LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER
Released: June 15, 2001
I'm not a video game player by any stretch of the immagination yet I see all the movies based on these games, so go figure. The point is that you don't really NEED to have any knowledge of the video games prior to seeing these kind of films. As someone on the Ain't It Cool site wrote, "...based in a video game, directed by a two bit Bruckheimer weened hack, starring the craziest bitch in Hollywood". That pretty much sums it up. Simon West, best known for 1997's "Con-Air", clears the canvas and allows Angelina Jolie to BECOME Lara Croft, even to the point of padding her bra to match the video game version of the nubile and agile "tomb raider". And raiding some tombs she definitely does, in a series of events that you don't need to fully understand or care about because everything is simply a set piece for the action that readily abounds. Jolie essentially carries this movie, with support coming from the beautiful set design and nearly flawless effects. To dwell on plot is pointless - this is a fighting, exploding and jutting boobies kinda movie. For more sensitive and thoughtful film, one should avail themselves to Spielberg's upcoming "A.I.". Trivial fact: Jolie's real life Dad Jon Voight plays her movie Dad in this flick as well.
111 Minutes
Paramount