Taking command of the screen in a dramatic confident manner reminiscent of "Independence Day" and then later nestling more comfortably into an "Armageddon" demeanor, "The Core" is a very strong B movie.

In fact, despite a whole host of questionable scientific sounding postulates, the film is actually mostly fun, action packed and clips along at a fine pace. (I'm pretty sure the Space Shuttle lands itself via programming.)

Two flawed sequences mar this otherwise "A-" film. The first is a scene with our French friend caught in a pressing situation, the second is calamity in Rome. Both these sequence play out distinctly and painfully inferior to the rest of the reel. The first because of the direction, the second because of the graphics. At times, the score itself also dips into melodrama in its attempts to accentuate the tragic.

Imagine if you will, birds falling from the sky, people suddenly dropping dead where they stand ... what could be causing these strange occurrences? To find out, the US government sends a group of experts to the Earth's core. Along the way, the picture stumbles across some amazingly suggestive parallels with current politics on the world scene.

Hillary Swank confesses, "Before I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to be an astronaut. I would still like to go into space at some point. It seems very spiritual, bigger than all of us, and I think that's something to always remember -- how small we really are in the whole scheme of things."

To better play her role as Major Rebecca Childs, Swank spoke with Colonel Susan Helms who can be seen in the IMAX film "Space Station." In fact, I spoke with Helms myself some months ago, you can read that interview by clicking here.

Well acted and fun, makes a great springboard for conversation in any science class and a good old-fashioned night out at the movies.