Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu  Directed and Written by: Tom Twykwer

THE STORY:  I wasn't going to rent this. I only did because I've heard it was good by word of mouth, spread by various people I know, but really don't listen to all of the time. When I saw it in the video store the box said something about an MTV style of filming which instantly turned me off.  I'm not a big MTV fan. Yeah, I liked Beavis and Butthead for its sheer raunchiness, and when I was in High School I loved watching the videos on MTV. But MTV doesn't really show videos anymore does it? (At least not a lot) and the videos they do show suck, mightily. Add to that MTV seems to cater to those of short attention spans....I don't have a lot of time for MTV as you can tell.

But this movie was different. It is a turn off your brain and just accept what's happening type of movie, but its well made and its interesting. Lola, the principle character must get 100,000 duetschmarks (around 50,000 US dollars at the exchange as of this writing) for her boyfriend Manni within 20 minutes or the crime boss bad guy Manni works for will kill him. Manni tells Lola that if she can't help him within 20 minutes (and its 11:40 AM ) he'll attempt a robbery that will most likely get him killed or jailed for a long time. Going through this movie's plot would take a long time and explain nothing. There really is no other plot than that. What happens is we see three different segments of "What if".

Lola runs through the city trying to get to Manni before his last desperate act of robbing of shopping center for the money occurs. When an attempt to solve her problems fails we get rewound to the beginning where she tries again. This might sound stupid to you reading this, but its really a good movie. I had a ball watching it. Lola's adventures also include vignettes into what happens to the people she passes or meets during her run. At one point the same woman gets her baby taken away by social services and in another try we see she has hit the lottery...etc. Lola herself is easy on the eyes. While she's no big boobed bimbo, she is attractive in a street girl kind of way (even though her obviously dyed hair looks tacky to me.)

I can't give away the ending because that would ruin it for a lot of people and this is a movie they should see. Also, it would be hard to do with all of the changes in the initial story. We just have to take it for granted that for whatever reason Lola is able to relive the same moments and do things differently. (Its obvious that she remembers things from each "time jump") I don't know if this story is about her actually reliving things or that its just showing us the options. But I can tell you that there's never a dull moment. If you like foreign films you'll like Run Lola, Run and if you want a movie that's a little different from the rest, this is your baby.

Best Lines: "What've you got there?"- Manni, speaking the last words in the movie.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) I'd like to just mention this....while you watch this movie look at the background of the city.(if anyone knows what city in Germany it is please tell me) This is why I love it in Europe so much...the city is clean! Its beautiful! Maybe I'm biased because I've lived in European cities like this after growing up in places like Philadelphia. (Hey, I love Philly, but man, its a dump)

2.) Lola's dad's mistress/girlfriend, Jutta looks a lot like my old friend "Rockin'" Randi . A lot. I almost thought it was Randi, but she's from Jersey and I'm sure she don't speak no deutsche! (plus if she had gone into acting I'd like to think she would have told me!)

3.) I might just be a thickheaded guy...what's the screaming about? Lola 's screaming made sense up until the casino scene, where it just made her seem like a psycho bitch with fake red hair.

NUDITY AND SEX:  None, but if there are quick glimpses of nudity in this somewhere I missed it. Manni and Lola are seen talking in bed.

HUH?:  There's no worse time to tell your daughter that you're not her real father and then call her a weirdo than when she's begging for 100,000 duetschtmarks.

Its good to know that even European guys go through this...the thing where your girl asks you "Why do you love me?". Now, guys, we usually just tell them why..."You're sweet", or "You make my life complete" etc., but come on...we all hate that question. And Lola doesn't give Manni a break...man she turns the screws on this conversation. (you really never hear guys ask women that question) Ladies, give us a break sometime. Guys ain't really good at showin' feelin's youse knows. Of course there's a reverse scene in this movie where Manni asks Lola what she'd if her were gone, but its played more flippantly. Which in my experience is just how these things happen...women never take that question seriously while guys stammer around it trying to come up with an answer that won't upset our mates.

GAWD I could swear this city is Mannheim, but I can't be sure! It's been almost a decade since I was stationed there. My droogies any inside information on this movie would be greatly appreciated!

No wonder Manni's in trouble..he makes a poor criminal. When he finally finds the bum that has the money he trades the cash for his [unwrite]ING GUN! Now, even though it doesn't happen I was wondering what kept the bum from just shooting him and taking the money anyway. The least he could have done was remove the magazine from the pistol and toss it away. Idiot.

THE FINAL JUDGMENT: I'd check this one out if I were you. The English translation is pretty good and (on the DVD) there are subtitles available. Once in awhile they don't match up with the actual dialogue, but it makes sense. Its nice to see a flick that doesn't suck on some level every so often. Run to the store and Rent Lola!