Lara Croft - Lethal and Loaded

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Solid production values and a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humor help elevate this British-made documentary about the worldwide phenomenon behind the video game Tomb Raider and its voluptuous femme fatale heroine, Lara Croft, a notch above the usual promotional tie-in material. Though no footage from the 2001 theatrical release with Angelina Jolie is featured, it's well padded with animation from the game's numerous incarnations and interviews with its creators and admirers. Amusingly, the game designers attempt to attribute Tomb Raider's success to its groundbreaking 3-D design and plentiful action, while the fans (which include everyone from average blokes to U2) clearly indicate that Lara's zaftig figure is its main selling point. While Lara's ascent to pop culture and marketing icon status gets plenty of coverage, it's the scenes illustrating the fans' often obsessive level of devotion that provide the tape's most interesting and occasionally alarming moments. --Paul Gaita
Average customer rating:
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Lara Croft - Lethal and Loaded
Starring: Emily Booth , Angelina Jolie , and Jamie Theakston Director: Dev Varma Manufacturer: White Star ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00005OBAH Release Date: 2001-08-28 |
Amazon.com
Solid production values and a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humor help elevate this British-made documentary about the worldwide phenomenon behind the video game Tomb Raider and its voluptuous femme fatale heroine, Lara Croft, a notch above the usual promotional tie-in material. Though no footage from the 2001 theatrical release with Angelina Jolie is featured, it's well padded with animation from the game's numerous incarnations and interviews with its creators and admirers. Amusingly, the game designers attempt to attribute Tomb Raider's success to its groundbreaking 3-D design and plentiful action, while the fans (which include everyone from average blokes to U2) clearly indicate that Lara's zaftig figure is its main selling point. While Lara's ascent to pop culture and marketing icon status gets plenty of coverage, it's the scenes illustrating the fans' often obsessive level of devotion that provide the tape's most interesting and occasionally alarming moments. --Paul GaitaCustomer Reviews:
Very enjoyable.......2003-02-23
Lara Croft-super lady-.......2002-10-13
Is it that Loaded?.......2002-07-11
If you know all this, then I doubt that this documentary will add a lot. First of all, we must clear out that this documentary was made for an English TV station and then it was released on DVD. In other words, it wasn't made to be an exclusive DVD documentary yet it was made just for the TV.
The documentary is carried in 50 minutes, which are divided into 12 chapters. Personally, I liked two or three, and I found no reason why they made the others.
This DVD focuses and TRIES to prove that Lara Croft is real. The first chapter is called 'Who Is Lara Croft?' and the last one is called 'Leaving Lara'. It starts by taking you to the school in which she's learned and tries through the whole documentary to prove she's alive.
Focusing on weird subjects, like the OBSESSION part which cycles you with lots of fans who nearly left their lives for the sake of Lara, I don't actually see why this is important. Also, focusing on a weird woman who has a collection of dresses like those Lara wears and she actually wear them in public, are these the right people? Perhaps I'm the one who's not normal.
Another man subject the DVD focuses on is her 'Sex Appeal'. It devotes a full chapter for that and then they return again for a similar subject in Chapter 8 'Uncensored' where they throw on you lots of manipulated nude pictures of Lara Croft.
It's really annoying, it's annoying that through the whole 50 minutes they didn't talk about anything except three subjects; Lara is REAL, Lara is SEXY and FANS are MAD of Lara (truly mad).
I don't know, but if you're expecting a documentary about the game, this isn't it. This is exactly as the name says 'a documentary about LARA' and as the picture shows 'Some Sex approach'. I was expecting more refering to the game, which is actually what Lara Croft is. I liked the game very much, but I never thought of Lara more than a character inside the game, not a REAL character as they were trying to convince me..
Be aware there is 'animated' nudity.......2002-05-26
An Intimate Look into Lara Croft and her Legacy.......2002-04-07
However, this DVD is slightly dated, as there is absolutely NO information on the Tomb Raider film released Summer 2001; the film only gets a brief mention at the beginning of the main program. Another disappointment is that there are no bonus items on this DVD: no new images of Lara Croft, no official biography, etc. This is why I can only give a "4" rating to this otherwise excellent and low-price DVD.
One important note: There is actually nudity here. Shortly after Tomb Raider became truly successful, various patches were posted on the Internet to allow players to see Lara Croft nude. Part of the main program addresses this issue, and shows some images of the (very much unofficial) nude Lara Croft, even while voiceovers discuss attempts at preventing this unauthorized use of the character.
DVD:
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