Rating: 
Summary: The best and most original action film I've ever seen!
Review: If you think that Lara Croft is the quintessential action star, then you obviously haven't met Lola. "Run Lola Run" is a masterpiece of action filmmaking that I loved. It is one of the best films of the year, and I will definitely buy it when it comes out on video. The film opens with a policeman/referee explaining the rules of a game. He dropkicks a soccer ball into the atmosphere, and the game begins with the ring of a telephone. Lola answers to find out that her boyfriend, Manni, is in trouble. He has left 100,000 marks on a subway train that has fallen into the hands of a homeless man. If he cannot get the money to the gangster he owes it to in twenty minutes, he will attempt a desperate, ill-fated robbery in order to keep from beng killed. With a scream from her throat and a toss of the bright red phone receiver, Lola is on the run, leaving her flame-red hair, her quick feet, and a pulsing techno soundtrack to carry the film the rest of the way. It is when she begins to run that I sat forward, eagerly awaiting the outcomes of her three separate journeys. Yes, Lola's odyssey transpires three times, each with a different outcome, and all because of one boy and his riled dog. Most of the film's elements remain the same: Lola meets the same people, runs under the same El-Train and always busts into her father's office at the bank while he's in the middle of a heart-to-heart talk with his mistress. As Lola meets the same people on the street, their lives are flashed before us in a series of snapshots, showing the different outcomes, all based on Lola's timing. Franka Potente plays Lola with the sort of perfect performance that most actresses wish they could pull off. Her screams always seem real and heartfelt, her tears in the confrontation with her father are real, and look of intensity that remains on Lola's face while she's on the run shows a very clear message: That Lola is a woman in love, and a woman on a mission. A mission that will be accompished at all costs. "Run Lola Run" is not only the best action film ever made, it is also one of my all-time favorites, and it sets a new standard that no one will be able to surpass.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: i saw this movie when it was in the theaters with my father who can count the amount of foreign films he's seen on one hand. we were both amazed. the cinematography, the use of still photography, video, film, black and white, color. it is an amazing film that clocks in at under 90 minutes. it is funny and touching at the same time. i heard the director and the girl who played lola are now a couple!!! i can't wait to get the dvd.
Rating:
Summary: Cult Classic: Film Rouge?
Review: "Run, Lola, Run," starring Franka Potente as the flaming redhead Lola, is guaranteed classic cult film status for years to come. Lola lights up the screen in this German film which features creative cinematography and near-perfect editing, combining cinema verité and animation. Tom Tykwer shows brilliance as the film's director; his use of close-ups of these not-perfect faces is exceptional. "Lola" is a film that one can enjoy watching over and over again, so it is a worthwhile addition to a DVD collection. As someone who primarily enjoys classical music and opera, I was thrilled by the techno-trance music of the film's soundtrack. I recommend that viewers watch this film in the German version, with the English subtitles, because it is very easy to understand the film this way and adds to its authenticity. And it only gets better. The movie is told in three segments, each with different aspects and outcomes. Overall, this is definitely one of those films that gets better each time you watch it, a totally original, undiscovered treasure.
Rating: 
Summary: QUIRKY, ENERGETIC, BLAZING PULSE-POUNDER
Review: To the beat of an incessant techno/deephouse soundtrack, Lola runs, and then runs some more. I couldn't possibly think of another movie with such sheer cinematic buzz, it's cut like an MTV video: blink and you may miss a visual gag. The theme is doozy but interesting -- a slicing of the same reality in time into three perspectives. Blending an innovative mix of animation, still photography, slow motion, and normal cinematography, it illustrates how the smallest change in what a person does can alter the rest of their life, not to mention the lives of others, including complete strangers they pass on the street. Ironic, creative, and simply riveting -- a fabulous kinetic pleasure of a rental. The breathless high-octane soundtrack should be in your dance collections too.
Rating:
Summary: This is Pure Adrenaline: Lola is Fantastic
Review: Like an extended music video, Run Lola Run is one of those visceral movies that can be watched passively for while but before long it gets under your skin making your heart pound your lungs heave and your mind race. Tom Tykwer's direction and writing turned out a fantastic film that is pure action. This is a foreign film but its concept and style are close to home. Using the universal appeal of driving beats, as well as techno tunes and fast action photography this film is one that immediately grabs hold of teens and young adults and older people too! Franka Potente is powerful in this film. She is aesthetically pleasing (as always) and really makes the film enjoyable to watch. The dialogue is quite simple and you need not know a lick of German except maybe die tasche (the bag) which is a line used often throughout.
The film is centered on a young arty couple who are in need of money to pay off a loan after getting the. I am not going to give away a single plot detail because it may make the movie less enjoyable. However the movie is in fact three different scenarios of what happens in their pursuit of get back the money. Not all of these scenarios end happily. I have always imagined the movie as the imaginings of the couple as they plan and go through the contingencies of getting money.
Stylistically this movie is shot a lot like a music video and is more emotionally stimulating than is an intellectual one.
Its adrenalizing driving feel is refreshing especially considering it is a foreign film. So often foreign films are intellectual or just quaint. Not here. The only omission I would have made was the use of the animations that run in a few parts. They aren't bad and do not heavily detract but they are a little bit like something out of the `80's. But overall, the heavy use of high energy volume fast action shots, aggressive dialogue against a relatively austere urban German backdrop that accentuates the action makes this such a fun film to watch.
Beware when watching this movie you will probably want to do some cardio and this makes a great one to watch while on the treadmill if you have such a set up. This movie is pumped with energy and is a great point of entry into foreign film. It is one that is highly accessible very stimulating and good for a wide audience. I highly recommend you see this one: Its style pushed the envelope of what a film can be and is truly a masterpiece. The DVD offers a few extras and English audio which makes it all the more easy to watch.
-- Ted Murena
Rating:
Summary: Jeden Tag, jede Sekunde triffst Du eine Entscheidung, die De
Review: Tom Tykwer has truly proven himself as the filmmaker to watch. The little known German director has produced a modern-day masterpiece; a dazzling technical film about how life consists of the decisions we make.
Lola (Franka Potente) receives a phone call from her boyfriend, Manni. (Moritz Bleibtreii) Manni accidentally leaves a bag carrying $100 000 on a train, which is picked up by a homeless man. This leaves Manni in quite a predicament. He is supposed to deliver the money to a gangster by noon, if he fails, then he is likely to be killed. Lola has twenty- minutes to save his boyfriend. Twenty short minutes to somehow find the money and get it to him.
Run Lola Run is a film you expect to see at a Independent film festival, or in a Professor's office at a film school. In no way do I mean that in a negative way, I mean not to intend that the film is of a lower standard with lower production values, rather that the film is a beautifully mastered technical film that uses every filmmaking technique in the book. It is refreshing to see a film like this in the midst of the commercialised, dry-cut, 'traditional' filmmaking that we see on the silver screen so regularly.
As stated before, the film attempts to use a wide range of filmmaking techniques to help get the director's meaning and vision across to the audience. Some of these include speed-up, instant replay, black and white, and even animation in some parts.
It may sound strange, but the film is twenty-minutes long. Well, not really, but it is in context. Tykwer focuses on the twenty-minutes that Lola has, and shows that twenty-minutes three times over, each time with small differences will affect the outcome of the characters. The danger with this kind of technique is that it can threaten to be repetitive. However, the new additions added by Tykwer are very clever and link in perfectly, which will have you gasping for more.
Tykwer wrote and directed this film, and while doing this, he never lost sight of his meaning. His meaning that he is trying to express is that life consists of the decisions we make. While watching the film, this becomes increasingly evident. He also likes to emphasise that time is against Lola during the film. This can be seen when a young woman walks past and Lola asks her for the time, the next shot shows a much older woman answering her question, hence showing the importance of time.
Franka Potente gave a good performance as Lola. Yet, it is hard to say that she was fantastic, because it is a role that requires a great deal of physical acting and we didn't get to know a lot about Lola, hence the film wasn't overly-focusing on her issues, rather her boyfriend's problem. The real standout performance from my point of view came from Moritz Bleibtreii. He actually took on a quite challenging role and pulls it off successfully. He achieves his objective of getting the audience to feel sympathy for the position that he is in.
Run Lola Run is without a doubt, one of the best technical films ever made. A profound, exciting, new age masterpiece that has well and truly left its mark on the film industry.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating Indie
Review: Lola is a girl stuck in a dilemna: how to save her boyfriend from being killed. So, in the spirit of Groundhog Day, she keeps repeating the day over and over again until she gets it right. But unlike Groundhog Day, this indie film has an edgy style, mixed with a punkish Lola and cartoonish pop culture animation. Without giving away too much, she somehow ends up solving her dilemna but after several crazy attempts that shed light into her own seemingly average, but soon-to-be complicated life.
Rating:
Summary: Different outcomes but always the same fast pace
Review: The teaser for this film is that, every second of every day, you come across a choice that can change your life. Tom Tykwer's film appears to show that, rather than the main protagonists making alternative decisions the whole time, their actions are more or less governed not just by other people's decisions and actions, but also by the timing of those decisions or actions.
The plot centres around the girlfriend, Lola (Franka Potente), of a would-be gangster, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), who has to come up with a way of grabbing a whopping 100,000 marks (this was in the pre-euro days!) in just 20 minutes, otherwise the do-not-trust-anyone head of the mob, Ronnie (Heino Ferch), may do unspeakable things to him, if not give him a quick headbutt as he did for keeping a packet of fags from him once.
One particular event, the theft of Lola's moped (shown as a flashback in monochrome), starts a chain of events, which will either see Ronnie get his money successfully or else see other outcomes. As a result, Manni, speaking in a desperate tone of voice from a phone booth, tells Lola that he will rob the nearest supermarket if she does not come within 20 minutes, preferably with the money.
Three alternate scenarios, with three very different outcomes, are played out during this film, all of which are accompanied by a thumping, racing soundtrack composed by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek and director Tom Tykwer, as Lola runs, firstly, to a bank where her father (Herbert Knaup) just happens to be the bank manager, and lastly arrives at the intersection, where the phone booth and the supermarket are, by one means or another.
Lola encounters characters who recur throughout the film, including Jutta Hansen (Nina Petri), who is Lola's father's mistress, Herr Schuster (Armin Rohde), who is the security guard at the bank, an old lady pushing a pram, whom Lola almost crashes into at exactly the same spot during her headlong dash to the bank, a young man who wants to sell her a bike he stole, and the tramp who managed to get hold of Manni's plastic bag containing the money he was given from the deal, which he had accidentally left on a Berlin subway train in panic at seeing two inspectors come into the car.
Only one scene out of all three scenarios remains precisely the same, namely that of Lola's mother talking to a married man on the phone when Lola runs out of the flat at the start of the 20 minutes needed to get the money. Franka Potente is spared running down flights of stairs in the apartment building via the substitution of animation, first seen on Lola's mother's TV and then seen as part of the main story, although we do see (the live-action) Lola lying at the bottom of the stairs at one point after being deliberately tripped over by a young boy wearing a baseball cap, albeit in animation only.
Not in any particular order, the scenarios include a bank robbery, a supermarket robbery, the same two cars involved in crashes, the moped thief crashing, Lola screaming, Lola almost being run over by an ambulance, Manni being actually run over by the same ambulance, the ambulance narrowly avoiding a huge piece of glass, the ambulance smashing the glass to smithereens, Lola being shot by a police officer, Lola doing her nut in her father's office, Lola being told to get away from the bank by an armed police response team, the security guard having heart problems ... and, as for the money, I will not say!
Also, the characters of the old lady pushing the pram and the guy on the bicycle are shown in still "flash forward" pictures in rapid succession, accompanied on the soundtrack by the sound of a camera warming up before a flash picture is taken. Though they are minor characters, they are just as much affected by alternative events and outcomes as anybody else, so this is quite an interesting technique to show what happens to these people in the space of a few seconds of film running time.
If you want to know which events come where, you will have to see this imaginative movie, which also contains two scenes where Lola and Manni are alone together, discussing how they really feel towards each other and what they would really do if particular situations were to occur. Each scene follows each of the first two scenarios and, though not at all action scenes with any music, they serve to help the audience realize that even the best of relationships may not be as solid as one might think at first.
Tykwer has crafted a film that focuses very much on fate, not just determining one's own, but also having it determined by other people and events, both predictable and unpredictable. This is very much Franka Potente's movie, since it was the one which catapulted her to worldwide fame and a bourgeoning career as a Hollywood actress. I have heard both British English and American English soundtracks (as well as the original German!) yet only the DVD with the American English soundtrack also has the English commentary on the film by Potente and Tykwer. Here, Potente reveals that, one evening when it looked like it might rain, she had gone to a bar and met Tykwer, who would eventually cast her as Lola. Had it been raining that evening, she admits she might never have gone to that bar in the first place, so she never would have met Tykwer, so he never would have cast her as Lola, so she might never have eventually become famous and gone to Hollywood. Life imitating art, indeed!
Rating:
Summary: The reality sometimes , is like a obstinate figure !
Review: Think in this simple proposal : you just have twenty minutes to save your fiancée before the mob kills him .
Three different facets of a possible resolution are given in this cinematically fascinating suspense movie . You will enjoy the multiple angles shots .
Dazzling visual elegancy .
Rating:
Summary: If you haven't seen this movie yet, turn off the PC and go..
Review: Run to your neighborhood rental house and rent it! What a wonderful contemporary film.
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