iTunes Exclusive Episode Tomb Raider

If you're hearing the sound of my voice it means the following conditions have been met. At least once in your life you've checked out the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific, your one stop shop for all things pop culture, but it also means you subscribe to this little show on your favorite podcast app because it is time for another iTunes exclusive. This would be number 360 for those of you playing in the home game.

Welcome, my name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and I like an adventure movie on you every once in a while because we're going to talk about one today. Let's go around the table in the co-host chair, oddly enough, is my co-host and a man that sets the bar for his video game movies pretty dog on the high. He is Chad, welcome sir.

Thank you for having me. That's kind of your gig. Oh well, but it's still your house.

He's tough to let me yeah, it's fair. Next to him is the official fact checker of this show and a man who loves him some national treasure because it's so adventurous. You may know him as fondongo but his mama named him Don Ford, I'm going to call him Don Ford, welcome sir.

Actually I did like that movie. There's two of them. Well, the first one, not the second, that's national treasure book of secrets.

That's right. I wasn't saying it wasn't so secret. And I got secrets.

I bet you do. Round you got the dance is the lady of the house and someone who's bar for video game just fairly low because she can. The general is here.

Hello friend. Hello everyone. All right, whatever we do one of these things, it is to review something.

This is no different. The Alicia Vikander, the Dominic West, the Walton Goggins, the Daniel Wu, the Kristen Scott Thomas, all are directed by a guy named Roar Uthauge because it's time to talk Tomb Raider. Is there a whole thing?

Yes, sir. We got to think our brand new friends. We have new friends.

Yes, we have friends. Okay, stop thinking we don't. We have friends.

We know people. We just got to add with the great people of love and sense. We got to thank JT and everybody of love and sin.

Thank you so much. Honored to be on board with you guys and we look forward to doing all kinds of cool stuff with you guys as time goes on. Let's dive right in.

Deep breath everybody because we're going to talk Tomb Raider. This has been done twice before with the Angelina Jolie. Thank you.

I was I was giving you time. I was giving you time. So we're rebooting it.

This is TPG13 runs just under two hours. Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer must push herself beyond her limits when she finds herself on the island where her father disappeared. All right, gentlemen.

I mean, you were there. We were kind of dividing and conquering. I was at another event at the same time that you guys were seeing this.

Right. Because we want to make sure that we give the Empire as much as we possibly can. When I first saw the trailer for this because I still kind of have a bad taste in my mouth from the second film.

As do I. The cradle of life. Who doesn't?

I'm not a belly idol song. That's a cradle of love. I just.

Yes, that's the right one. I saw the trailer for this and I don't know that the Vidcander who I'm a huge fan of. She's amazing.

Big fan. I just don't know that she clicks in as Lara Croft to me. Maybe it's because my vision of Lara Croft is different because you and I are old school but they're then they've rebooted the series and I know all that.

Let's just start there. Okay. How does she function as the Lara Croft?

Quite well actually, but they do a couple of things with her character that kind of hit me sideways. Do we get the sunglasses at least? No, no.

Oh, come on. You got to remember this is based on the 2013 reboot of the franchise. The Angelina Jolie version is an older version of Lara.

Right. Whereas this one is a version of Lara that's very much in her early 20s. I mean, could you call it a prequel?

I wouldn't even call it early 20s. I mean, I'm technically 14. Yeah, 21.

Well, yeah, yeah, not technically 14 done. Look at the age things from the IMDB. I only think she says she's a tingling.

Well, I mean, they they kind of hopscotch around different points in her life and they show her relationship with her father from a very, very young age up to the point to where he leaves to go on this journey with that. She loses track of it. The Bikinder did all of her own stunts.

Yes. She made it a point to be in tip-top shape for this. In fact, the girl that plays Lara as a 14-year-old is the same girl that played the teenage Diana Prince in last year's Wonder Woman.

Oh, wow. The kids getting work. So, and I mean, you can definitely, you know, see the bridge they were trying to build there.

But it's it's strange to me that they introduce her character in the way that that it's introduced because if they're staying if they're at least attempting to stay faithful, which at times they were trying to stay incredibly faithful to the storyline of this first game that came out in 2013. And at other times, they just go completely off the reservation. I'm like, okay, if we're going to do this, then why are we doing this this way?

Because I'm trying to keep it as spoiler free as possible. Right. But they they change a lot of elements in the story because it's I mean, it's mimicking the original, well, I mean, not the original, but this this 2013 reboot very, very closely.

Okay. But I don't know, it's just it's trying to I think is trying to serve two completely different audiences. A movie-going audience and a fanboy audience, which happens a lot.

Yeah, I mean, genre pictures like this. Now, can you say that there is a silver liner that who a bold did not direct us? I mean, Don, I mean, back to the first question.

Yeah. The look she had the look of Laura Croft. Okay.

Okay. There's no doubting that. That's Laura.

No, it's Laura. Oh, there's Laura now. Uh-huh.

No, it's always I've always I've just L.A. There's no use. I always pronounce it.

But you're going by the Americanization of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So she's a Brit and it's done by a British development. Do you know what America?

Okay. But on her looks, it's fine, but this character versus the one that we know of Angelina Jolie, there are a lot of differences between the two. Well, but you have to remember that the Lara Croft that they were going for back then was a different version of the character.

Yeah, but an older version of the character. But still, what I mean, there are some big differences. Number one is in this reboot, yes, she has a big inheritance, but she lives with meagerly, very meagerly, where she owes people money.

And there's a reason why I won't get into, because I won't be spoiler free, but there's a reason why she won't inherit that money. In the first film, she's living in the big castle, she's loaded, she can trot the world, and all that stuff. So there are some differences in that aspect.

And also the big difference, I noticed was a characterization in her mannerism. She's a very more humble person in this film than I would say in the original film. Okay, she's not as, I hate to say, strong willed in some aspects, some aspects.

She has a strong will to find her father that loves there. So here's strong will, but some of the action things and stuff like that. She doesn't have the cockiness and the brachiness of it.

But would that have to have been with age? Yes, absolutely. Because I mean, as an older version of herself, she's done more things, had more experiences.

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, she played the version of the character as closely as I think she could have been allowed to given the limitations of the script. Because there's been a lot of different actresses, even over the last five or six years, that have been bandied about or attached to this project.

What the thing that really confuses me is the girl that, well, I can't call her a girl, but the young woman, that's the model for the video. That's the model for the video game is on Grey's Anatomy. She's now a seasoned veteran actress named Camilla Luttington.

Yeah, I remember they were talking about her at San Diego Comic Con four or five years ago when Nurt HQ first became a thing. And they're talking about her being in the new video game. Yeah, they even did like a like a mini doc series on the making of an exact Levi hosted that wound up on the first to founder of Nurt HQ.

And it's kind of bummed me down like, why don't they just get her to do this? She's already just didn't want to. Well, it's kind of weird, but it might have been around around.

I know she had a child not too. It might have been around around time. She was she was pregnant.

But on the swim. Well, let's say we get into the acting. There's only basically four characters in this film when it comes to it.

Of course, the Lichio plays Laura, Dominic West who plays the dad from the wire. Yeah, what the great Walter Goggin shamed from the shield. You know, both huge fans of the Walton Goggin.

He plays the big villain. He does good as a villain because he played some roles in a past like unjustified where he plays the bad guy. He does it well in this one in Daniel Wu.

Those are the four characters. Now, like, for instance, Nick Frost is in this. He's only.

Yeah, he's in there for two scenes. That's good enough for me because I liked in the process. Same with their Jacobi, with Chris Scott Thomas.

They're only in there for about two, three scenes in only a couple minutes in each scene. So there's only basically four characters. There's a lot, a lot, a lot of small roles.

It seems like and just from the trailers I've seen, is there a lot of time jumping in this? No, no, no. Okay, because it seems like that in the trailer, but there is some, but it's just quick flashbacks to her as a kid with the dad.

Okay, and you're talking 10, 15 seconds of a grade out kind of. And Dominic West plays her father. Correct.

Yeah. But he plays a father to the whole thing looks different depending on the time. Right.

But did they did they marvel D.A. Jim or no? Okay.

Yeah. But you see her look back and think for about five, 10 seconds as a young child, you see here's a several with her dad and it's in black and white and kind of, you know, fuzzed out kind of thing. So that's only flashback.

There really is. It's a great story going forward. At this point in our discussion, I'm feeling okay about this.

Is there another shoe here? Yes. Yeah.

Okay. And what is that shoe? You want to go to Omega?

Go ahead. But one, this is not the globe trotting film where they go to 20 different countries and go around the world. It's basically she's in the majority of her countries and around the world.

Yeah. That's what I said. So they basically are home in England and then they go to the one location out of Japan where the vents take place.

So it's only in a very few locations. So it's not going like an original where she goes to Shanghai. And she has the thing in a Bob's Lids in the Arctic and then she's in America.

Kind of like they do with the James Bond film. Yeah. That's totally different than that.

Fair enough. This film is what I call leave your brain at the door. It's your normal action film.

There are plenty of scenes in this where they try to get you on the edge of the scenes. You know, suspense where you have where can the great hero escape from the carpet for a chorus off that goes off the cliff and unlock the door and get unlocked and all that. And there's of course she escapes every one of those at the very last section.

Because she's there cropped. Yeah, but she does. There's a lot of that.

And there are some scenes which we can chat talk about after the film. I thought there was a lot of mindless action that was not needed for this film. But isn't that kind of the point?

No, not this version of Lara, not anymore. Okay. Back then, whenever Angelina was Lara, it made sense.

They have taken this character and they've stripped her down to the barest of essentials. And you know, she's a novice at all this. So she's basically just learning as she goes there.

She has a basic skill set. But she, her dad was the was the globe trotting, you know, treasure seekers. Okay.

She's not. She's not that at all. So this is all very new to her.

And the set pieces that are focused on are taken right out of the 2013 game. I mean, like you see, you've seen this in the scene with the old bomber that she's having to jump on the way big, big, huge part of the game. So you can say that at least there's some faithfulness to the source material.

There is, but for some crazy reason, there isn't. And I can't figure out why they didn't. And I'll give you an example.

Like, she's known for those two guns on her leg, right? Where she has those two. But there's a reference version.

Yeah. There's the Angelina. This version of Lara is pretty much well known for her bow and arrow skills and that climbing axe.

And that's it. Oh, really? Oh, absolutely.

But isn't there a reference to it, though? I thought I read it on IMG. There is.

Okay. There, there definitely is. But it's just, it's a hint of things to come.

Okay. Yeah. So this is very, very in.

Just let me see the guys. All right. So let me, let me ask you guys this.

Is this going to get franchised? Yeah. They're dead.

Love they left it open. And they're going to make enough money to make someone like, Oh, what's the green light and do another one? We'll make some money on this.

I think it will. I think it will fare better than Alicia Vikander's husband's venture into video gaming movies with with the sands and screed. He's doing okay.

Yeah, but he's doing fine because he's made to her for number one. But it's it's it's got a few strengths. There's there's the makings of something really good here.

But I don't know. I don't know if it's just based on the inexperience of the director. And I really didn't get a lot of good chemistry between the leads outside of who's the guy that played the ship?

Yeah. Daniel Wu between the great Daniel Wu. There was great chemistry there.

And you know, Nick Frost was great, but he wasn't in the movie all that much. But Dominic, it felt really cheesy. And I'm so I'm so used to seeing him play villains that it's hard for me to take him as a good guy.

And they try to kick the emotion in between her and her dad. And it just doesn't work. Okay.

It just does it feels forced. And Goggins is just chewing up scenery. He plays good villain.

I like him, but he's so over the top about it. Yeah, he does. He justified.

He played a great subtle villain. Uh-huh. And this one here, he plays the over the top.

I'm trying to be as bad and most unhuman person kind of feeling this one. He tries to be a Negan type character almost. General, any questions from you?

How did she come in across as a strong and a female? Absolutely. And believable.

Okay. Absolutely. I mean, she's she's going to be a great female role model.

Okay. That's you know, and I think we are living in this current age of, of incredibly strong, you know, girl power, female empowerment, female leads. And it's it's refreshing to keep seeing this.

She does it right because the Angelina Jolie, she was a strong person in this, but she had a big ego and I'm rich kind of thing. This one, there are scenes where you see her never give up and fight and fight and fight and her will is there, but she's not the very outgoing person about it or I got pizzazz or I got money on it. Yeah.

Is she like a lot of what motivated the Angelina iteration of it was she was doing this for herself. Whereas this it's not for herself at all. But she's doing it the right way where she's giving it her all.

She's putting everything she can. She's not paying her way. And she yeah, she is not going the easy route.

Some aspects and there's some aspects where she's scared of certain things and it shows her being scared. Yeah, she's vulnerable. She's incredibly vulnerable.

Yeah, but but you need that to have a realistic that female can be strong and powerful, but that doesn't mean that she's that 100% to be a real person. You've got to have this is a more real list, a strong-willed person than I think the Angelina's character. Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. It shows weaknesses. Yeah, good.

I like to hear that. Are we ready for the final analysis? Yeah, we do the final analysis on the show.

We're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down. We're not going to give you letter grades, numbers, pickaxes, nothing like that. I'm going to ask these gentlemen up to two questions.

Question number one is would they see this film again? The answer's no. Number done here.

But if the answer's yes, then I want to know how far they're willing to go to seed again. From the best of the best of the worst of the best, here's our rankings. Full price at the theater, twilight showing, matinee, early morning on a Saturday.

Maybe you go to the wait for the second run of the dollar theater. Maybe just wait for it on red box or streaming on Netflix or all the way down the cable. Don't let's start with you.

Would you see Tomb Raider again? Yeah, how far you will go do it? CGI is good.

She plays good, but with a lot of mindless action in some of the story mine, I'm going to give it to second run dollar theater. Okay, Chad, would you see it again? Yeah, how far are you willing to go?

One step above dawn. I do like in early morning, early morning Saturday showing with with my wife, because I know she loves Lara Croft. And I know she'd probably get a kick out of seeing this.

Does she sound like she's from London? I should have known that was going to happen. It is Tomb Raider for insolving.

Again, we're going to thank JTN by 11son for the invite. We're big fans. Thank you guys so much for letting us see this movie before it becomes available to the public so that we can tell the Empire what we think of it so they can make the best possible decisions they can in their entertainment dollar.

That being said, let's do the plugs. Visit our website. You can find their written reviews too at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.

Find that everything you need to know and some stuff you don't. Follow us on social media, Twitter is at ClubhouseShow. Everything else is the Clubhouse podcast.

All three words in that order or you will wind up somewhere else. You can follow me on social media if you so choose to do so. Everything is yes, that Rob Irvin that is with ERVIN.

I am Matt Chad in PG-69. Jen, Rome home on Instagram. I'm at Fawn, Dongo, and Twitter.

Twitter is beginning 3Os at the end. Email me at Don at ClubhousePodcast.com. Email Don for information on how we can come do a live show for you.

We love hanging out with the Empire at our live remote shows. You can email me, questions, comments, concerns, so many to go pound sand. I'm Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.

I am Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we're morally obligated to say that. Jill's Walmart at the house.

So is the fabulous faith forward. Our normal show every Sunday night, seven Eastern, four Pacific is your one stop shop for all things pop culture or just keep subscribed on your favorite podcast app. Get all the cool stuff like this.

So until next time, for Jen Rome, for Don, for Chad and the Empire, I'm Rob. Clubhouse is closed. Brittany Palmer would be the perfect sidekick.

I'm just saying. Make it happen, people!