Deep Core [Import]

It reminded me greatly of the film The Core in various parts, in fact I think that The Core took a great deal from this low budget sci-fi than people are willing to admit.

The plot is quite simple, it's a save the from destruction movie, with your obligatory bad guy who finds his conscience at the last minute and saves the others by sacrificing his own life, the gruesome death of a likeable crew member (Rodney) and the exciting ride in the bowels of the earth by the survivors trying to make it to the surface in one piece!

Of course there are other baddies in that the Deep Core Machine they are using has been built and funded by the Chinese who want to use it as weapon at some point and the sleazy American bad Daryl guy played with gusto by the dead pan actor James Russo gets his just deserts at the end.

It is nothing spectacular but it is good fun to watch! The special effects aren't all that brilliant though they do have their moments, the finding of a huge diamond cavern is one of them, the lasers on the Deep Core machine another, and I thought the lava flow was pretty good too!

All in all this is quality cheese, and I really enjoyed it and I'm not ashamed to admit to it online!

Deep Core is based on the same basic premise as 2003's The Core - Man has screwed up the earth and has to tunnel down into the earth to fix it. The Core is clearly the better of the two movies. Deep Core, on the other hand, has all of the same elements: a ship (The Core's is a lot better looking), a crew, a few nuclear warheads, a person that gets killed by lava, and a person that sacrifices themselves for the rest of the group. Once you get passed those basic similarities, Deep Core is but a pour precursor to the later film. It has three good actors: Wil Wheaton, Terry Farrell and Bruce McGill; the rest are generally overly dramatic.

There are a few special effects that don't look all that bad (such as the cutting scenes). All of the earth-quake-type scenes look rather fake and the ship looks poorly suited to the type of work that it was designed for. Overall, its not a bad film, but if you have a choice watch The Core, not Deep Core.