What does Lara croft mean to you? (Big) breasts? Guns? Evil Mummies?
Machines with powerful purring engines and four wheel drive? A woman who
lets out a soft grunt very time she pushes something? Well, Lara Croft:
Tomb Raider has all of that and a (tenuous) plot too!

Lady Lara Croft is a lonely aristocrat with a penchant for robbing tombs
and an obsession with her late father. When a rare planetary alignment
which happens once every 5000 years threatens to activate a device that
gives the holder the power to control time, Lara jumps at the chance to
see her father again - oh yes, and to beat up the evil Illuminati cult and
raid a few tombs in the process. It's all a bit predictable (and the bit
with her father a little bit nauseating) but lets face it, nobody's going
to watch Tomb raider for the plot.

Angelina Jolie plays Lara Croft with style, combining just the right
amount of femininity with a good padded bra and kick-ass attitude to bring
a highly idealised character to life. She fights baddies, falls through
ruins and walks around on a freezing cold glacier wearing thin clothing
just as you'd expect the digital Lara to do. (Incidentally, Chris Barrie,
as the butler, comes as a bit of a surprise for those of us who are used
to Red Dwarf).

The backdrops to the film (a large amount of it is filmed in Ankor Wat)
are stunning as are the huge sets. The special effects are not
groundbreaking (except in the literal sense) but there are enough guns,
explosions, cars, jeeps and nasty animated statues to keep any Tombraider
fan happy. The product placement is blatant (the film itself is essentially a massive
advert for the game) and there is very little in the way of technical
merit, but as a pure entertainment Tombraider is fantastic popcorn for the
brain. Once my ears have stopped ringing, I might even go see it again

Jeev Mantotta 20 07 01