''Tomb'' babe tames box office
By Carl DiOrio
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Paramount's video game adaptation ``Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' plundered an estimated $48.2million in opening box office, while Disney's family adventure ``Atlantis: The Lost Empire'' saw the smallest summer bow in
years for a Mouse House toon feature at $20.4 million.
Meanwhile, DreamWorks' ``Shrek'' continued to play box office ogre, as the computer-animated laffer rang up another $12.9
million in three-day estimated grosses with a mere 22% drop from a week ago. The picture reached $197.2 million through
five weekends, and the studio expects ``Shrek'' to sail through $200 million by midweek.
By contrast, Disney's ``Pearl Harbor'' seems to have hit choppy waters. The World War II actioner dropped 35% in its fourth
week to gross $9.5 million and move its total to $160 million. Disney maintains ``Harbor'' still can make it to $200 million
domestically.
Disney executives say the ``Atlantis'' bow was hampered by strong competition and suggest its performance will improve
over the longer haul.
``In light of opening against a movie that did almost $50 million, it's real good,'' Disney distribution president Chuck Viane
said of the ``Atlantis'' bow. ``For us to be able to hang in on that one is real good.''
Prior to ``Atlantis,'' which cost at least $90 million to make, Disney's weakest recent summer bow for a toon feature came in
June 1997, when ``Hercules'' opened at $21 million. That's the same mark posted by Disney's ``The Hunchback of Notre
Dame'' in June 1996.
Industrywide, distribution executives judged the $129 million weekend the biggest Father's Day frame ever. That's up 22%
from a year ago and means 2001 to date is 7% ahead of the same period of last year, according to data from box office
tracker ACNielsen EDI. The Father's Day holiday is historically a strong one. But wet East Coast weather may have driven
even more families to theaters than usual.
DreamWorks' ``Evolution'' emerged as the biggest backslider among the top 10 pictures this weekend with a 52% drop. Its
$6.5 million haul pushes the total for the effects-driven laffer to just $25.4 million.
By comparison, Warner Bros.' John Travolta actioner ``Swordfish'' grossed $12.2 million in its second weekend, after a
modest 33% drop, and seems on track to do at least $70 million domestically.
The ``Tomb Raider'' bow had Paramount executives enthusing over its prospects against tough competish in coming weeks.
``We're definitely assured of a long-term playability,'' Paramount vice chairman Rob Friedman said. ``I'm thrilled.''
Next weekend, the picture will face a pair of wide openers -- 20th Century Fox's sequel laffer ``Dr. Dolittle 2'' and
Universal's street-racing actioner ``The Fast and the Furious.'' The following frame features four more wide bows, including
Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated ``A.I.'' from Warner Bros.
Friedman noted good marks for topliner Angelina Jolie amid decidedly mixed reviews, and said the bow was the best ever
for a femme-starring actioner. ``Angelina was just superb,'' he enthused.
The opening was easily Jolie's personal best, nearly doubling the $25.3 million for last year's ``Gone in Sixty Seconds'' in
which she starred opposite Nicolas Cage.
``Tomb Raider,'' which Paramount said cost $80 million to produce, skewed 55% male and split evenly older and younger
than 25. Not surprisingly for a youthful pic, ``Raider'' enjoyed a more robust Friday than Saturday.
Even the recently soft specialty market seemed to perk up this weekend, with Fox Searchlight's gangster-themed ``Sexy
Beast'' a particular standout.
The well-reviewed Ben Kingsley starrer bowed at $180,695 in nine theaters in L.A., Gotham and Toronto. That represented
a boffo $20,077 per venue.
``It's great to see that in the midst of all the mega-movies, people are still hungry for something smart and different,'' Fox
Searchlight distribution president Steve Gilula said.
Elsewhere among art pictures, Fine Line's ensemble drama ''The Anniversary Party'' celebrated with a sophomore session of
$188,000 from 16 engagements in L.A., Gotham and three Canadian cities -- good for a festive $11,750 average. The helming
debut of topliners Jennifer Jason Lee and Alan Cumming, ``Party'' widens to 100 locations Friday.
Lions Gate's Appalachian songfest ``Songcatcher'' belted out $42,000 as it bowed in seven L.A. and Gotham venues for a
full-throated $6,000 average. Platforming broadens to include four San Francisco theaters next weekend.
Newmarket's amnesia thriller ``Memento'' grossed $711,356 from 397 theaters, as the Guy Pearce starrer moved its total to
memorable $18.4 million.
Reuters/Variety REUTERS
made the game quite intriguing. In 1996, Tomb Raider was
released for the Sony Playstation and sold milions of copies. It was very
cinematic with in game movie cut scenes and various action sequences.
However, much of it was wandering around in empty tombs moving blocks and
flipping switches. Not the most exciting activities. The games
became popular because exploring, shooting guns, solving puzzles, and looking at
attractive women is a formula that works extremely well in the world of video
games. In the world of movies, that style can work as well, but the
sacrifice that is made is in the story. To be true to the game, the live
action movie had to have a ridiculous plot that has no basis in reality.
The plot of the new Angelina Jolie movie is about a missing clock that leads its
possessor to 2 pieces of a broken triangle that when put together at the correct
time during the alignment of the 9 planets of our solar system will give you the
power to travel through time and become a god to a certain degree.
Somehow, Lara Croft's missing in action dad had found the clock, but was taken
out of commission before he had a chance to use it. The alignment happens
once every 5000 years, and that time is only a few days away. Lara is not
the only one looking for this mystical item. The lawyer for the mysterious
group known as the Illuminati is also seeking out its power. The Lawyer
and the Tomb Raider collided several times in a game of monkey in the middle to
see who will be able to control the cosmos. The plot is 
pointless,
much like a James Bond movie or even an Indiana Jones adventure. You go to
see this movie to see action set pieces and there are several. Some work,
and some do not. The best one is the one shown the most in the trailers
and clips on talk shows, and that is the bungee cord battle in Lara Croft's
home. This puts together everything that is right and wrong with the
movie. The right is that this is a unique sequence where Lara is
exercising on this hip attached double bungee when her house is invaded by the
Illuminati soldiers. She is able to hand to hand fight, dodge
semi-automatic weaponry, ride a motorcycle, and still talk to her trusty
assistant at the same time. This goes on for about 15 minutes and is the
highlight of the film. The problem with the sequence is just how
ridiculous it looks. If anyone actually tried to do what she did, they
would be dead within 5 seconds of the invasion. Also, Jolie has this look
of overconfidence throughout the whole movie that causes the audience to never
for one moment think she is in any danger. You know that Lara will
completely dominate her foes with little injury to her person. Throughout
the entire film the only real scratch she gets is on her arm and she gets a
trusty video game like power up that heals it instantly. If Lara had shown
some sort of vulnerability, the audience could identify with her plights a bit
more and possibly even enjoy the eventual success. As soon as the the guys
invade her home, she gives them a look of "bitch please" and then
proceeds to kick their asses. A look of "wholly crap, now what"
would have been a bit more interesting. Tomb Raider is compared to Raiders
of the Lost Ark quite a bit and it deserves the
comparison. The thing about Indiana Jones is that he was not perfect and
he did show fear several times to push the danger he was in. He is a
afraid of snakes and of doing the wrong thing when stealing ancient
artifacts. Jones actually worried about everything he did. Lara
Croft will go in and just grab what she wants, consequences be damned.
Even the video game shows Lara's foibles. When she climbs up walls and
pulls blocks, she grunts, and if she falls a great distance, you hear her scream
in terror. Jolie never does that in the movie. The opening sequence
in Tomb Raider is your standard adventure that sets up the character as being
some crazy athletic broad who has no fear and is willing to take on any
challenge. This is the part where she fights the robot in the tomb.
How a robot gets in a tomb is not a question to be asked, especially since the
sequence is just a training program she has set up in her home. There was no
real threat and that defeats the purpose of what the scene was to do.
Beating up a remote controlled robot monitored by her assistant is not a way to
show Croft as a bad ass. If the sequence was real, then the audience who
has no idea who Croft is would have supported the character more. Other
problems with the movie are its special effects. Well, only one is really
bad, while the others are just okay. There is a creature that comes to
life in the second half of the movie that is so badly rendered, I was close to
walking out of the theater. Also, the way the 
creature
is stopped is stupid and probably technically not possible. The acting in
the movie is adequate for what is presented. Jolie has the British accent
down no worse than used in the game. It won't convince you that she is a
British aristocrat, but is is passable. Angelina has the look of the
character down almost perfectly. Her face and hair and outfits follow the
game quite well. The casting director did a good job in choosing her over
Sandra Bullock or Elizabeth Hurley. Jolie's chest gets quite the workout
in the movie as well. Like the video game, it is quite prominently focused
on especially at the end when she is running away from a crumbling room.
The teenage boys will be quite pleased. Jolie's acting background helps lend
credibility to the role even in the middle of pure fantasy. Everything is
delivered with a straight face in this film. Jon Voigt shows up as Lara's
long lost father and he is just okay in his small role. Lara obviously did
not get her accent from her father since Voigt was spending too much time
imitating FDR to focus on his tomaatoes and potaatoes words. Lara Croft:
Tomb Raider is an okay movie that was made for fans of the video game. If
you have played the game before, then you will probably enjoy the live action
film. It follows the source material pretty well and is just as
dumb. If you have never seen or heard of the game, you might still like
the movie as an action adventure. Suspend your disbelief and you might
have a good time. If you are looking for an engrossing story, great
acting, strong direction, and action scenes that make sense, then Tomb Raider is
not for you. I liked it personally. Final Review: 2 1/2 stars
out of 5; 6 out of 10; B-; thumbs up. Play the game, then see the
movie.
animated films. This one is not one of the better ones, but is not
terrible. The plot of Atlantis is concerned with Milo, a linguist who has
found a way to search for the lost continent and needs a lot of help getting to
the location. An eccentric old man who was friend of his grandfather's
supplies him with the means to get to Atlantis. Each member of the crew
just happens to have their own little quirk to distinguish them from everyone
else. One likes to blow things up, one likes to dig in the ground like a
mole, and the other is a psycho German bitch. Since it is no secret, they
find Atlantis and meet up with the inhabitants there. Lo and behold the
daughter of the leader is the hottest chick in the land and she helps get Milo
and Co. situated. Everything is going well, until some people's true
intentions come to light and they must be stopped before Atlantis is destroyed
again. This movie is a fine piece of entertainment, but it sort of just
sits there. There are no musical numbers at all in this film which is
unusual for Disney movies, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Atlantis is a tough movie to get into in the age of the computer animated
feature like Toy Story or Shrek. Five years ago, Atlantis's visuals would
have been stunning, but now they look no better than a regular Saturday morning
cartoon. I am a fan of hand drawn animation, and still prefer it over the
computer aided style. But, ATLE does not convince me that its style is
still the 
better
one. The backgrounds and wide shots of Atlantis are very well done, but
where the animation falls short is in its rendering of the humans. They
just don't move in any natural way. It is a cartoon, so that can be
forgivable, but the style they are using is still over 40 years old going back
to the 101 Dalmations. Disney had this problem with Hercules, which also
had weak animation on the human and animal characters. We are in a new age
of cartoon entertainment, and if Disney wants to continue making hand drawn
movies, they will have to increase the quality, or they will be putting a lot of
artists out of work. The vocal acting work is nothing special this time
around. Michael J. Fox plays the hero, Milo Thatch and love interest to
Kida, the Atlantean princess. Fox is doing more vocal acting now that his
on screen activities have been limited, and he does a good job here. He
was better though as Stuart Little. He is a bit too excited as Milo, and can get
annoying at times. Also, Milo somewhat of a milquetoast, but becomes a
superman a bit too easily as the film goes on. Cree Summer is the voice of
Kida. Cree used to be on "A Different World" back in the late
80s. You know, that show that had Marissa Tomei the first season.
Summer is a cute girl who should be getting more onscreen acting work, but has
been regulated to doing only voice over work on Rugrats and Batman Beyond.
It is sort of sad actually. She too
is good in a Pocahontas type role of saving the environment from the evil
developers. The only other voice of note is that of James Garner as
Commander Rourke. I have liked Garner in his Rockford Files and Maverick
roles, but I did not enjoy him here. I could not get over the fact that I
was listening to James Garner the whole time, and when he starts getting crazier
and crazier, I did not buy it. Garner has this easy going voice that gives
one some solace, but here he is supposed to be menacing, and it just does not
come off well. A deeper voiced actor was needed for the part. I will
say that having Garner play the bad guy does make the villain a little more
threatening since he commits evil acts with the same laid back voice as when he
his shaking your hand to say hello. That calmness is somewhat
troublesome. I guess that is where they were going with it, but I prefer
the deep voiced bad guy over the matter of fact one. Atlantis did not open
well this weekend due mostly to the competition and poor marketing of the
film. This movie will have quite the chore to reach a $100 million at the
box office. Maybe if it had one key song to grab the audience, it could
have helped. Shrek had some music, and it has made over $200
million. Disney needs to go back to adding some music to 
their
cartoons and not avoid this necessary evil. The songs are always corny,
but they tend to be catchy and if you come out humming or singing the toon, you
might be inclined to see the movie again to hear it or buy the soundtrack for
your CD collection. Making movies is about making money as well as quality
entertainment. Without some extra touches, then Disney may be looking at
not being able to produce the animated features they want to. All Atlantis
needed was a musical number where Milo and Kida travel around the land singing
about how lovely it is and they would have been alright. The only thing
left is a trip to the highest point to look over the land and an orchestra plays
some music over the soundtrack. It is certainly no "Somewhere Out
There" moment. Final Review: 2 1/2 stars out 5; 6 out of 10;
B-; thumbs up. It is entertaining enough to recommend, but it is no Mulan,
which is my favorite Disney cartoon since Little Mermaid.
