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TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE - REVIEW

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With Lara Croft: Tomb Raider doing well at the box-office despite it failing to be the cinematic adaptation of the classic game people were waiting for, a sequel was nonetheless inevitable. New director, new adventure, new hope. Could this be the Tomb Raider film we were all waiting for? Sadly... far from it. Once again, the film misses the point of the game and replaces what should be an Indiana Jones -type of vibe with more of a Mission Impossible approach. Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft is paired with Gerard Butler's agent to uncover Pandora's Box thanks to a big, glowing... Dragonball. The film opens with Lara already on a mission and although there is something really messy and uninvolving about that opening scene, it's all worth it just to see her punch a shark in the face: by far the best and funniest moment in either film. The plot sees a competing douchebag, some evil scientist guy, following the trail of the orb and the Box while Lara attempts to retri

LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER - REVIEW

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Remember when that movie came out? How excited we were? I know I was! A perfectly cast Angelina Jolie playing the one game character EVERY geek fantasized about in a full-blown action adventure flick? Finally? I couldn't wait. Then I watched it... I hadn't been this disappointed in a video game movie since Street Fighter and at least that one was enjoyable in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way, it was entertaining at the very least! Not that this Tomb Raider outing is completely joyless: there is a sense that they were trying to make a fun movie complete with loads of action, playful one-liners and comic relief characters (both of which are awful here, by the way) but somehow it managed to completely miss the point. It's really quite simple: what Tomb Raider should be is nothing more than a modern Indiana Jones with a quietly badass female lead and cool, cartoonish villains. Yet this movie finds it necessary to spend no less than 40 minutes building exposition f

LARA CROFT VS SHARK

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KUNG FU PANDA 2 - REVIEW

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There was something pretty irresistible about the first Kung Fu Panda film. Seemingly a dull, same-old same-old kiddie animation, it was actually genuinely engaging, very appealing visually and quite clever in its admittedly familiar approach to storytelling. Its take on Kung Fu movie cliches wasn't exactly new but the film still felt fresh regardless and, more importantly, was a lot of fun. A sequel was therefore inevitable and for this one we have pretty much more of the same but obviously with bigger stakes and more action scenes...and a third dimension. So how does it fare? Strangely not quite as well. Not that Kung Fu Panda 2 is poor in any way but somehow a lot is lost in this one's bigger scale. The heart of the story, Po's relationship with his dad and his search for his origins, is still very effective but the loud, in-your-face action sequences downplay a story which, in itself, was solid and powerful enough without being peppered with whizz-bang nonsense.

THE TOURIST - REVIEW

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The poor man's Knight and Day ? Perhaps not. Depp and Jolie are hardly the B sides of Cruise and Diaz. If anything The Tourist is a more laid-back alternative to the pumped up nonsense of Knight and Day. Both films have similarities though in that they are both throwbacks to Hitchcockian spy movies in the vein of North By Northwest and To Catch a Thief . So which works better? I suppose it depends what you're in the mood for. If you're in need of some Mission Impossible -style silliness with multiple chase scenes and explosions then Knight and Day just about hits the spot. If however you want something just as silly but a tad more focused and sophisticated then The Tourist is a better bet: no dodgy CGI or slo-mo plane explosions there. Although The Tourist is far from perfect and is closer to Salt than anything else, it feels like it's suffered some unfair bashing. The chemistry between both leads and the predictable end "twist" being the k