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PARAMOUNT

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Jan de Bont
Cast:
Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciarán Hinds
Writing Credits:
Steven E. de Souza, James V. Hart, Dean Georgaris

Synopsis:
Lara Croft faces her most perilous mission: to recover what ancient civilization believed to be the essence of all evil, Pandora’s Box.

Box Office:
Budget
$95 million.
Opening Weekend
$21,783,641 on 3222 screens.
Domestic Gross
$65,660,196.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Spanish Dolby 5.1
English Audio Description
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
Latin Spanish
French

Runtime: 117 min.
Price: $31.99
Release Date: 2/27/2018

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Jan De Bont
• 7 Deleted/Alternate Scenes with Optional Commentary
• 5 Featurettes
• Gerard Butler’s Screen Test
• 2 Music Videos
• Blu-ray Copy


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
-LG OLED65C6P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV
-Marantz SR7010 9.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Surround Receiver
-Sony UBP-X800 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life [4K UHD] (2003)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (February 27, 2018)

Many hoped that Lara Croft would develop into a consistent movie franchise character ala Indiana Jones or James Bond. Alas, that didn’t happen – not with the franchise’s first go-round, at least.

The first Croft flick from 2001 did reasonably well. Its $131 million gross didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but it appeared more than enough to set the wheels for a sequel in motion.

2003 brought that sequel with Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life. Perhaps to protest that awkward title, audiences mostly skipped this one, as the second Croft tale managed to nab almost exactly half of the original’s take with a gross of $65 million.

In an objective sense, that’s not a terrible tally, but for a mega-budgeted summer blockbuster, it’s pretty rotten. Cradle killed the original Croft series, though 2018’s Alicia Vikander-led reboot hopes to rekindle it.

In Cradle, an earthquake apparently reveals the Luna Temple, the holding place of Alexander the Great’s most prized possessions. Along with many others, Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) hunts for it, but she figures out its secret and gets there first.

Unfortunately, some baddies led by Chen Lo (Simon Yam) track her there. They kill her crew and nab the temple’s prize, a special orb. Lara narrowly escapes and then sets off in pursuit of the orb and revenge.

In the meantime, we meet biological weapons inventor Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds). He offers a special new weapon called “Pandora” for sale.

We soon learn that this is literally Pandora’s Box and it will unleash a virulent plague. The orb acts as a map to find the Box in a legendary spot called the Cradle of Life.

The boys at MI6 recruit Lara to act as their agent to stop Reiss. She agrees, but only if they allow her to work with her old partner Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler).

An imprisoned traitor, MI6 doesn’t want to do this, but Lara gives them little choice. She and Terry strike up a new partnership as they pursue the orb and try to stop Reiss’ evil plans.

Though the Tomb Raider videogames owed a lot to the Indiana Jones movies, Cradle betrays a much stronger connection to the Bond flicks. Lara does a lot more action/adventuring than she does tomb raiding, and while her roster of gadgets doesn’t rival 007’s, she presents a decent set of devices to help her on her quest. Lara goes high-tech with different elements that don’t quite stretch reality ala Bond, but they seem quite cutting edge.

Because the production values of Cradle seem strong, it doesn’t come across like a poor man’s Bond, but it doesn’t live up to the strengths of our favorite secret agent. Part of the problem stems from the way the action integrates with the story.

A lot of these elements seem gratuitous and tacked onto the tale. Some of the action fits with the plot adequately, but too much of it appears to occur just to give the flick some punch. The set pieces usually work fine, but I’d like them more if they blended better.

Similar sentiments greet the pairing of Jolie and Butler. On one hand, they look good together, and separately, they fill their roles fairly well.

However, they don’t display much chemistry, and too much of the time they feel like they’re on different pages. Physically, they come across like a real couple, but they don’t really connect in other ways. The script’s lousy attempts at comic banter between the pair don’t work either, and they only accentuate the absence of spark.

Jolie remains the best thing about the Tomb Raider movies. She possesses the spark to make Lara a strong and dynamic character, and she certainly handles all the physical demands well.

Jolie’s no girlie-girl who looks like she worries about breaking a nail, so she demonstrates a tough personality that allows Lara to seem like a viable character. There’s a sense of danger and venom behind Jolie that makes Lara more compelling than she otherwise might have been.

The first Tomb Raider movie didn’t present anything special, and Cradle of Life doesn’t bring new verve to the series. Nonetheless, it offers a reasonably entertaining spectacle.

Cradle seems utterly predictable and fails to feature much creativity, but it still comes across as generally enjoyable. Don’t expect much and you might have a good time.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio A/ Bonus B

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Though not a stellar presentation, the image worked pretty well.

Sharpness was largely strong. A few interiors looked a smidgen soft, but those instances created no notable concerns.

Jagged edges and moiré effects created no issues, and edge haloes remained absent. In addition, Cradle lacked any sign of source flaws.

Like most action films, Cradle went with stylized hues that often favored a warm orange or amber tone. The film offered rich and concise tones that were well represented.

Blacks also seemed tight and dense, while low-light shots appeared largely detailed and accurate. Some funky “day for night” late in the film looked a bit awkward, but most of the dark scenes worked fine. I felt pleased with this positive transfer.

In addition, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Cradle seemed solid. The soundfield offered a consistently lively and engaging experience.

From the forward speakers, I heard solid stereo separation for the music, and effects presented a vibrant and active presence. Different elements were neatly localized, and they moved across channels and blended together neatly and cleanly.

The surrounds also contributed a terrific amount of information as they created an encompassing environment. The rear speakers featured solid reinforcement of music throughout the film, and it included a wide variety of effects as well.

Virtually every action sequence came across with a fine level of excitement and activity from all around the spectrum. Gunfire, critters, vehicles, and various baddies all popped up from the different speakers, and these allowed the mix to really kick to life nicely.

Audio quality also appeared very solid. Although much of the speech needed to be looped, dialogue always came across as natural and distinct, and I heard no problems related to intelligibility or edginess.

Music seemed robust and vivid, as the songs and the score demonstrated good fidelity and range. Effects were the stars of the show, however, as they presented excellent clarity and accuracy and also packed a good punch.

Bass response seemed deep and rich, and highs were crisp and bright. Cradle created an excellent auditory impression.

How did the 4K UHD compare with the Blu-ray? Audio remained identical, as both discs sported the same DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtracks.

As for visuals, the 4K offered a modest uptick in terms of definition, and the HDR colors boasted a little more vivacity. However, I didn’t see substantial differences between the two, so the 4K UHD turned into a mild upgrade.

Only one extra appears on the 4K UHD disc: an audio commentary from director Jan De Bont. He offers a running, screen-specific piece. De Bont covers a mix of topics, most of which focus on technical domains.

De Bont gets into locations, stunts, visual effects, and the many logistical challenges caused by this sort of massive project. He also occasionally chats about the actors and lets us know a little about casting, improvised lines, and some other issues, but he mostly goes over the nuts and bolts issues.

At times De Bont favors too much praise, so we always hear how this was fantastic and that was amazing. Nonetheless, he gives us a lot of information and creates a reasonably interesting examination of the movie.

The package includes a Blu-ray copy, and that’s where the rest of the extras reside. Seven deleted/alternate scenes run a total of 11 minutes, 56 seconds. Most of these offer fairly uneventful moments that slightly expand existing concepts and seem inconsequential.

One introduces the Djimon Hounsou character earlier in the film, and the alternate ending provides a less effective conclusion to the movie. The latter’s the most interesting to see, as it’s a rare example in which the utilized ending seems more daring than the unused one.

We can view the deleted/alternate scenes with or without commentary from director De Bont. He gives us some notes about each clip and explains why he omitted them. The commentary adds nice information about the snippets.

In the Featurettes domain, we locate five programs that cover various aspects of the movie. These include “Training” (8:57), “Vehicles and Weapons” (4:32), “Stunts” (10:57), “Visual Effects” (11:29), and “Scoring” (4:47).

Across these, we get comments from director De Bont, stunt coordinator Simon Crane, actors Angelina Jolie, Christopher Barrie, Noah Taylor, Ciaran Hinds and Gerard Butler, story writer James V. Hart, personal trainer Ed Chow, stuntwoman Nicola Berwick, horse trainer Gerard Napliox, action vehicle coordinator Graham Kelly, armorer Richard Hooper, special effects director Chris Corbould, line producer Phillip Lee, visual effects supervisors Steven Begg and Ben Shepard, production designer Kirk M. Petrucelli, and composer Alan Silvestri.

“Training” concentrates on Jolie’s preparation, as we see her learn and execute different physical activities. “Vehicle and Weapons” offers what the title states, though it doesn’t include much depth. Nonetheless, it presents a fun sequence in which Jolie examines all her new toys with Hooper.

“Stunts” discusses the scene in which Lara and Terry quickly descend on ropes as well as the high-rise jump. “Visual Effects” looks at the faked underwater photography, the Stealth re-entry pod, and the creatures and setting in the Cradle of Life.

Lastly, “Scoring” looks at the movie’s music, its creation and intent. None of these seem outstanding, but all offer some nice moments and collectively give us a pretty decent look at the movie.

A short but cool feature shows up via Gerard Butler’s Screen Test. In this four-minute, two-second snippet, he performs the scene in which we first meet Terry in jail. It’s quite a good performance; many screen tests seem somewhat artificial, but this one feels like it could go straight into the final flick.

After this we discover two music videos. The disc presents Korn’s “Did My Time” and the Davey Brothers’ “Heart Go Faster”.

The former mostly mixes the usual lip-synch and movie elements, but it also attempts some sort of plot and incorporates specially-shot footage of Jolie in character, so it seems a little more interesting than usual.

The latter presents no new shots of Jolie and consists of band images and movie bits. However, it’s a little more stylish than most in its genre.

Without Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life would probably be little more than an average action/adventure flick. Actually, with Jolie it rarely seems better than average, but the actress helps give the movie personality. The 4K UHD boasts very good picture and audio plus a fairly nice set of supplements. Though a satisfying presentation in is own right, I can’t claim the 4K UHD does much to top the Blu-ray.

To rate this film visit the prior review of LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE

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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main