with the abundance of trite , recycled movies in the late '90s , there is a tremendous demand by movie lovers ( never mind movie critics ) for movies that present the wide film audience with something truly original : perhaps audaciously , perhaps purely thematically . for the former , you need look no further than director tom tykwer's incredible german thriller run lola run , a movie that may make some viewers need a cooling off period afterwards . lola , a contemporary goth-girl with blazing red hair receives a desperate phone call from her boyfriend manni one day . it seems that because she was late delivering something he lost a bag containing a hundred thousand marks , and if he doesn't deliver a hundred thousand marks within the next twenty minutes , he will be killed . this gives lola twenty minutes to come up with 100 , 000 marks , or her boyfriend dies . so she runs -- not just jogs , sprints -- in hopes that somehow , someway , she'll be able to obtain the money and save a life . >from there , as critic steve rhodes described it , run lola run plays a bit like " sliding doors on steroids . with a non-stop techno soundtrack , wierd camerawork , all kinds of insane zooms and a truly breakneck pace , anyone that is bored with run lola run has to be smoking something . indeed , the movie is often outrageously exciting , as well as bitterly ironic and subtly serious . very much like titanic , run lola run is an achievement with filmmaking much more than it is an achievement in film . the way the movie is made , for pure visual style , tykwer's movie is breathtaking ( literally , sometimes ) . thematically it does leave something to be desired ; it toys around with some intriguing ideas but does occasionally seem as if there is little substance behind all of the flash . while you are watching , this will not matter . running a breezy 81 minutes , this is one movie i wished was longer because it was so damn good while it lasted . it is the equivalent of a roller-coaster in the amount of thrills and fun that it offers . ? 1999 eugene novikov&#137 ;
