Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

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

Director:

Simon West

Writers:

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

Stars:

Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight, Iain Glen

3 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 Tse	...	Head Laborer (as David K.S. Tse)
Ozzie Yue	...	Aged Buddhist Monk

Storyline

A member of a rich British aristocratic family, Lara Croft is a "tomb raider" who enjoys collecting ancient artifacts from ruins of temples, cities, etc. worldwide, and doesn't mind going through death-defying dangers to get them. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, and foreign languages - and does them all in tight outfits. Well, the planets of the solar system are going into planetary alignment (Which occurs every 5,000 years), and a secret society called the Illuminati is seeking an ancient talisman that gives its possessor the ability to control time. However, they need a certain clock/key to help them in their search, and they have to find the talisman in one week or wait until the next planetary alignment to find it again. Lara happens to find that key hidden in a wall of her mansion. The Illuminati steal it, and Lara gets an old letter from her deceased father telling her about the society's agenda (Her father was also the one who hid the key). Now, she ...

---

Plot Keywords:

tomb | illuminati | planetary alignment | time | tomb raider | 

---

Taglines:

Born into Wealth. Groomed by the Elite. Trained for Combat.

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for action violence and some sensuality

Details

Country:

USA UK Japan Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 June 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tomb Raider

Filming Locations:

Iceland

Box Office

Budget:

$115,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$47,735,743 (USA) (15 June 2001)

Gross:

$2,355,719 (Italy) (21 December 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Mutual Film Company, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At one point, Demi Moore was widely reported to have been in consideration for the role of Lara Croft.

---

Goofs

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!

---

Crazy Credits

There are no opening credits after the title has been shown.

---

Connections

References Mission: Impossible (1996)

---

Soundtracks

Edge Hill
By Andrew Cato (as Andy Cato) and Tom Findlay
Performed by Groove Armada
Courtesy of Jive Electro/Pepper Records

User Reviews

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?