A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Date Viewed: 6/16/01

Details:

Angelina Jolie

Jon Voight

Iain Glen

Noah Taylor

Daniel Craig

Director: Simon West

Score: +

The Review: An entertaining romp, but check your brain at the door. With several unusual (and a few acclaimed) roles behind her, Angelina Jolie has demonstrated an impressive and broad range of characters and situations -- but she was born to play Lara Croft! It's all about attitude, attitude, attitude!

A takeoff on the video game series, Jolie plays (with no disrespect intended) a female Indiana Jones -- educated archaeologist with a tendency to more adventure than science, sense of humor, and evil antagonists at every turn -- with the added benefits of a sliver-spoon upbringing, a well-to-do (albeit missing) explorer father (played by Jolie's own father, Voight), lightning reflexes, a penchant for odd gadgets and fancy hardware, and an enormous ego. This time the plot includes a Templar-like shadow conspiracy, pseudo-religious mystical bullshit concerning an "end of days" and an incredibly ancient and powerful civilization, complicated clockwork gadgets reminiscent of the worst nightmares of Victorian scientific computing, and treks through the ruins and jungles of Southeast Asia and the Siberian wastes. (I suspect the screenwriters were reading too much Colin Wilson and Rand Flem-Ath; all that's missing is Atlantis.)

A minor quibble if you happen to be an aficionado of the animated video games: as pneumatic as Jolie plays Croft, the proportions are still not accurate. There's a difference between fantasy animation and physiological possibility. Good, though. (*see footnote*)

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