Deep Core (2000)
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In recent years there has an unfortunate return to the disaster movie genre with such films as “Armageddon”, “Deep Impact” and “The Core” all involving similar plots about a select team having to save the Earth from disaster. Where action blockbusters follow, straight-to-video rubbish inevitably follows, leading to such films as 2000’s “Deep Core”.
Rather than going up into space in the footsteps of Armageddon, the writers of Deep Core instead decided to go underground, in a similar manner to the more recent blockbuster “The Core”. Brain Goodman (Craig Sheffer) is a scientist working on a project to develop an advanced underground digging machine that can tunnel through rock at high rates using lasers mounted on the front of the vehicle. He warns company boss Morrissey (Harry Van Gorkum) that use of the vehicle is potentially dangerous but his warnings are ignored and he is promptly fired. A few years later he is working as an oilman when he hears that a small island has turned into a volcano after one of the machines caused instability in the Earth’s crust. He predicts these instabilities are likely to spread, leading to a devastating series of Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions over the next few days. The only way to stop is to use the next version of the digging machine to plant nuclear devices in specially selected locations underground. Acquiring nuclear weapons is suspiciously easy and Morrissey and Goodman start to suspect the motives of their Chinese backers when they discover that the design modifications they asked for in the vehicle make it ideal for carrying the nukes. So Goodman and his crew, including Wil Wheaton as a womanising explosives expert and Terry Farrell as the resident scientist have to plant the nuclear devices despite the inevitable setbacks and the fact that the Chinese military has an unhealthy interest in their project.
The plot is quite derivative, particularly of Armageddon, but it manages to avoid the absurdities of most films in the genre and there are a couple of nice plot points. The science is not glaringly wrong, although that is probably due more to my lack of knowledge about geology rather than any scientific accuracy on the part of the film. The characters are decent enough but the script is about as mediocre as would be expected from such a film. The stock footage of volcanic explosions is not particularly convincing and the sets look very cheap.
The acting is generally mediocre, Farrell probably gives the best performance and her fellow Star Trek alumni Wil Wheaton gives probably the worst in a hopelessly miscast role – although it is probably more the fault of the script than him. Otherwise the actors deserve their B-movie obscurity, apart from a small role for “Big Trouble In Little China”’s Donald Li as a Chinese General.
In summary, a low-budget B-movie that is generally quite mediocre, although the plot is a bit better than many other examples of the genre and it is reasonably entertaining.
Rating : 5 / 10
All content ©2003 William Marnoch.
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