B.J. Rice This is a brilliant film. Tons of great action and suspense, a real thriller that isn't so much about scaring the audience as just keeping them on the edge of their seats. It also has lots of great comedic moments as well. It's like Groundhog's Day meets Frantic or Sliding Doors... hard to describe but totally unique and will keep your attention.

filmtogo This one was probably the big breakthrough of Tom Tykwer. He got a lot of praise for "Lola rennt" - the original German title - in Germany and as "Run Lola Run" his movie brought him worldwide attention and a huge followership as kind of a mainstream arthouse auteur director. The music sets the pace as we listening to a fast beating heartbeat. This film never slows down. Franka Potente - the main actress - is always in motion, she never gets a rest here. Same thing with the cinematography. It's a music video in MTV style really. Tracking shots, close-ups, sometimes the live action story switches to Lola as running cartoon character. When she meets, bump into or screams at a passerby, we get quick flashes of their lifes and how they will turn out after this butterfly-effect encounter. "Run Lola Run" is structured in three different processes of the same story with every single story showing a different decision made by Lola and how the story changes because of it. It's not only Lola who runs, it's the whole film that is running away and we have to be fast and coming along to don't lose track of Franka Potente and Tykwers swift style.

Bjorn Olafsson The editing and pacing of this movie kept you interested and often intrigued by its strangeness. I particularly enjoyed the red phone interspersed with the red bag as they both fell to the ground. Great performances by the two main lovers. The action is simple, yet very effective. Often the filmmaker seems excessively showing off (the entire cartoon sequence felt unnecessary). Incredibly enjoyable and enough to ponder on. I loved the slight differences between the three runs. As the movie got more and more invested in the outcome, the coincidences and run-ins that Lola endured became wonderful to behold. It felt intelligent and exciting at the same time.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) This movie is soon 20 years old and is still among Germany's most famous ever. For Franka Potente, Lola is still easily the most known performance of her prolific career. Together with "The Bourne Identity" maybe. For Bleibtreu, it is probably still "Das Experiment" as he is the undisputed lead there. "Lola rennt" was a BAFTA nominee, but lost to Academy Award winner "All about my Mother". At the German Film Awards, however, it won all the categories it was nominated for: film, direction and both supporting categories. Potente did not get in, however. There are many slow movies out there, but this one here is probably the exact opposite. And that is not only because it runs for just 75 minutes (without credits), but mostly because something essential happens all the time. A lot of it is thanks to its great cast: Knaup, Rohde, Petri, Monica Bleibtreu (Moritz' mother), von Borsody, Król, Pistor and Ferch belong to Germany's acting elite to this day. The film's director and writer is Tom Tykwer, one of Germany's most famous directors in Hollywood. Maybe you have seen "Cloud Atlas" not too long ago. He was also in a longtime-relationship with Potente when "Lola rennt" was made.I liked how future events were told when Lola was running by people. But in the core, it is all about her fate. And about her boyfriend's. Both get killed at one point, but Lola gets the chance to relive certain situations in order to avoid disaster. Will she manage to get 100,000 Marks in 20 minutes? Does she even have to? The story is always a bit different. One of the most lauded things about this film is probably the music. Heil, Klimek and Tykwer worked on several projects together and scored a BAFTA nomination for the previously mentioned "Cloud Atlas" as well. The main theme from German rapper Thomas D. and Potente herself is used repeatedly in this film and never impressed me really. I remember it was a big hit back then, but I personally would have been happier with an exclusively instrumental soundtrack. In the end, we watch three different scenarios until the two protagonists finally find happiness. I like how they did not include a fourth and kept the film very short and essential instead as there certainly would have been the danger of becoming a bit repetitive and starting to drag. However, why would Bleibtreu's character give the gun to the homeless guy. That did not really make any sense to me. And I found the casino scene a bit random and could have done without it, but I actually liked the ending and the final shot/question. Nicely done.While I enjoyed it, I cannot really see the big impact this film had, but nonetheless I give it a thumbs up. Potente and Bleibtreu were in their 20s when this was made and it is one of the best examples of new wild German cinema. I don't think it is necessarily great movie making, but it's a very creative approach and idea and good execution of it, which makes this film so memorable. It is certainly a fairly unique piece of movie-making. Recommended.