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Lara Croft Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (Full Screen Edition)

Lara Croft Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Really, really bad!
Review: I found this movie very tedious. I didn't understand this movie at all and it is not because I haven't seen the first one. None of the scenes make any sense. All they did was slap a bunch of crappy action sequences together and didn't even bother to think up a good storyline or at least write a decent script. I kept trying not to fall asleep as I watched this! All of my friends loved this, which makes me really mad. "People actually fly!" Oh please! If you want to see people fly, watch Superman. If you want to see a good action movie, watch The Terminator 3.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lady Croft Rides Again!
Review: The thing that makes Angelina Jolie so successful in most of the roles that she plays is that we, the audience sense a natural intelligence behind those huge, limpid eyes. It is also what makes her so sexy and sultry. As Lady Croft she is not only intelligent but street/smart, physically adept and naturally athletic.
As directed but Jan de Bont, the latest Croft adventure sports an interesting plot line involving a bad guy who wants to take possession of Pandora's box and how and why Croft prevents him from doing so.
Gerard Butler (from PBS's "The Jury") looking buff and bronzed, is Croft's latest squeeze but to say that they have a relationship would be neither understating nor overstating the actual situation. Suffice it to say, they have feelings for each other. Unfortunately there is very little romantic play between the two.
"Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" gets a bit sappy towards the end but all in all it is a hoot with de Bont pulling out all the stops, production-wise. Jolie also looks swell in her various, spray painted on costumes. And she rides sidesaddle while target shooting as befitting a Lady, too!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lady Croft does it again, with style
Review: It seems ironic that this year sees a pantheon of action heroes. The Indiana Jones trilogy is coming out on DVD. H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain leads a pack of fictional heroes in LXG. And that other archaeologist searching for things that might be better left alone, the well-bronzed, well-toned, Amazon-like Lara Croft, is back in her second full-screen adventure. She is well-equipped as in the first film. Oh yes, and she also has her usual barrage of hi-tech gadgets, ;.) chief of which is a headset with a small monitor screen extending in front of her eye.

The discovery of Alexander The Great's Lunar Temple under the Mediterranean Sea leads Lara to its watery grave. The Temple is well realized, down to the giant statue on the throne. A fight with some gunmen leads the remains of the Temple to collapse, but not before Lara photographs a golden sphere with a series of holes in it.

The sphere is the map where Alexander found Pandora's box,--those who have taken Greek Mythology 101 should recognize that name. However, its powers were so terrible, Alexander had the box returned to its origin and concealed the map.

Dr. Reiss wants it to use it as a biological weapon and has contracted Chen Lo to get it. It is Lo's men who ambushed Croft in the Temple.

Croft turns down MI6's usual agents as backup. Instead, she gets an ex-agent-turned-traitor, the rough-looking bemuscled Terry Sanford, to guide her to Chen Lo, and has him sprung from a prison in Kazakhstan to that end. However, she has special clearance to terminate him at any times she deems necessary. They are quite a pair, and one scene with motorcycles show them trying to outrace each other in a clear match of who is the alpha person in this mission, but the two have had a shared moment between them in the past. At one point Sanford remarks they are a pair and Lara rebuts that they are different, and that difference in character emerges.

Much of the movie scenes are retreads of other action films. The scene in the temple with two guides mirrors that of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and the parachute scene in Hong Kong that from any number of James Bond movies. However, the underwater scenes weren't that bad, and the way she parachutes into her African friend Kosa's jeep is sheer style.

And there's no adequate explanation given to why Sanford betrayed his country. Yet Gerald Butler portrays him as someone who may be good in a fight with weapons, but not trustworthy.

Lara Croft has ditched the familiar black outfit for yes, the smart-looking silver-gray scuba suit depicted in the movie poster, and a khaki outfit during the China and Hong Kong leg of her adventure. However, the use of some vehicles seem to be the obligatory equivalent of gratuitous T&A. Aside from the motorcycle sequence. she shows off doing trick stunts on her waterbike in her first appearance onscreen. Still, Angelina Jolie proves more than ever, with that long black hair, tanned bod, and hard-set but mischievous eyes, that Lara Croft is her role.

Noah Taylor and Christopher "Red Dwarf" Barrie return as Bryce and Hillary, Lara's computer expert and butler, respectively. Red Dwarf fans won't be too happy, as Barrie doesn't have too many lines, plus his role's a bit thankless and barely noticeable. In the one extended scene he has, he and Lara are practicing with staffs after the latter's Mediterranean adventure. And Ciaran Hinds as Rice seems to have read the copybook of the typical James Bond villain a bit too much.

One line repeated is that maybe some treasures are best left alone. Despite its derivative scenes, Tomb Raider 2 doesn't deserve to be left shut like Pandora's Box. It merits a few peeks, as it's as good as the first Tomb Raider film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, But I Expected Something a Little Different
Review: OK, first let me say that like most other red blooded males, I think Angelina Jolie is absolutely gorgeous. So I'll pay to see her in any Tomb Raider movie she does. That being said, I did expect a little more from this one. The basic plot has Lara Croft searching for Pandora's Box. As the movie opens, Croft finds an orb that represents the map to the box's location, the so called cradle of life. As we would expect, the map has to be deciphered first. There are also a host of baddies who want to obtain the box and unleash a deadly plague. The orb is stolen from Croft by a band of mercenaries soon after she discovers it. MI-6, realizing the danger of the orb and the man who has paid to have it stolen, convince Croft to retrieve it. She agrees with the proviso that she is allowed to spring a former lover turned mercenary from prison, in exchange for his help. So the journey begins that will lead Lara Croft across the globe in a battle to retrieve the orb and protect its secrets.

The movie features several action sequences with some very impressive 'James Bond-like' stunts. Jolie plays Lara Croft with a harder edge as compared to the first. Despite all of the action though, the movie is hurt by the fact that the story seems to drag in several places. I think a little too much time was spent on retrieving the orb. Additionally, the 'love interest' story line didn't seem to work all that well. The last 30 minutes or so of the movie were quite good and featured some pretty cool CGI monsters that guard the cradle of life. Along with the opening sequence, this was more of what I expected from the movie. Despite the minor flaws, the movie is highly entertaining and enjoyable. It's worth seeing on the big screen and the DVD will be a sure buy for me when it becomes available. 3 stars for the movie and 1 star because Angelina Jolie is in it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Raid another tomb please...
Review: After viewing the original Tomb Raider, which I considered one of the worst movies to come out that year, you'd think I'd save my money on the sequel. WRONG! There were some toys from the movie I'd seen of some monsters or creatures or something and they drew me out. While they were cool and the movie was better than the original, that's not really saying that much.

Lara Croft finds some sunken treasure from Alexander the Great beneath the ocean, which includes a sphere that looks like a bowling ball made of amber. She looses it to some other treasure hunters and finds out that it's a map to the Cradle of Life, where Pandora's Box is kept. The "bad guy" wants the box to sell as the ultimate weapon so Lara's got to go save the day. The monsters I described above are the guardians of the box. They're cool for the split seconds you get to see them, but the rest of the movie isn't worth your money.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: i want my money back
Review: I am all for good summer blockbuster, check your brain at the door, fun - but this movie was too lackluster for me to even be able to say, "well - there was one scene that redeemed it" because there wasn't one scene that was memorable, not in the least. Not even the sexy Angelina could redeem this waste of film

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost as good as the first
Review: Cradle of Life could have been a little better, but I still like it.I liked the beginning very much....I was so excited when the music started and they were panning across the ocean. The perfect opening shot. It seemed more like the game in alot of ways. I like how she was able to hop right up that statue in the Luna Temple. Also when she punches the shark (very Lara). The first Tomb Raider is absolutely my favorite movie. What I really missed in this one was her strength. She seemed a little weak at times. I thought that when Rice grabs her by the neck in particular wasn`t right. Lara would never have let him do that to her. He seemed to be getting the better of her towards the end (he doesn`t even look very fit anyways). She could have put up a better fight. In the first she seemed so much stronger, which is why I love the character so much. I also miss the music not being as powerful as the first. I think they played the theme tune a little to much. Overall they did a very good job for a sequel. Just a few problems. Still can`t wait for the next one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the best, but a good way to spend 2 hours!
Review: One day my stepdad and I, went to the theaters and were planning on seeing "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" but the movie started too late and I wasn't really in the mood to see a movie that was getting really bad buzz, so we decided to see the earliest movie playing and Lara Croft 2 was playing so we decided to see that. I was kind of a big fan of the first movie, but wasn't really expecting much from this one. But in actuality, it wasn't a bad movie, just a little less interesting. The plot was alright, but there were quite a few good action scenes. If you want to spend 2 hours of your time in a cold theater eating popcorn and guzzling down sodas, see Lara 2, you will probably enjoy it. FOR BOYS & GIRLS AND MEN & WOMEN!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quite Interesting. Must Watch!
Review: This movie is better than the first, it's full of action and more fascinating making you want to watch this movie over and over again. If you enjoy the first tomb raider than here's another good one you must watch. :)

(Hope you find this exciting and fun to watch!)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't Bother with the Retake
Review: It takes a true master of the cinema to create a film this barren of any entertainment value. The behind the scenes work is so poor, it's a wonder that some wayward microphone lugger didn't catch the producer telling the director, "don't bother with retakes, people will go see it anyway." In a film that is at least supposed to wow us with James Bond/Indiana Jones style action, the effects and choreography are exceptionally bad; to the point where it looks like some kid shot the scenes on the Warner lot with his parents' camcorder. The sets look clearly like sets, and in parts even appear unfinished and unpainted. Frequent slow motion moments trying to capture some of the Matrix 'cool' end up choppy and painful to watch. Those of you looking for a rehash of the original - and come on, even the original wasn't that good - this is tragically far from comparison. Alas, the big bad guys over in Hollywood know that with a decent marketing campaign and a name like 'Laura Croft', the movie pays for itself in the first weekend. Who cares if its good? It's not about good. It's about money.

For those of you that are still un-deterred by my heavy reality dosing here, let me move on to the completely ridiculous story. Evil bad guy wants to kill everyone on the planet for a profit with an ancient doomsday device... Pandora's Box. Yup, in 'Cradle of Life', Pandora's Box is real and contains the plague to end all plagues. Alexander the Great hid the map that leads to the box - a sort of pre-modern-civ videotape - in a giant temple underwater. The entire film involves the back and forth hijinx of capturing this object. At the end, they use the map, go to Africa, find 'the Cradle of Life' - where all life came from and is now inhabited by strange monsters - and battle over the box. The final set-piece in the film looks more like a segment of the Universal Studios E.T. ride than it does any place that might actually exist. Growing up (and now, I admit it) I had Star Wars toys that looked more realistic. If you really really really want to waste your money, go see this movie and remember to laugh at all the bad parts; its the only way you'll have any fun.


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