Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
Incredible film, but only in widescreen
Run Lola Run was most definitely the alternative hit movie of 1999. While many movies were excellent in the past year, this stood head and shoulders above most of them. A little, comparatively low budget film, its director Tom Tykwer (with his meaningful, if not literal, film debut) and strangely intriguing star (Franke Potente) draw you into a world of possibilties, 3 possible possibilities to be exact.While Lola (Potente) spends three 20 minute sections of the movie running, frenetically rushing about to save her boyfriend Manni's (Moritz Bleibtreu) life, the movie shifts from tripped out cuts to animated interludes all to a pulsating techno soundtrack. The viewer is taken along with Lola to experience her choices, even the most subtle, and how they affect not only the outcome but also the world around her. Woven into it, however, are Lola and Manni's life together and throughout the film, bits of their psyches can be pieced together to discover their very realistic relationship. The way Tykwer incorporated character development into three 20 minute hyper-paced acts is brilliant.Run Lola Run is definitely a star film of 1999. It deserves to be seen on the big screen, but the DVD or VHS widescreen would be acceptable substitutes, as certain things are lost to the pan & scan cropping. Make sure to steer clear of the dubbed version; even those of you who hate subtitles will thank yourselves.