June 16, 2001 -- "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," based on the popular digital interactive game of the same name, is a thin, all-out action flick with almost no character development. It is a slightly above-average summer flick. The heroine, Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie of "Gone in 60 Seconds"), is like an immature, highly destructive female version of Indiana Jones, a combination of Barbie and Rambo.

Croft awakes one night to find a mysterious clock hidden away in her mansion that turns out to be the key to a device that can control time. A mysterious brotherhood of Illuminanti is also after the key three pieces of the puzzle which can master time, of which the clock is only one. The other two pieces are located in old ruins familiar to anyone who has seen any "Indiana Jones" or "Mummy" film. The trick is, the pieces have to be retrieved precisely during key moments of an unusual astronomical alignment of planets which occur over just a few days time. The idea that one could find these unexplored ruins at the ends of the earth and unlock their secrets in just a few days, and the idea that a meteorite has the power to control time, are absurd notions. We also have Croft handing over her part of the puzzle to a stone-cold killer at one point in the movie. The only reason she isn't killed on the spot is to keep the plot going.

The movie is slick, with good production values. The special effects and the production design are very good. There is one transition scene where the buildings from one location "morph" into the buildings in the next location. That is a terrific effect I haven't seen before. Jolie does as good a job with her role as could be expected. My only problem with the film is that with a plot this ridiculous, it ought to have been more tongue-in-cheek, like "The Mummy Returns." The story is a little too serious, with the sombre, dead father, Lord Croft (Jon Voight of "Pearl Harbor") hanging around like a dreary, disembodied spirit, casting a pall over the proceedings. With a plot as silly as this one, there should be no pretense of any seriousness whatsoever in the story.

Although Lady Croft does have these serious thoughts about her father, and she misses him, most of the time she acts not like a lady, but like a 15-year-old boy on steroids, armed with deadly weapons. Now there's a concept scarier than any other plot element. She really likes to break things. She smashes the doomsday clock with a hammer. She virtually destroys her own fleet of classic cars. She smashes down a wall in her own house made of very expensive wood paneling in the middle of the night because she hears ticking somewhere. She wreaks havoc on priceless relics at archeological sites. She's like a bull in a china shop. This is not really adult behavior. It is more like the behavior of a destructive child. Indiana Jones, on the other hand, while doing his own share of destruction, seemed to have a genuine appreciation for the artifacts he recovered. That is apparently the difference between an archeologist and a tomb raider and the difference between history and an action game.

Croft is like every adventure game player wishes they were in real life. She's rich and doesn't have to work. She's got the money to pay for most of the damage she causes (except for irreplaceable artifacts). All she does is play shoot-em-up games with robots. Again, just a kid at heart. She is the alter ego of every teenaged Tomb Raider game player watching the film in the audience. She's one kick-butt babe, but that's exactly what the role calls for. She looks great, she's buff and she never backs down. Enemies can fire thousands of bullets at her and she barely gets nicked. Only a couple of strategic locks of hair are mussed. There's never a question who is going to come out on top, so there is no suspense at all. There is just plenty of mindless action, but it is high energy action and it is entertaining. So sit back, relax and chew that popcorn. This film rates a C+.

Also starring in the film is Alex Marrs (played by Daniel Craig of "I Dreamed of Africa"), Hilary the butler (Chris Barrie who played Rimmer on "The Red Dwarf" TV show) and the computer hacker Bryce (Noah Taylor). The bad guy is Manfred Powell (Iain Glen of "Gorillas in the Mist"). The director, Simon West, also directed "Con Air" and two of the screenplay writers, Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, also wrote the "Face/Off" screenplay.

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