I don't know why the ratings for Jolies Tomb Raider movies are so low. The story may be a bit cheesy but so were the games. Angelina's performance as Lara is perfect. Love rewatching this from time to time. Fun movie. I think after the new adaption 2018 tomb raider movie maybe gamers and fans of Lara will appreciate Jolies Tomb Raider a lot more.

I was 11 at the time, my dad and I seen this back in 2001, and I have to tell you I totally loved it, my dad did as well. I own it on VHS which I found in 2010 when my library had it, and was giving it away, then in 2015 I found a decent copy on DVD at a flea market. The year before the films release, I had recently bought the video game "Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation", for PS1 but never got far on it, hell I still haven't beaten the game yet.Angelina Jolie was a great choice to play Lara Croft, she was my first crush and she's super sexy in this, and around this time she looked her best, my friends and I agree that she looks great looking in it too.Because nowadays she still looks good but she needs to take better care of herself, I want her to make movies for a long time. She also looks like a living incarnation of the character from the original game series, it's quite uncanny to tell you the truth.Now, I don't know much about the the games but I love this movie. This is basically a female version of Indiana Jones, a clone of it, if you you will, but director Simon West did a great job of just making a fun adventure film. I didn't like Con Air but I liked this film very much.On to the action, the action scenes are great, exciting and fun and very well paced, I mean the movie runs at 100 minutes but you don't really notice because the movie is so entertaining, which is good.Her real life father Jon Voight is also good in this but he's mostly in flash back scenes so if your a fan of his, that's a little heads up. I recently seen him in the film "Runaway Train" from 1986, that film was also good too, but more on that for anther review.The rest of the cast is forgettable but I still liked them as well, especially the main baddie called Powell, he was very good in his part. Angelina's fight at the end with Powell was very cool too.Overall a fun adventure film that is pure escapist entertainment from start to finish. I give it a solid 6.8/10. If your thinking of seeing this, you should see it, Angelina is very hot and just so bad ass at the same-time which is fun. Highly recommended.

Good performances from a number of very talented supporting actors, and an excellent portrayal of Lara Croft by Angelina Jolie cannot save this movie from incompetent filmmaking.Maybe there was once logically and tonally coherent vision for what this film was to be, but what ended up in theaters was a total mess.The ridiculous plot is not the problem, in fact the story is good precisely because it is so over the top and just "out there". It provides a lot of interesting locations and original scenes.Which don't, you know, actually add up to anything fun or memorable because the editing is so terrible.It's telling that the only scene where the stakes feel high is the opening action sequence which is revealed to just be Lara's elaborate training room. The "fake" training room feels more dangerous (and cool! and memorable!) than anything in the rest of the movie which is supposed to be "real". Yeah.The editing is bad. As in "worst I've ever seen" terrible. At a storyboarding level, key establishing shots, connecting shots, reaction shots etc. are missing. The dramatic pacing is completely off, narrative foreshadowing/callbacks are MIA, otherwise good fight scenes mishandled. Characters do inexplicable things. Events happen for no reason. There are a few great visual scenes, and some good framing and composition, and some nice stunt work, but it never joins up into sometime worth your time.

I simply can't take any review seriously that takes the two existing Lara Croft films seriously. Tomb Raider and The Cradle of Life are my favourite guilty pleasure films of all time. They don't deserve to be called "so bad it's good", because they are NOT bad. Ridiculous? Yes. Nonsensical? Yes. Bad? Far from it! They are entertaining blockbusters that exist to put all other video-game to movie adaptations to-shame (I mean, there's not much in terms of competition, but still… TO-SHAME).I am totally biased though, Lara Croft was the first female character I was exposed to that I could finally relate to. I was nine when I first saw Tomb Raider and The Cradle of Life in one sitting after having a furious marathon of the games on my PC, PS1 and PS2 (the only reason I begged my parents for a PC in the first place was so I could play Tomb Raider, all the cool girls in school were playing Tomb Raider. They should see me now, I too, am a cool girl). But back to Lara Croft in film; seeing her come to life (wake me up) was utterly magical. I couldn't imagine a more perfect actress to play the Croft than early 00's Angelina Jolie.I feel like people want to trash this movie so bad because they can't quite understand why they enjoy this movie so much given all of its plot holes and over the top stunts. I say; don't be afraid, be free, learn to love, give in to your temptations and admit that the Lara Croft films are spectacularly ridiculous."Did I enjoy the movie? Yes. Is it up there with the Indiana Jones pictures? Was I filled with suspense? No. Since I had no idea what was going to happen, should happen, shouldn't happen or what it meant if it did happen, I could hardly be expected to care. But did I grin with delight at the absurdity it all? You betcha." – Roger Ebert