Run Lola Run (1998) (nat)

Lola runs. For like 1/4 of the movie (at least). Lola screams loudly and shrilly enough to shatter glass and influence roulette wheels. Lola makes a pretty boring movie. I watched it because of the damned book. Damned book. I can see why its influential and all--it's one of those if you change one tiny thing, the whole course of the day (ad infinitum) can change. This one hinges on Lola needing to get to her boyfriend Manni before he robs a supermarket. Apparently he's a runner for some bad guys and he lost the money he's supposed to give them (he left it on a subway and a bum (who looked like he had leprosy) took it). Lola has 20 minutes and the film plays out those 20 minutes three different ways with little vignettes in between--conversations between Lola and Manni about whether he loves her and what she would do if he died. It's only about 90 minutes (that's with the credits) and most of it made me feel sea-sick--she runs a lot. And there is this strange animated Lola running down the stairs of the apartment building but that's all that is animated. IMDB calls it a "breathtaking, action-packed love story"--I guess, but it's not really. You can guess what the second and third re-tellings are going to include and while the ending is "happy," you haven't really gained much sympathy for Lola or Manni. They're small-time crooks and most of the time you're watching Lola run. If she'd been still for a little bit more of the movie, I might have cared (and not felt like I needed to put my feet on the ground to steady myself).