"LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER"
(2001) (Angelina Jolie, Iain Glen) (PG-13)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Minor	Moderate	Extreme	*Moderate	Extreme
Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Mild	Minor	Heavy	Minor	Mild
Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Moderate	Minor	Minor	Mild	Extreme

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QUICK TAKE:

Action/Adventure: An adventurous, tomb-raiding woman sets out to find two missing pieces of an ancient artifact that could give a villain ultimate power over time.

PLOT:

Lara Croft (ANGELINA JOLIE) is an adventurous heiress whose huge mansion and butler hide that the fact that she's a fearless tomb raider and that she misses her father, Lord Richard Croft (JON VOIGHT), who's been missing for many years. Assisted by her butler, Hillary (CHRIS BARRIE) and techno guru, Bryce (NOAH TAYLOR), Lara repeatedly hones her many physical skills and abilities.

All of that comes in handy when she discovers a rare key-based clock that even an antiquities dealer, an acquaintance of her father, can't identify. He then sends her to see Manfred Powell (IAIN GLEN), a ruthless lawyer who's also a member of a powerful, secret society that's awaiting a rare planetary alignment that will offer the holder of two previously separated halves of a magical stone triangle unlimited power over time.

Lara soon learns that her key will unlock the mysteries and whereabouts of those missing halves, a point that hasn't gone unnoticed by Powell who's sent his armed team to retrieve it. Receiving a communiqué from her late father, Lara deciphers his clues and thus sets out for Cambodia -- and eventually other lands as well -- to stop Powell and Alex West (DANIEL CRAIG), a former colleague of hers, from reassembling the magical triangle and thus endangering the world.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?

If they're fans of the video game and/or actress Jolie, they just might.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13

For action violence and some sensuality.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:

ANGELINA JOLIE plays a physically fit, adventurous and daring woman who doesn't let anything prevent her from stopping the villains from completing their nefarious plan.

IAIN GLEN plays her main adversary, a ruthless and megalomaniacal lawyer and member of a secret society who will go to any means to obtain both pieces to the magical artifact and thus control time.

NOAH TAYLOR plays Lara's somewhat nerdy, technological guru who assists her in her quest.

CHRIS BARRIE plays her butler who runs her mansion.

DANIEL CRAIG plays a former acquaintance of Laura's who teams up with Powell to earn a lot of money in assisting him.

JON VOIGHT plays Lara's late father who's seen in several flashbacks and a brief warping of time.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

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Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

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OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

The following is a quick look at the content found in this action adventure film that's been rated PG-13. All sorts of action related violence occurs, with the protagonist exchanging gunfire, punches and kicks with many men, mechanical robots and ancient stone statues that have come to life, all who/that are trying to kill her. During all of that mayhem (that includes other people being attacked by human and non-human adversaries), various people are injured, and several are killed (from gunfire, fatal blows, being impaled, drowning, etc.).

Most of the violence isn't particularly bloody or gory -although there are some instances of that - and some of it may be unsettling, suspenseful or even scary for some young viewers, but that all depends on their age, level of maturity and tolerance/past exposure to such material. In addition, the way in which the female protagonist acts and is portrayed could be enticing for some kids to imitate. Some tense family moments include exposition about her never knowing her mother and her father apparently dying when she was rather young.

The villains all obviously have extreme cases of bad attitudes, and a few characters drink or smoke. Profanity consists of several uses of the "s" word and other expletives, while a handful of colorful phrases are also present. The protagonist occasionally acts and look as if she's all hot and bothered (aroused) by all of the action (and sports some obviously accentuated, large breasts), and two separate shower scenes have a woman and man individually standing nude in front of members of the opposite sex (we see the sides of the woman's bare breasts, while a table blocks the view of the man's bare crotch).

If you're still concerned about the film and its appropriateness for yourself or anyone in your home who may want to see it, we suggest that you more closely examine our detailed content listings for more specific information about what's present and occurs in it.

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ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE

An older acquaintance of Lara's offers her some port. She declines, but we then see him drinking some, as well as a photograph of him and Lara's dad holding what look like glasses of brandy.

BLOOD/GORE

A dog runs and jumps through a "time storm" portal and we see it transition from a full-bodied dog, to that of one looking like it's been skinned (seeing its muscles underneath) and then just bones before returning to a normal looking dog.

Alex has a small cut on his face.

As a knife slowly travels through the air in slow motion, Lara grabs it with both hands and struggles to turn it around in the opposite direction. She cuts her hands or fingers in the process, and we see a lot of blood running through her fingers and then down her arm while and after doing so.

Powell has a bit of a bloody nose during a fight.

We see blood on the end of a knife and Lara jams her finger into a slightly bloody knife wound in a man's chest as they fight.

After being in a fight, Lara has some trickles of blood running down the side of her head and a little on her lip.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE

Powell and all of his minions have both for wanting to kill Lara and obtain the two pieces of the triangle that will reportedly give them the power of God.

FRIGHTENING SCENES

Scenes listed under "Violence" and/or "Blood/Gore" may be unsettling, suspenseful or possibly frightening to some viewers, particularly if they're young or have low tolerance levels for such action-based mayhem (but all depending on their age, level of maturity, etc.).

Lara suddenly falls a great distance through a hole in the ground, eventually stopping her fall by grabbing ahold of some vines in a large, underground temple.

As a man holds a gun on her, Lara jumps over the edge of a huge waterfall to escape.

GUNS/WEAPONS

Handguns/Machine guns/Shotgun/Knives: Carried and/or used to threaten, wound or kill people. See "Violence" for details.

Plastic explosives: Used by some bad guys to blow open a Plexiglas style security wall.

Swords: Used by stone monkey soldiers that have come to life and are attacking Lara and others.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR

Phrases: "Holy sh*t," "Bastards," "Bloody hell" and "What the hell happened here?"

Some kids may want to imitate Lara's action moves and use of handguns as both are made to look "cool" to the target audience.

Lara speeds and swerves through traffic on her motorcycle.

As a man holds a gun on her, Lara jumps over the edge of a huge waterfall to escape (and survives unscathed).

JUMP SCENES

A robotic creature blasts out of a wall near Lara.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)

A heavy amount of suspenseful, ominous and adventurous music plays during the film.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)

In the opening scene, the soundtrack that plays along with the action scene includes the sound of a woman's sensuous moan (although nothing sexual is occurring in the scene).

A few songs have lyrics that couldn't be understood, thus offering the possibility of other objectionable content being in them.

PROFANITY

At least 4 "s" words, 2 hells, 1 ass and 1 use each of "For God's sakes," "My God" and "Oh my God" as exclamations.

SEX/NUDITY

In the opening scene, Lara wear very tight and very short shorts, along with a form-fitting top that shows off her accentuated and large breasts beneath it. During that, the soundtrack that plays along with the action scene includes the sound of a woman's sensuous moan (although nothing sexual is occurring in the scene).

We see Lara in the shower, with water cascading down her (we see a head and shoulders shot), but it's filmed (and she's acting) in something of a sensuous fashion. We then see her wearing just a towel that she drops in front of the butler (we see her bare back as well as brief glimpses of the sides of both of her bare breasts as she turns to look back at him).

We briefly see Alex in the shower (no explicit nudity) and he then walks out and into a room, with a table in the foreground of the shot being the only thing blocking a view of his crotch. A housekeeper/maid sees him and shrieks when he opens the door and he then stands nude in front of Lara (we don't see anything). She briefly looks down to his crotch and then smiles, causing him to make some comment about taking a cold shower.

SMOKING

Powell smokes a cigar twice while some miscellaneous people smoke.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES

We learn that Lara's father has been missing and presumed dead since 1985, and hear her state that she misses him. We also see a flashback to when she was a young girl where she wishes she could remember her mother.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT

The way in which the film and the Lara character make the action and violence seem cool and sexy/sultry.

Whether Lara is a good role model for young girls.

VIOLENCE

A large robotic/mechanical creature blasts out of a wall near Lara and knocks her to the floor. She does various back flips to get out of the way as it comes after her. She then repeatedly riddles it with bullets from her two handguns, but it keeps coming after her, knocking many stone structures down and/or out of the way as it does so. She eventually shoots the base of a monolith, causing it to fall and seemingly crush the robot. It then keeps coming after her, however, trying to attack her with various spinning blades/razors until she eventually jumps on top of it and rips cables from it.

Lara smashes open part of a wall in her mansion to discover what's ticking behind it. That turns out to be an old clock and she later smashes that to find an amulet of sorts inside it.

Various bad guys break through the "skylights" in Lara's great hall and open fire on her with machine guns. As she swings through the large room on bungee-like cords, she punches several of these men, who are hanging from the ceiling by ropes, and kicks another. As more machine gun fire is aimed at her, she hits another attacker and smashes one into a wall, throwing him over a ledge where he runs into and smashes another man through a stone railing.

As this occurs, various bad guys also fire into Bryce's trailer, but he isn't hurt.

Meanwhile, Lara cuts the ropes/cables holding up other men, sending them falling to the floor, and punches more men as others keep firing their machine guns at her.

Other bad guys riddle a Plexiglas style security wall with machine gun fire and then blow it open with plastic explosives. Lara then shoots various tools at them with some sort of compressed air machine, hitting the men and presumably just injuring/knocking them unconscious.

She then kicks one bad guy in the face before mounting her motorcycle and firing a machine gun at others. In doing so, a vehicle in her large garage explodes, landing on another, as the bad guys keep shooting at her. She then physically hits one with her machine gun itself, and then spins her motorcycle around, slamming another bad guy in the face with her back wheel. After being done with those who haven't fled, she hears a noise, and spins and shoots her machine gun, nearly hitting the butler.

In a flashback, we see a great ancient city being destroyed by some force that sweeps through its structures (briefly seen from a distance with deaths implied, but none seen).

Various bad guys shoot at Lara with machine guns.

Many stone monkey statues suddenly come to life (as moving stone figures) and start to attack Lara and others with their swords. Lara and those men then hit and open fire on these creatures, "killing" them with punches, gunfire and sword blows that shatter their stone bodies. A sword thrown by one of the creatures, however, impales and presumably kills one of the men. More sword throwing and gunfire follows, with stone creatures blasted apart and several more men being hit and impaled.

A griffin-type creature then chases after Lara, and a large, multi-armed stone statue comes to life. Lara riddles the latter with bullets from her two handguns as she tries backing away from it. She eventually causes a large, swinging beam to strike that four-armed monster in the chest, sending it falling to the chamber floor. The griffin-type creature then chases after Lara again, picking her up but then falling into pieces once it flies out of the temple. She then runs through the jungle as Powell's men fire machine guns at her.

As Lara and others try to make their way across and atop a huge, revolving model of the solar system, a man is apparently crushed between two rotating arms, while others are knocked off and fall into water below the structure as they all try to jump from arm to arm to get to the center.

Powell's men shoot his superior dead with machine gun fire.

Powell throws a knife that impales a man in the chest, sending him falling into a body of water where he becomes stuck beneath the surface. Lara tries to save him, but the man drowns (although not for good as time is reversed and the man is ultimately saved).

As a knife slowly travels through the air in slow motion, Lara grabs it with both hands and struggles to turn it around in the opposite direction. She cuts her hands or fingers in the process, and we see a lot of blood running through her fingers and then down her arm while and after doing so. She then shoots the magic triangle, causing the knife to resume full speed and impale, but not kill a man.

We see a flashback of Powell shooting a man point blank in the head (seen from a distance with no blood, but we do see the victim's body falling to the ground).

After holding their guns on each other, Lara and Powell get into a long fight where each delivers strong punches and kicks to the other's face and body. He then tries to slice her with a knife, but she avoids that while delivering more blows to him. She then sticks her finger in an open wound on his chest, head butts him and then delivers what's presumably a fatal blow to him.

Reviewed June 12, 2001 / Posted June 15, 2001

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