6. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Few are going to deny that Angelina Jolie was extremely well cast in 2001's
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which ended up grossing a solid $274m against a $115m budget. Strange it was, then, that the sequel,
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, was actually budgeted at less than the original at $95m, a virtually unheard-of practise in Hollywood and one which, to many, might have had the alarm bells ringing already. That's not to say the original film was up to much, and earned a poor 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. That this sequel performed ever-so-slightly better critically than its lame-brained predecessor - clambering to 24% on the Tomatometer - is even more baffling given that the film performed quite disappointingly indeed at the box office, taking only $156m. That's not to stick up for the film, though; both of these flicks are braindead action adventure films that coldly ape the
Indiana Jones formula, minus the visual wit and charm of that series. Amusingly, however, Paramount refused to admit that they greenlit a crappy sequel to a crappy film, and instead insisted that the underwhelming recent release of the latest Tomb Raider video game,
Angel of Darkness - which was rushed through production and released loaded with glitches - was the cause. Producer Lloyd Levin seemed confident that a sequel would still go ahead, but all talk of this was promptly nipped in the bud once Angelina Jolie insisted that she was through with the franchise, and thankfully, so then were we. That said, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a Rhona Mitra-starring reboot, if they can get a confident action director and solid scribe behind it, but given the track record of video game adaptations, it's best not to count on it.