All Dogs Go to Heaven [1989] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Amazon.co.uk Review

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, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

A kick-ass, original, indie thriller..!.......2008-02-25

I first saw this late one night on Channel 4, and immediately realised i was seeing an incredibly original, quirky, intelligent thriller, of the kind that had - to my mind - been absent since the early '90's heyday of Man Bites Dog, True Romance and Reservoir Dogs.
I won't go into the plot, as it'll spoil it, but suffice to say, it keeps you gripped to the end. ( People who are currently reading about certain branches of Quantum Physics may want to take a look ).
Of course, this is the film which kick-started Franka Potente's career, and she makes a truly engaging heroine here. In fact, you could say that this film has overshadowed her career so far, and not even great lead roles in The Bourne Identity and indie chiller Creep have eclipsed the fiery Lola in this movie.
For the price listed here, I'm even tempted to buy it all over again just to dish out to my mates. An absolute bargain.

20 minutes for love.......2008-02-07

A T.S. Eliot quote. A swinging pendulum and spinning hands on a monstrous clock. Countless faded figures moving quickly by.

And in the center of the crush, a man in a cop uniform says (in German), "The ball is round. The game lasts 90 minutes. That's a fact. Everything else is pure theory." He kicks it into the sky.

Well, Tom Tykwer certainly knows how to get our attention. And it's only a few minutes in the kinetic, high-octane, colourful world of "Run Lola Run" -- a wild action/romance that studies the ripple effect of our lives, and the changes we can make in the name of love.

Lola (Franka Potente) receives a call from her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), a drug courier. Because Lola's moped was stolen, Manni had to take the subway home -- and he accidentally left behind a bag of money. Now he has twenty minutes to somehow get 100,000 marks, or his boss Ronnie is going to kill him.

Lola races across Berlin to her father's bank -- only to find him with his mistress, and hear that he's leaving his other family. Desperate, she runs to where Manni is waiting, and helps him rob a convenience store. But as they flee, the police catch up to them -- and Lola is shot.

"But I don't want to. I don't want to leave," she mutters. And time rewinds to where she left her apartment -- and this time, Lola's determined to do things differently. As she runs from one end of Berlin to another, she sends ripples through the lives of those she passes -- and she'll keep running until she finds a hundred thousand marks to save herself and Manni.

"Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)" was what propelled Tom Tykwer to international fame. And given that his other movies tend to be slower and more dreamlike -- though no less striking visually -- this movie is striking not only for its speed, but the sweet romance and the lesson about the old "butterfly's wings" adage. (Also see: "Happenstance")

Admittedly, a woman running through Berlin is not terribly interesting in itself. But the world of Lola is filled with brilliant rave colours -- Lola's blazing red hair, colourful room, the sights of Berlin -- and her race against the clock is punctuated by little vignettes of the future lives of various people she bumps into. That momentary contact is enough to change their lives -- sometimes for better, or worse.

And Tykwer's style is a spicy mix -- arty shots (going through a clock mouth or an apartment building?), German techno, cartoon interludes with an animated Lola running for it, Lola changing reality with her screeches, and the snapshots of people's futures, seen only for a second -- but very revealing. Not to mention the equally colourful, MTVesque cartoons of Lola running down stairs, evading dogs, et cetera.

But even aside from Tykwer's artistic flair, it's a great movie -- the atmosphere is painful and taut during the scenes in the bank, including Lola's robbery. And periodically, we see some sweet red-tinted interludes of Manni and Lola in bed, discussing their feelings for each other. They're little oases of calm and love, in the middle of all the running.

Franka Potente does a solid job as Lola, an ordinary punky girl who loves Manni more than anything, and must find the RIGHT way out of their shared dilemma. She gets some nasty surprises from her uptight, adulterous dad, though. And Bleibtreu does magnificently as Manni, who is overcome with fear, frustration and anguish because he knows that his boss is going to kill him.

"Run Lola Run" is a kinetic, vibrant, and a romantic little look at how a moment can change your life. Everything else is pure theory.

20 minutes for love.......2008-01-17

A very good film.......2007-12-16

This film remined me of Tru calling. It was a excellent and will thought out. It was extremly clever with a brilliant ending.

Great fun and very clever.......2007-10-26

Hugely enjoyable, original, clever, well made and great fun.

Like a previous reviewer, I've enjoyed watching this again, looking for minor changes and guessing their meaning. Perhaps that merely shows I'm sad, or perhaps it demonstrates that while the film is both stylish and stylised, it's also substantial.

Poor old Franka Potente never stops running, but she's great in this role, just as she always is. She should never have been killed off so early in the Bourne series.

Not quite a 5 star film for me, but I do agree that this has become a modern German classic and it is very, very good.

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