A summer "action thriller", Tomb Raider was widely anticipated and had a huge budget. With Angela Jolie in the title role, Tomb Raider also was the first pairing of this young star and her much admired actor father, Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy). The results of this pairing and the movie have been mixed.

Based on the character of a huge video game series, Lara Croft has the vehicles of Bond, and the adventures of Indiana Jones. She is incredibly fit and rich, living with a computer geek, who designs droids she can practice with, and a staunch English butler. She mourns the mysterious disappearance and apparent death of her adventurer father (Jon Voight), which is the only real emotional tie in her life. She becomes aware of a mystical clock found under the stairs in her mansion and soon learns it has ties to a secret organization known as the Illuminati. In the clock she finds a piece of the Triangle of Light, which has been divided and sought by the Illuminati, climaxing with a once in 5000 year event alignment of the planets. If the pieces of the Triangle are brought together, time and space can be traveled. The bad guy, Manfred Powell, seeks the Triangle for the Illuminati, for his own sinister purposes and is aided by Lara's sometimes boyfriend, a free lance archeologist. The chase is on for the three pieces of the Triangle, with Lara playing cat and mouse with her adversaries all the way. While keeping the action of the video games intact, I can't say much about character development in this film. Croft mourns her father but shows very little emotion for anything other than her joy of the action she is involved in. The film is full of one-liners; some that work but many that don't work at all. She even pulls off the Indiana Jones bit, when after demolishing an army of stone monkeys with a sword, she levels the last one with her gun, with a smile on her face. She really gets off on all the action. The action is also a bit slow taking off, with the first 40 minutes based in London as she investigates. When it finally does get going, the action is intense and furious in elaborate sets costing millions to construct for the film. A Cambodian temple is one of the great sets in the film, with incredible stunts throughout the sequence.

Picture-An excellent widescreen transfer from Paramount; what we would expect from a film released this year. Lighting is especially good but the real appreciation for the film comes from the sets constructed. Besides the Cambodian temple already mentioned, Lara also travels to Venice, and to parts of Siberia in her quest for the Triangle. A time machine in the climatic ending is right out of Jules Verne or Myst in design, showing real creativity by the film's designers. Effects are a combination of cgi and real film effects. To her credit, Jolie did much of the stunt work herself, which at times was pretty rough. She also worked out for weeks before filming to get ready for the part, which shows in her stunt work. In one sequence , Lara is "relaxing" at home by doing a bungie ballet, which was entirely done by Jolie. Sound-A powerful Dolby 5.1 soundtrack hums through your home theater system, even during the animated menu selections. While not DTS, it is very close is dynamic range and volume level. A real window rattler with excellent separation and effects from front to back channels.

The disc will take you a while to get through as they have really packed this one disc with extras. Short featurettes on the making of the film are included on stunts, special effects, a general "Making of" feature with cast and crew interviews, Angela Jolie's physical preparation for the part, and a short segment on the evolution of the popular video game. There is also a music video from U2, "Evolution-The Tomb Raider mix" and four deleted scenes. One of these scenes was entirely too intense for the rest of the film with an old man being beheaded by Powell. It really didn't fit the rest of the picture at all, being entirely too graphic. Audio commentary, a very popular feature on DVD, is provided by director Simon West. DVD-ROM features are also included for PC only and include a Tomb Raider Timeline and a Tomb Raider Chronicles Game demo, with web links or what they call the On Line Experience".

Action film lovers have nothing to complain about in this film. The on screen pairing of father and daughter is a big let down, only being together in the film for one short scene. I found some of the characters to be really fluff material and not really needed for the story at all. They are there for comedy relief; only problem is they aren't funny. Jolie plays her part well and, as the central character, carries much of the film. Technically, a great disc, with lots of extras. If you can put up with some really bad lines that are supposed to be funny, you will enjoy the film. Rent before buying, as this one is pricey for a one disc set.