Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

Adventurer Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) searches for the legendary repository of a horrible plague, hoping to find it before a bio-weapons dealer (Ciarán Hinds) does and sells it to the highest bidder. The second Lara Croft movie (from the popular computer game) is a big improvement over the first. True, the script (by Dean Georgaris, from a story by Steven E. de Souza and James V. Hart) is more than a little preposterous, with pseudo-mystical touches that are pretty hard to swallow. But the plot is coherent enough to hold our attention and inventive enough to move credibly among all the exotic locations (China, Africa, the Mediterranean) that are the hallmark of the game. Director Jan de Bont keeps the action buoyant and vigorous, and Jolie responds to her improved surroundings with tongue-in-cheek aplomb.