Catastrophes of many kinds exist in modern cinema. SuperstarWill Smith and upstanding actor Kevin Kline in “Wild Wild West,””Pearl Harbor” and apparently, last summer’s Bennifer flick,”Gigli.” But we haven’t really been bombarded with an actualdisaster flick in some time.

Such a genre hasn’t been in style since, well, the days of “DeepImpact” and “Armageddon.” Which is ironic because “The Core” playsout like a combination of the two. But rather than Earth beingdestroyed from the outside in, “The Core” will decimate from theinside out.

The world’s top scientists will come together for a common causein a fashion suggestive of only one thing: the world is in danger.Earth’s core has ceased to flow, which somehow is responsible forthe electromagnetic field that protects us from the Sun’s rays. Wehave no more than three months before the world becomes a meltingpot.

Geophysicists Josh (Aaron Eckhart) and Serge (Tcheky Karyo) teamup with mathematician Zimsky (Stanley Tucci), reclusive scientistBrazzelton (Delroy Lindo) and astronauts Iverson (Bruce Greenwood)and Beck (Hilary Swank) to do the impossible: travel to the Earth’score and literally jump-start it so that life can go on.

The beauty of a disaster film is how simple a concept it reallyis. All life will cease to exist unless a special group can musterup the drive and survive long enough to restore life to the way itshould be. But what’s interesting is how a disaster film itselfmust survive.

Because the plot is usually so ill-conceived, the casthas to be engaging enough to save the audience from escapingtheaters or prematurely returning the DVD. It works most of thetime, which would seem to be the only reason such a talented castwould be assembled for this particular project. The natural “makesme glad to be a human being” feeling that you’ll get from watchingthis is exactly why the cast chose to join up; it’s fulfilling inthe same way karaokeing can be, without the alcohol.

There’s no true direction here, but there is an exceptionalscore by Christopher Young at work here, pulling at yourheartstrings at all the right moments. A guilty pleasure to be had,chalk full of overacting that makes you realize why Eckhart andOscar winner Swank are in such high esteem with film fans in theknow.

The DVD isn’t as much a mixed bag of feelings and floundersrather fittingly. A commentary by director Jon Amiel reveals intentand technical aspects, but isn’t engaging enough to be worthsitting through over two hours for. But perhaps more useless, withone exception, are the featurettes included. Several vignettescover most of the CGI in the film, with one covering a must-seesequence in London’s Trafalgar Square that’s reminiscent of AlfredHitchcock’s “The Birds.” One 10-minute feature on the generalmaking of the film just lumbers along on modesty, nothinggroundbreaking.

And like many DVDs, the original theatrical trailer wasnot included. It’s like the cherry on top for any DVD, so why jipanyone who would put themselves through “The Core” by keeping out asimple two-and-a-half minute bit? Oh well, que sera, sera,sera…

Back to that “Deep Impact” meets “Armageddon” analogy, “TheCore” plays out like taking the quality cast, bad writing and badCGI from the first film and combining it with the worse writing,better CGI and Billy Bob Thornton’s rather engaging performance inthe second film, and putting it all together ideally.

Yes, it’s a mess. No, it didn’t reinvent a thing. But it doeshave an audience. Disaster flicks are still a valid guiltypleasure, like a bad sci-fi flick. You can deny it, but just don’tlet your friends see your ticket or rental/purchase receipt.