Deep Core Reviews

A numbingly routine sci-fi number about conducting pre-emptive strikes against natural catastrophes, like earthquakes and volcanic activity, that could permanently alter the Earth's topography. Concerned about possible military modifications to his laser-driven Ultra-Sound Drilling machine, Brian Goodman (Craig Sheffer), scuttles the invention. Although Brian's partner, Alan Morrisey (Harry Von Gorkum), is committed only to the pursuit of profit, Brian designed his manned vehicle to travel through deep subterranean areas for purposes of scientific research. While Brian settles into a new career as an oil-rig developer, Alan and his boss, Daryl Simmons (James Russo), dicker with the Red Chinese, who are interested in buying an "improved" version of Brian's model. Daryl pressures Alan to step up the production schedule, and Alan's experiments with extreme heat precipitate a disastrous chain reaction that stretched underground from Siberia to the Philippines to California. Though Brian is no fan of what Alan's been up to, he nonetheless realizes that unless he does something, deadly magma could start spurting over much of the world's populace. Brian teams up with Alan's mechanical wizard, Dr. Allison Saunders (Terry O' Farrell), and proposes a do-or-die scheme that involves the carefully timed planting of depth charges throughout trouble spots linked to volcanic eruptions. Unfortunately, the Chinese communists are more concerned with the preservation of the drilling machine than the safety of Brian's crew. Despite danger from imminent eruptions, Brian hopes to create a fiber-optics daisy chain that will relieve pressure at the most vulnerable areas. The question is whether he'll be able to carry out the plan, give that Daryl's complicity with the Red Chinese threatens to shit it down. As Mother Nature heaves and shudders, this boring (in both senses of the term) adventure drills steadily downward. The script wallows in techno-babble about "tectonic wave forms" at the expense of character development and suspense; it's a thriller only a geologist's mother could love.