Run Lola Run (Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C Film: C+
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
str7ucture 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 mix brings
out the interesting sound mix about as good as it is ever going to sound 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