DVD Collectors Online

Lola rennt, a review by Tom

Title: Lola rennt
Year: 1998
Director: Tom Tykwer
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 73 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: German

Stars:
Franka Potente
Moritz Bleibtreu
Herbert Knaup
Nina Petri
Armin Rohde

Plot:
Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), who works as a small-time courier for a big-time gangster, is in huge trouble. He has accidentally left the cash from a mob deal on the subway, and he has only twenty minutes to deliver the 100,000 marks to his unforgiving boss. Desperate, he calls his girlfriend, Lola (Franka Potente), the only person who can rescue him from certain death. As the seconds tick away and the tiniest choices become life aftering, Lola must try to reach Manni before the line between fate and fortune begins to blur.

Awards:

American Cinema Editors Awards	2000	Nominated		Mathilde Bonnefoy
BAFTA	1999	Nominated	Film Not In The English Language	Stefan Arndt, Tom Tykwer
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Beste Nebendarstellerin	Nina Petri
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Bester Nebendarsteller	Herbert Knaup
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Bester Spielfilm	X Filme Creative Pool
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Kamera	Frank Griebe
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Publikumspreis: Film des Jahres	X Filme Creative Pool
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Publikumspreis: Schauspielerin des Jahres	Franka Potente
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Regie	Tom Tykwer
Deutscher Filmpreis	1999	Won	Schnitt	Mathilde Bonnefoy
European Film Awards	1998	Nominated	European Film
Independent Spirit Awards	2000	Won	Best Foreign Film	Tom Tykwer
Online Film Critics Society Awards	2000	Won	Best Film Editing	Mathilde Bonnefoy
Online Film Critics Society Awards	2000	Won	Best Foreign Language Film
Satellite Awards	2000	Nominated

Extras:
DVD-ROM Content
Featurettes
Interviews
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

This movie has great editing. Also the "Groundhog Day" theme of a repeating day (or 20 minutes ) is used in an interesting way. Definately worth a look. And with it short running time it doesn't get boring.

Rating:

(From December Marathons - DISCUSSION AND REVIEW THREAD on December 4th, 2009)

The Final Countdown, a review by Rich

The Final Countdown



The time is now. The place is aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz, America's mightiest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly, a freak electrical storm engulfs the ship and triggers the impossible: The Nimitz is hurtled back in time to December 6, 1941, mere hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As the enemy fleet speeds towards Hawaii, the warship's Captain (Kirk Douglas), a Defense Department expert (Martin Sheen), a maverick Air Wing Commander (James Farentino) and a desperate Senator in the Roosevelt administration (Charles Durning) must choose between the unthinkable. Do they allow the Japanese to complete their murderous invasion or launch a massive counter-strike that will forever change the course of history?

Once described as the 'Twilight Zone on steroids' with it's larger budget, I couldn't have put it better myself.
I am much more interested in the concept than the delivery, it is a great what-if scenario and one would of hoped the film matched the potential of the idea. Sadly it was disappointing in many areas, the transition scenes are comicaly bad, I never warmed to many of the cast including Douglas, the ending is telegraphed, it has dated poorly, there are no battle scenes, and very little suspense. I would love to see this rewritten and made with todays technology and financial clout.
The outcome leaves you feeling cheated, and the film overall never met it's potential.
 

(From Riches Random Reviews on May 11th, 2009)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan is a forensic anthropologist and works in the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C.. On occasion she works together with FBI special agent Seeley Booth on cases where only a skeleton or parts of it were recovered from the crime scene. Bones's team consists of a number of specialists who all help to solve the current case.

"Pilot"
Dr. Brennan has just come back from Guatemala where she excavated mass graves from a genocide. Now she's back and she's asked again by the FBI to help in a case. She's worked with them before but was restricted to lab work. Now she wants to get in on the whole investigation. And while Special Agent Booth is not too thrilled about this, he agrees. They have found the remains of a young woman that has been missing for two years and back then it was Booth's task to find her.

My Opinion
Just like with House M.D. I am not overly interested in the actual cases because despite the show being created by an actual forensic anthropologist, in my opinion there's a lot of "Voodoo" involved when it comes to solving the crime. For example, Hodgins can take a sediment sample and his "dirt database" can tell him exactly where the sand is coming from - down to the square mile. Or the case where the bones were dissolved by a chemical reaction but the computer recreated an image of the bones and you could see where and how the knife was going through the ribs.
But I really like Bones and Booth and their development and I also like Booth's gut approach to the crime solving. And Hodgins and Zack are real fun when they try to experiment and fight for the "King of the Lab" trophy.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 22nd, 2009)