Smoreni Zmaj
I've spent last half an hour trying to think of something to say about this movie and, honestly, I don't have a clue. It's original and excellently done. Story, camera, directing, soundtrack, colours, rhythm, tempo... everything is fantastic and especially Franka Potente. This is one of those movies that can not and should not be analyzed and explained. Just sit down, watch it and experience it.10/10
John Wang
What if life were like a video game? What if, with a prolonged scream and the drop of a phone, we could restart time, retain all of our previous knowledge, and replay the obstacle course that is life until we reach our optimal outcomes? Run Lola Run, German director Tom Tyker's international breakthrough film, explores this premise. Manni, Lola's boyfriend, has left a bag containing 100,000 deutschmarks on the subway, watching helplessly as it ends up in the hands of a homeless man. To add insult to injury, Manni is expected to deliver this money in the next 20 minutes to a mobster, or risk being killed for failing. Who else can he call then, but his partner in crime, Lola? Together, they form the vague underpinnings of a plan, with only the concrete goal being to get the money, and get it ASAP. Rob a bank? Hold up the store across the street? No one knows. The only thing Lola understands is that she must run, and run fast. Tyker is not one to be tied down to the idea of conformity of traditional cinema form; no, he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants to. Think rapid-fire montages, extended animated sequences, and even VCR-quality shots that you'd imagine would be more fitting in a low-budget soap opera or an amateur home video. In the hands of a lesser director, Run Lola Run could easily have become a pointless exercise in form over substance, but Tyker, with his capable direction, makes it work, creating a tapestry that serves both the story at hand and the greater themes that he aims to explore. This brings us to the next point. What you've read thus far may suggest that Run Lola Run is a skin-deep action diversion, akin to a Mission Impossible or a Fast and the Furious, but don't be misled. As briskly paced and action-packed as it is, at its heart, Run Lola Run wrestles with markedly heavy ideas such as existentialism, destiny, and the nature of time. Tyker, with his gift of brevity, shows us how the smallest, most seemingly benign actions and interactions can cause an avalanche effect on the rest of our lives. Lola distracts a cyclist while running. Later, the cyclist gets mugged and gets his bike stolen. While in the hospital recovering from his wounds, he falls in love with a nurse. They get married and live happily ever after. All of this, told through a series of rapid-fire snapshots in a span of five seconds. A microcosm of life itself, perhaps. Then we get to the idea of time itself being a malleable form that we can control, as opposed to the unwavering forward tick-tock that we know it as. How would we reshape our own paths in life if we were given the power to "respawn" whenever we wanted to? Would we take advantage of others for our own self gain? Would we help others instead, knowing that something harmful will occur to them in the near future? Though Run Lola Run doesn't directly pose these questions to us, you'd be hard-pressed to find any viewer who doesn't contemplate these existential questions after the movie finishes. At its heart, Run Lola Run is imbued with the frenetic energy of modern day Berlin. There's scarcely time to catch our breaths as Lola flies through the streets, driven by the pulsing beat of German synth pop and the immense task at hand. At an economical 81 minutes long, Run Lola Run is the perfect starter course for the moviegoer who wants to delve into German cinema, but is used to the non-stop visual and auditory stimulus of Hollywood blockbusters. For the well-traversed movie aficionado: there is much to sink your teeth into as well. And through it all, Tyker imparts a visual style and an energy that won't let us take our eyes off the screen. Not a single second is wasted, for a single second can shape the rest of our lives.
Cory Williams
I had the opportunity to see this movie at an film festival a few years ago. I had seen it before but HOLY GOD when this movie takes off it REALLY takes off. It is the point at which a soccer ball is kicked into the air where you know you are dealing with a unique movie. Unique then at least since one could say directors have been picking bits off of it since it came out.I will not summarize the plot because, much like 2001: A Space Odyssey (to which it shares not a single similarity except for a heavy use of music) the plot isn't the point. The exposition is out in less than five minutes and it is this.. There is a chick named Lola, and she has to get somewhere... in 20 minutes! The movie is an hour and a half so something has to be fishy here."So what you are telling me Cory... is that you are giving a 9 rating to a movie where you watch a girl run... run A LOT?" to which I say "Hell Yeah! She also screams as a superpower!" I've gotten so used to this movie I usually don't use the English Dub because.. well it's awful but subtitles are worse when you're legally blind.I could write paragraphs just on the influence of this movie on how we see cinema these days. Try watching Tron: Legacy after seeing this and tell me there's no connection. I could write those paragraphs but I'm not going to because talking about a movie's "Influence" brings thoughts of tedium and "Required Watching" that can be the death of an enjoyable movie. Whatever this movie is it is not boring.My mom described her first viewing of this movie with this eloquent and rather succinct statement: "I started the movie and then it was over and I felt like I had been drinking well that night." Just to be clear... dead sober! So this is an interesting time, influential or not!If you find yourself in need of an hour to an hour and a half of entertainment and you have this one around watch it. Please God don't watch this on your phone though, The bigger the screen the better. Also beware, a hypnotic effect may occur but that's perfectly normal as is a fair bit of Deja Vu.
