Product Description

Lola receives a frantic phone call from her boyfriend Manni, who's lost a small fortune belonging to his mobster boss. If Lola deosn't replace the money in twenty minutes, Manni will surely suffer severe consequences.
Genre: Foreign Film - German
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1491 in DVD
• Brand: POTENTE,FRANKA
• Released on: 1999-12-21
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 81 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
It's difficult to create a film that's fast paced, exciting, and aesthetically appealing without diluting its dialogue. Run Lola Run, directed and written by Tom Tykwer, is an enchanting balance of pace and narrative, creating a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers. This is the story of young Lola (Franka Potente) and her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). In the space of 20 minutes, they must come up with 100,000 deutsche marks to pay back a seedy gangster, who will be less than forgiving when he finds out that Manni incompetently lost his cash to an opportunistic vagrant. Lola, confronted with one obstacle after another, rides an emotional roller coaster in her high-speed efforts to help the hapless Manni--attempting to extract the cash first from her double-dealing father (appropriately a bank manager), and then by any means necessary. From this point nothing goes right for either protagonist, but just when you think you've figured out the movie, the director introduces a series of brilliant existential twists that boggle the mind. Tykwer uses rapid camera movements and innovative pauses to explore the theme of cause and effect. Accompanied by a pulse-pounding soundtrack, we follow Lola through every turn and every heartbreak as she and Manni rush forward on a collision course with fate. There were a variety of original and intelligent films released in 1999, but perhaps none were as witty and clever as this little gem--one of the best foreign films of the year. --Jeremy Storey

From The New Yorker
Lola (Franka Potente), a ferociously willful punk girl with orange hair, has twenty minutes to come up with a hundred thousand marks and save her hapless boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), from the wrath of a big-time gangster. The writer-director, Tom Tykwer, shows us one version of what happens, and then he gives us two others, each of which takes off from the initial circumstances but has the characters make different decisions along the way, producing different climaxes. The action of the movie is rush, rush, rush-Lola runs through Berlin-but the effect is contemplative, almost metaphysical. In German. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Running with Fate to the Euro-beat; Boom Chucka Boom Chucka...
It's amazing what you'll buy when retailers sell DVDs for four bucks. The cool thing is that you can completely trash your expectations. Heck, I couldn't rent it twice at blockbuster for this money. Needless to say, I jumped in with both feet and landed safely into a film I thought was pretty cool. Let's run with Lola!!

-DUBBA DUBBA...
I had to watch the dubbed version. I started with subtitles but this is a very visual film. The limited dialogue simply sets the stage for the physical action and reinforces the point of the film. So, it was more important to watch the action than hear the actor's actual German voices. Most of the dubs were fair enough accept for Lola's boy friend; "GODDAM# IT! HE'S GONNA KILL ME!!! WHAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!". After that scene it got better.

-THE POINT OF THE FILM
Though not a completely new concept, the film revolves around the idea that one little word, act or decision will dramatically change your fate and the fate of others. This film, though a bit overly deliberate (what, we Germans?) still managed to be unique. I'm not even going to tell you how this is presented because that's half the fun.

-A FILM OF FAIR QUALITY
I would never call this great film making. However, it's not at all bad either. Like the concept, the execution was fairly deliberate. I thought this made it more fun. The acting was at least adequate, the story was unique enough and it actually had some exciting visual dynamics without going over the top... ...most of the time.

-JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED
Well the heck with that. This film is full of stupid people. Of course the question is never asked; "how could they be so stupid to begin with!" I guess we're expected to roll with the premise as it was set up. That's ok, but it certainly lurked in the back of my mind that these are not particularly good people we're investing our emotions in. That kind of ruined the ending for me. Possibly the dumbest thing about Lola is her unique talent which borders on being a super power; just ridiculous.

-INTERESTING ANIMATION
I almost feel like I'm giving too much away by mentioning that there is animation at all. But it's too late; there are animation sequences in this film. They were actually visually exciting and accentuated the entire concept of the film. It was almost like "Schoolhouse Rock" meets "Lizzy Maguire" meets "The Simpson's"; very Euro-groovy. Please; no smart remarks about me even knowing about "Lizzy Maguire". I do have a young daughter after all. Anyway, I actually liked these somewhat crude but stylish interludes.

-WAS MUSS ICH DENKEN? (What do I think?)
I thought it was "sehr gut". It is actually a riveting film that has lots of action and only a little violence (mostly running, duh!). If you like unique story telling with good production values and fair acting this might satisfy you. The ending is a bit irksome to me for reasons I don't want to explain here for fear of spoilage. However, it was inevitable considering the type of people we're dealing with. I recommend watching with the dubbing due to the visual nature of the film. I found it helpful anyway. If you can buy it for the same price I did, all the better. So hop on the Lola express; BOOM CHUCKA BOOM CHUCKA BOOM CHUCKA...

Actors....3.8 stars
Visuals...4.7 stars
Story.....5.0 stars
Average...4.5 stars

"I don't get it" "Nothing thought provoking" "Nothing Philosophical"
I give this film 5 stars. This and The Princess and the Warrior are in my top 10 all time favorites.

This is less a review than advice to those that may be influenced by the 1 star reviews. The reviewers all tried really hard to sound intelligent while at the same time admitting that they "don't get it" and claim that there was nothing thought provoking.
They say that it was just the same thing three times showing three possible results. These reviewers said it themselves- they didn't get it.

During the movie the song What a Difference a Day Makes is played both to create atmosphere and to send a message. One of the main points of the movie is to show what a difference precious seconds can make..

Cheers.

P.S.
Hopefully this sheds some light for the 1 star reviewers as well, but I doubt it.

Really good Foreign film
I first saw this movie when I lived in Germany with the US Army. The US release on DVd includes an english version, but really, I think its best with the subtitles. You may recognize the girl as "Jason Bourne(Markie Mark)'s " girlfriend from The Bourne movies.

What makes this movie great, in my opinion, is how they use their obviously small budget to its greatest end, and it manages to successfully ask the question "how do the choices I make influence or impact those around me"

If you like unconventional movies, you will really enjoy this one.