Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Directed by Simon West
Orphaned heiress, English aristocrat and intrepid archaeologist, Lara Croft, embarks on a dangerous quest to retrieve the two halves of an ancient artifact which controls time before it falls into the wrong hands. As an extremely rare planetary alignment is about to occur for the first time in 5,000 years, the fearless tomb raider will have to team up with rival adventurers and sworn enemies to collect the pieces, while time is running out. But, in the end, who can harness the archaic talisman's unlimited power?
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11 films that influenced Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
What critics say influenced Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
There's enough of this to suggest that one of the movie's screenwriters may have heard of a movie called "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
The movie seems like all the movies you’d expect it to seem like (“Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Mummy,” for example).
The story is now an archetype of cinema, aped — and invariably aped badly — in countless pop culture projects from The Mummy to Tomb Raider .
Before the god-awful “Tomb Raider” and “Mummy” films there was “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” a film that still stands as one of the best action/adventure films ever made.
Throw in scenes directly lifted from or inspired by pictures such as "The Mummy," "The Fugitive," "Event Horizon" and plenty of others, and the result is a film that's most notable for reminding viewers of how such scenes were better in the original films.
Other than Chris Barrie who makes his feature film debut and gets in a few amusing moments as the protective butler, Iain Glen ("Mountains of the Moon," "Gorillas in the Mist") and Daniel Craig ("Elizabeth," "I Dreamed of Africa") are completely flat as the one-dimensional villains and Noah Taylor ("Almost Famous," "Shine") can't do much with his limited techno guru part.
And there's no excusing the film's criminal underuse of Noah Taylor ("Shine," "Almost Famous") and Chris Barrie (the British TV comedies "Red Dwarf" and "The Brittas Empire"), wasted as Lara's tech-whiz sidekick and long-suffering butler, respectively.
Noah Taylor (the young David Helfgott in "Shine") is Lara's sidekick, Bryce, who is supposed to be some kind of techno-geek, but comes across as just a plain geek.
Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould seems to appreciate old-time special effects master Ray Harryhausen; Lara's tussles with the stone statues smack of Harryhausen-designed battles in the old "Jason and the Argonauts" flick of the early '60s.
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To make matters worse, the film sports an absolutely awful ending lifted from "Lethal Weapon" and a gazillion other films where the hero and villain lay down their weapons and fight each other with blows that individually would incapacitate even the toughest athlete or fighter, but collectively have a hard time taking out the Energizer Bunny/Timex Watch hybrids here.
Other than Chris Barrie who makes his feature film debut and gets in a few amusing moments as the protective butler, Iain Glen ("Mountains of the Moon," "Gorillas in the Mist") and Daniel Craig ("Elizabeth," "I Dreamed of Africa") are completely flat as the one-dimensional villains and Noah Taylor ("Almost Famous," "Shine") can't do much with his limited techno guru part.
The bad guy is Manfred Powell (Iain Glen of "Gorillas in the Mist").
With 1995's "Mortal Kombat" being the only feature film I can think of to break the video-game-to-movie curse, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," drearily directed by Simon West (1997's "Con Air"), has no such luck.
Director Simon West (The General's Daughter) is intent on making this movie stand apart from other video game adaptations.
West is a serious contender for the Worst Living Film Director, with credits like Con Air, and The General's Daughter under his belt.
Director Simon West ("The General's Daughter") wisely lingers on the ridiculous plotline as little as possible, focusing his attention on a string of elaborate action sequences more notable for their frenetic pacing than their creative staging or originality.
It's not as offensive as "The General's Daughter", but it's ten times dumber and nowhere near as enjoyable as "Con Air".
Director Simon West rounds out a hat-trick of hack jobs after "Con Air" and "The General's Daughter" with an action movie that even Michael Bay would be ashamed of.
The big problem is that director Simon West ("The General's Daughter," "Con Air") doesn't know how to handle Jolie's breasts, all of the lifted material, or the overall film for that matter.
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Throw in scenes directly lifted from or inspired by pictures such as "The Mummy," "The Fugitive," "Event Horizon" and plenty of others, and the result is a film that's most notable for reminding viewers of how such scenes were better in the original films.
This is the kind of movie that you or I could have directed, and it would have turned out the same way, which is why it was the perfect directorial debut for Simon West, who has done nothing, and I mean nothing, of merit since (“The General’s Daughter,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” and that god-awful remake of “ When a Stranger Calls ”).
Featuring expectedly grandiose directorial choices from filmmaker Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, etc), When a Stranger Calls has the feel of an expensive, super-slick Hollywood production right from the get-go.
This film, directed by Simon West (Con Air), is like watching a novice (like me) fumble about while playing a video game.
West is a serious contender for the Worst Living Film Director, with credits like Con Air, and The General's Daughter under his belt.
With 1995's "Mortal Kombat" being the only feature film I can think of to break the video-game-to-movie curse, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," drearily directed by Simon West (1997's "Con Air"), has no such luck.
When I heard that Simon West was directing this adaptation of the hit video game, I figured it could go both ways, the way of his "Con Air", one of the best mindless summer blockbusters of the last decade, or like his "General's Daughter", one of the most despicable ones.