Lara Croft - Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle Of Life

In a disappointing summer for blockbuster sequels, this follow-up to 2001's debut Tomb Raider movie gave new meaning to under-performance at the US box office, entering the chart at number four and tumbling down the Top Ten in subsequent weeks. In this instance, the American public have it right. Bringing in new director Jan De Bont (Speed, Twister) has done nothing to refresh the franchise, nor untangle it from panic-led editing. Angelina Jolie may look the part as video-gaming's most famous female icon, but her 2D counterpart still exhibits more warmth and personality, and for a Bond-style travelogue/action adventure, this is unconvincing, witless, pancake-flat stuff. Teamed with disgraced former agent Terry Sheridan (Reign of Fire's Gerard Butler), Ms Croft journeys from China (looking remarkably like Wales because it is) to Tanzania via Greece in search of the fabled Pandora's Box. Ciaran Hinds gives it his pantomime-all as the evil scientist, but with a plot that makes little sense and set pieces as ho-hum as two stuntmen gliding from the top of a building, one hopes that, like the box, this lame series will now be sealed forever.

The tepidly anticipated return of the videogame vixen belly-flopped on its US release, and it did so with a splat that... read more on Time Out