Rotten: 88

A B-movie with its tongue planted firmly in cheek, The Core is so unintentionally (intentionally?) bad that it's a hoot.

45

Average Rating: 5.3/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 17

A B-movie with its tongue planted firmly in cheek, The Core is so unintentionally (intentionally?) bad that it's a hoot.

audience

41

liked it
Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 96,631

My Rating

Movie Info

An unlikely band of scientists and soldiers join forces to save the world from certain destruction in this action-drama. As the world is struck with a variety of inexplicable phenomena -- attacks by enormous swarms of birds in London, the explosion of the Colosseum in Rome, a potentially deadly malfunction which forces the Space Shuttle into a Los Angeles riverbed, and the simultaneous deaths of 32 people with pacemakers in Boston -- a team of top scientific minds from around the globe is

Sep 9, 2003

$31.0M

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (170) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (89) | DVD (27)

Undigestible fusion of worst-case earth science and leaden pacing.

April 1, 2003 Full Review Source: Village Voice | Comment
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[I]t's not campy enough to be consistently entertaining, and it's certainly not exciting or smart enough to be a first-rate sci-fi epic like a Deep Impact.

March 31, 2003 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | Comment
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Jules Verne this isn't, but it makes for fairly diverting escapist fare.

March 28, 2003 Full Review Source: USA Today | Comment
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There's a marked absence of panic in The Core.

March 28, 2003 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Core works because the characters are idiosyncratic enough to seem authentic but not so zany that they seem contrived.

March 28, 2003 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I never thought I'd see the day when I would write that someone like Qualls acts circles around Tucci, Jenkins or Lindo, some of our best actors.

March 28, 2003 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is a big, dumb, explosion movie.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

'The only truly interesting aspect found in "The Core" is Jon Amiel's thoughts as to what the inner parts of Earth might look like.'

March 31, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

If something isn't done soon, the earth as we know it (love that cliché) will destroy itself. Who do you call? Core busters!

October 15, 2004 Full Review | Comment

Should be a sci-fi screenwriter's dream; but this dream is more like one that Michael Crichton would have than Jules Verne, and there's not a breath of imagination on display

July 6, 2004 Full Review Source: F5 (Wichita, KS) | Comment

'Look out! It's diamonds big as Cape Cod!' No, they're large black blobs that the CGI guys clearly didn't have time to fill in with vector graphics. No need for alarm.

March 8, 2004 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
Oz
eFilmCritic.com

The Core ain’t your grandma’s journey to the center of the earth.

February 12, 2004 Full Review | Comments (2)

The Core is really nothing more than a special effects show, but for the most part, they aren't exactly special.

January 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Star-Democrat (Easton, MD) | Comment
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

A disaster film with a high calibre cast, atrocious, inane dialogue, unspectacular special effects and questionable science. But fun nonetheless.

October 27, 2003 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Apollo Guide

Hillary Swank and Aaron Eckhart lead the latest adventure to save the world from natural forces... YAWN.

October 7, 2003 Full Review Source: EDGE Boston | Comment
EDGE Boston
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Core

The Core is one perfect example of a terrible film that should've never been made. What's stunning about this film is that it has a good cast of talented actor, aside from D.J. Qualis, who was always a terrible actor. I can't believe the amount of really good actors who acted in this pile of junk. The film is yet

August 24, 2011
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

Action/adventure sci-fi about an intrepid team of scientists who must journey to the center of the earth in order to save the world. I wonder what can happen? Summer movie fun.

June 26, 2011
moonrivers

Super Reviewer

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