LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER - THE CRADLE OF LIFE

Scifind.co.uk rating - 3.5 - out of 5.

Reviewed By: Paul Mount

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciaran Hinds, Christopher Barrie,

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Sniffy genre critics sometimes really get up my nose. The two LARA CROFT movies are both perfectly efficient, entertaining Summer blockbuster stuff, full of high-adrenalin action sequences, simple-minded storylines, decent acting and exhilarating special effects. Yet both films have been hacked to pieces and vilified by the critics who really can’t see a decent franchise when it’s staring them in the face. CRADLE OF LIFE, the second (and probably last, sniff) Lara Croft feature is a faster, racier ride than the admittedly-patchy first offering - but it dive-bombed at the box office and whilst the film is likely to find it admirers on video and DVD poor cinema returns are likely to spell the end for the cinematic adventures of the pneumatic Ms Croft and her unlikely chums.

The star of the show here is Angelina Jolie. She’s a joy to watch as Croft, the thinking (or drooling) man’s adventuress, bounding through this dynamic romp with a twinkle in her eye and a ready smile on those huge pouting lips. From the moment she makes her spectacular entrance - in a bikini and straddling a jet ski - the film is all hers and it’s hard to take your eyes off her. This really is the stuff of the oft-quoted rollercoaster ride. Lara unconvers the submerged ruins of Alexander the Great’s legendary luna temple and discovers a myserious glowing orb, an artefact which turns out to be the key to Pandora’s Box, wherein is stored all the evils of the world. If the box should be opened…well, it’s ‘Hello, evil, bye bye Mankind.’ Naturally there’s a crazy bad guy - bio-terrorist Reiss (Hinds) who’s determined to get his hands on the orb so he can sell the Box to the highest bidder and help bring about a terrible apocalypse, paving the way for his own new world order. When the orb falls into Reiss’s hands and Lara discovers it’s been taken to China, she has to recruit the only man who can help her infiltrate hostile Chinese territory - her former squeeze and convicted traitor Terry Sheridan (Butler) and together the two join forces in a desperate race against time.

CRADLE OF LIFE just flies by. Action set-piece follows action set-piece and there are just too many visual highlights but my favourite is still the jaw-dropping ariel escape from Reiss’s Hong Kong HQ. The films rushes us halfway across the world and back, finally culminating in a supernatural battle in a creepy forest inhabited buy some rather nasty guardians of the secret of the Cradle of Life itself. Ignore lily-livered critics who tell you this film is pants; it’s far better than most of 2003’s so-called ‘event’ movies and it deserves your time far more than any number of dreary MATRIX sequels. Enjoy!

THE DISC: A tasty DVD treat, CRADLE OF LIFE boasts a string of behind-the-scenes featurettes, music videos, deleted scenes (including an intriguingly low-key alternate ending) and direct de Bont’s enthusiastic commentary. The pristine picture lights up the screen and the 5.1 surround sound sends bullets whizzing around the room, masonry crumbles apart behind your ears and the eerie forest sequences might even send you scurrying behind your sofa. "