Run Lola Run (1998/Sony Blu-ray)

Picture: B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C Film: C+

PLEASE NOTE: This film has now been upgraded and reissued in an amazing 4K edition, which is the preferred version to get and you can read more about it at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16214/Sony+Pictures+Classics:+30th+Anniversary+Collec

Tom Tykwer's international 1998 hit Run Lola Run is an overrated film, may have contributed to more bad filmmaking tendencies than good and has more flaws than you'd think, but its stars helped save the film by having chemistry and the film continues to be a curio due to its reputation, star Franka Potente's work in the first two Bourne films and co-star Moritz Bieibtreu's great knack for comedy that has led to a solid acting career. He is so good, I wish Hollywood would bring him in for a big film, because people would finds him a riot.

The film is about the title character's will to power by having the chance to keep remaking her life physically and literally until she shapes it into the result sought. Many writers, even in the film scholar world, have broken this down in several ways, but the best part is that it is a will to power that is Germanic and not fascist, which may be the film's ultimate triumph.

This is not an original idea and though the film does not suggest time travel, you could consider some of it science fiction-like, but it is often as philosophical, though Tykwer's script is more about myth, comedy and fun than existentialist philosophy. Of course, Stanley Kubrick is a big influence here as in almost all of his films, the events of the first half return in new forms in the second half of most every film he made so this would not be possible without his cinema in particular. Even the Punk/New Wave hair is out of A Clockwork Orange.

However, it is consistent for what it is and that is ultimately why we are still talking about it. Its ambitions hold up and it fares better than many films at the time that were experimenting with narrative structure the same way, but achieving much worse results.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is not bad with very good (necessarily) Video Red and usually good Video Black, but there are more than a few instances of detail limits, depth limits and some outright softness holds the picture back. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless mix brings out the interesting sound mix about as good as it is ever going to sound (this turned out to be mostly true by the time the 4K edition arrived, which sounds a bit better) and the combination would easily outdo a Superbit DVD. Extras include a Music Video for the song ''Believe'', Still Running featurette and feature length audio commentary by Tykwer and Potente.

- Nicholas Sheffo