Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Simon West

Writers (WGA):

Sara B. Cooper (story) and
Mike Werb (story) ...

Release Date:

15 June 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

Who Is Lara Croft?

Plot:

Video game adventurer Lara Croft comes to life in a movie where she races against time and villains to recover powerful ancient artifacts.

Plot Keywords:

Lara Croft | Illuminati | Tomb | Planetary Alignment | Time

Awards:

3 wins & 12 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 10	6:15 PM	SHOW
Fri. Nov. 20	3:15 PM	SHOW

Cast

Angelina Jolie	...	Lara Croft
Jon Voight	...	Lord Richard Croft
Iain Glen	...	Manfred Powell
Noah Taylor	...	Bryce
Daniel Craig	...	Alex West
Richard Johnson	...	Distinguished Gentleman
Chris Barrie	...	Hillary (as Christopher Barrie)
Julian Rhind-Tutt	...	Mr. Pimms
Leslie Phillips	...	Wilson
Robert Phillips	...	Julius, Assault Team Leader
Rachel Appleton	...	Young Lara
Henry Wyndham	...	Boothby's Auctioneer
David Cheung	...	Head Laborer (as David Y. Cheung)
David K.S. Tse	...	Head Laborer
Ozzie Yue	...	Aged Buddhist Monk

Also Known As:

Tomb Raider (USA) (short title)
Tomb Raider: The Achilles Shield (USA) (working title)
Tomb Raider: The Adventures of Lara Croft (USA) (working title)
Tomb Raider: The Movie (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for action violence and some sensuality.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

UK | Germany | USA | Japan

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Iceland:12 | Singapore:NC-16 (re-rating) (cut) | Singapore:PG (cut) | New Zealand:M | UK:15 (uncut version) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Ireland:12 | Netherlands:MG6 | Norway:15 | Peru:PT | South Korea:12 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 (censored version) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #38350)

Filming Locations:

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The Prayer Wheels that Lara accuses Alex of stealing from her are from the Tomb Raider II (1997) (VG) video game.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: During the attack in Lara's mansion, when she jumps out of the corner near the roof to pick up a commando between her legs, the camera behind her shows two crew members over her left shoulder.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[after an extended action sequence with a training robot which then attempts to revive itself and sneak up on her]
Lara Croft: Stop!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Charmed: Womb Raider (#4.21)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Inhaler

At least it had (a) Angelina Jolie, and (b) Arnold Rimmer

The use of space in the bunjee-jumping-inside fight scene is masterful - all three dimensions are used in a clever way. But I only worked this out afterwards. It was the choreographer's work that was masterful; the idiots who filmed and edited it did their darndest to make it choppy, incoherent, and unexciting. As if that weren't enough, someone - it may have been the composer, it may have been the director - thought that the action scenes would be best accompanied by a tuneless, relentless, jackhammer techno beat.

"Tomb Raider" is "Raiders of the Lost Ark" emulated by people who haven't seen it. If they HAD seen it, they'd know that Spielberg edited his action sequences so as to let the audience know what was going on, to give us an idea of where the hero stood and what obstacles he faced; also that John Williams wrote actual MUSIC, complete with themes and chords and rhythms and consecutive bars that often as not differed from one another.

I'm not familiar with the computer game - if I were, I would be doubly grateful to see Angelina Jolie in the leading role. It must get tiring looking at large computer-generated breasts that just SIT there, like cast-iron balloons. Oddly, the audience I was with tittered because Jolie's breasts bounced as she walked downstairs. I don't get the joke. That's what breasts, by and large, DO - those of Hollywood actresses being an unfortunate exception to the general rule. -Anyway, all this aside, Jolie was, as always, terrific, when the film allowed her to be. This wasn't often. Usually I can at least decipher the storyline of a film afterwards, but this one has me baffled. It SEEMS that the film's heroine, in order to Save the World, merely had to sit still and do nothing - and KNOWING this, she Endangered the World, so that she could later save it in a more rope-swinging, kick-boxing, ammo-expending fashion. But surely nobody would spend millions of dollars on a film with this central weakness ... would they?