Movie Reviews:
Deep Core? Deep Shit is more like it!
What do you get when you put three Star Trek actors in a movie with a ridiculously shallow (never mind the word deep in the title) script, terrible special effects (and some stock footage), evil chinese and yet another save-the-world-from-man-made-annihilation storyline? A movie so bad it can't even be called a B-movie. I'd rate it "F" for failed.
The camera is mostly pointed Craig Sheffer (Brian Goodman), Terry Farrell (Allison Saunders), Bruce McGill (Sam Dalton), Harry Van Gorkum (Alan Morrisey) and Wil Wheaton (Rodney Bedecker), who have to save the Earth from tectonic destruction when an experiment sets of a chain reaction deep beneath the surface that causes massive tectonic upheaval (stock footage of volcanoes and earthquakes paired with sub-standard CGI) that just might tear the Earth apart. To complete this mission, they have to use a sub-terran vehicle, the USDM (Ultrasonic Drilling Machine), designed by Sheffer and Farrell, to set of a couple of atomic bombs kindly provided for by the chinese government that wants to use the USDM as a weapon, similar to the Metal Gear, which in turn prompts the usual "How could I have been so stupid"-monologue from Farrell. Still with me?
The acting is nothing to write home about, the dialogues are contrived and unnatural ("I'm warning you, if you dig too deep, the ramifications will be irreversible") and the visuals are not appealing either. But I don't want to say it is all bad: At least we get to see Wil Wheaton's character die by getting poured over with badly animated hot lava. Didn't we all want to see that happen to Wesley Crusher on Star Trek? Speaking of which, there is quite a few visual references to said series, such as the abymal chair-rocking (Oh, turbulence) and the fuse-less control panels. OK, so it is all bad after all...
Avoid this ... Thing! at any cost, nobody will be able to give you back the 90 minutes you waste watching it, and the money spend renting it. I did not watch the out-takes on the DVD, since the in-takes were bad enough. There is no way I will listen to the commentary track, nothing they say can validate this movie. The trailer made it out to be an excellent action/disaster movie, but action there is none, and the only disaster was making the movie in the first place... You heard of movies so bad they are good? This isn't even one of those.
All Core, no fruit.
Filmcritic.com