Lara Croft: Tomb Raider *** (2001, Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight, Iain Glen, Noah Taylor, Daniel Craig, Chris Barrie, Richard Johnson, Leslie Phillips) – Classic Movie Review 971

Director Simon West’s 2001 action adventure movie, based on the famous video game, sometimes struggles a bit but is always entertaining enough, though its most lasting legacy is that it turned Angelina Jolie into a superstar.

The 26-year-old Jolie, fresh from her Oscar in Girl, Interrupted (1999), stars as the treasure-hunting English aristocratic heroine, Lady Lara Croft, who battles a mysterious organisation as she battles against the clock and the baddies to locate the legendary Triangle of Light and unite its severed halves to control time. Still with me?

Lara Croft is an uber-fest of all-action, high-kicking shenanigans, with the feisty, ideally cast Jolie unusually acting with her real-life father Jon Voight as her film dad, famous archaeologist Sir Richard Croft. This is a bit of a treat, and one to relish.

Patrick Massett and John Zinman’s screenplay (based on a story by Sara B Cooper, Mike Werb) shows some obvious script problems in sorting out a coherent plot and in penning decent dialogue, so the the movie’s not totally great. But it’s still quite a lot of good fun with the well-staged action, performers, costly-looking production, classy cinematography Peter Menzies Jr and smart visual effects keeping it pretty nifty.

An eye-catching Jolie proves an awesome class act, classier than anything else in the movie. She looks really cool and she’s brilliant in the action. Noah Taylor (as Bryce), a young-looking Daniel Craig (as Alex West), Richard Johnson (Distinguished Gentleman), Chris Barrie, Julian Rhind-Tutt as Mr Pimms and Leslie Phillips as Wilson provide good back-up, though Iain Glen is pretty lacklustre as the chief bad guy, Manfred Powell.

The British cinema version is cut for a 12 certificate.

Though it cost a huge $115,000,000, it was a big hit, grossing $131,144,183 in the UK and taking a worldwide gross of $274,703,340.

The maker of Speed (1994), Jan de Bont, directs the inevitable sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003, with Jolie returning as the star. It did not fare so well at the box office, and the series terminated.

The inevitable 2018 reboot Lara Croft stars Alicia Vikander.