Deep Core (2000) vs The Core (2003)

OK, help me out here. I just watched Deep Core (2000), with Terry Ferrell and Bruce McGill. The center of the earth has stopped. the scientists have been working on this new train like vehicle with a laser drilling head that can tunnel deep within the earth. A crack team of science specialists are assembled to pilot the thing and deposit several (four) nuclear weapons in the fluid core of the earth to get everything restarted. along the way we find the members all have pasts they need to overcome and may be ulterior motives. The vehicle gets stuck twice, which gets two members killed, and the train cars have to be detached to save the others. Eventually the remaining survivors return to the surface from an ocean lava vent and are rescued at sea. Sound familiar???

All this from a film released 3 years before The Core (admittedly with an obviously much lower budget) but with different Director, Writers, and Story credits. I haven't checked the Producers yet, but seems like at least on of the creative credits would have to be the same for two films that are so obviously similar. The only major difference is Deep Core has a large government conspiracy angle that The Core only addresses briefly with the Stanley Tucci character knowing the real reason the core stopped, so in a way even that is the same.

WTF?, over.