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Run Lola Run, a review by Jon

Run Lola Run
2 out of 5



Time is running out for Lola. She's just received a frantic phone call from her boyfriend Manni, who's lost a small fortune in cash belonging to his Mob boss. Now, she has to run for his life, to try and come up with the money before Manni pays the ultimate price for his mistake.

I remember this film being a lot of fun and it still is, but bloody hell it’s dated. It seems to get taken rather seriously too, which I don’t quite understand. It’s a childish premise, stretched way past breaking point and has a very strange moral centre.

The plot is simply Lola (Franke Potente) getting a call from her drug-dealing, mobster wannabe boyfriend. He’s been a prat and left 100,000 marks on a subway and a tramp has taken it. He will soon be killed by his mobster boss if he can’t replace it. So, Lola has 20 minutes to find the money (her banker father is the obvious choice) and get to Manni before he makes a foolhardy attempt to hold up the local supermarket. The sequence repeats three times, complete with flashy animation inserts, a thumping soundtrack and incidental musings on life as Lola tries different routes to the solution. Groundhog Day, basically.

So it has this philosophical view of life and death, and how fate works and how we do the right thing at the right time. Or something. Now it’s still much better than the similar pretentious sequence in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but my problems with it are thus:

Manni is a petty criminal who wants to be a proper criminal when he grows up. The money is from a drug deal. His first thought for a solution is to rob a supermarket. Because he has a gun and he’s a criminal. Am I being thick or something, but why the hell am I supposed to sympathise with his situation? It seems morally at odds with this fancy Buddhist notion of little things affecting big things and Lola’s Zen like ability to rewind time, narratively speaking (and later, save a heart attack victim by holding his hand). Letting Manni get killed and seeing how Lola handles it, with her sense of fate and reason for living, would have been much more interesting.

I might sound two-faced, after all some of the best films are about anti-heroes with questionable ethics, but the character is written as being an affable, misguided young chap, whom Lola loves beyond anything. And the film makes no effort to show him the error of his ways. No redemption. This is not Bonnie and Clyde or even Pumpkin and Honey Bunny from Pulp Fiction, which allowed them to succeed with irony.

The other problem I have, is that when Lola finally does succeed (sorry, should that be a spoiler?), what the hell did she actually do? The plot is self-serving. The only reason the first two attempts don’t work is because of her. In the end, the only thing she really does is the heart attack guy. And what’s with all the damn screaming to break glass? It’s all flash and no thunder.

Then again, while it is flashy and self-serving to point of being pointless, it’s very well done and cinematic, especially in how the heroine looks so wild and forms a natural contrast, almost like a costumed super-hero. The soundtrack is likeable if you like that sort of thing, the actors are very good and it’s concisely well-written with some nice banter. The absolute ace is Potente. Her look is striking, though strangely attractive and her delivery is excellent.

Whether it is actually any good, despite being watchable, depends entirely on your own take. I thought it was over-done bollocks.

(From Jon's Alphabet Marathon 2010 on July 17th, 2010)

10 Things I Hate About You, a review by DJ Doena

March, 11th


Director: Gil Junger

Heath Ledger    ...    Patrick Verona
Julia Stiles   ...    Kat Stratford
Joseph Gordon-Levitt   ...    Cameron James
Larisa Oleynik   ...    Bianca Stratford
David Krumholtz   ...    Michael
Andrew Keegan   ...    Joey Donner
Larry Miller    ...    Walter Stratford

Synopsis: Cameron has a strong crush on Bianca but he's not the only contender for her attention. His opponent Joey is not only a model but also financially well equipped. To make matters worse Bianca is only allowed to go on a date if her older sister Kat has one, too. And Kat has no intentions to date in the near future and she's also not the most uncomplicated person.
Cameron needs to find someone who isn't afraid of the challenge and that's were Patrick Verona comes into play.

My Opinion: It's a nice, modern day adaption of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Heath (RIP) and Julia make a great couple. They have to because even though this is a movie about a triangle and a couple only the couple really works. Especially Cameron and Bianca pale in comparison, Cameron even more so than Bianca who has at least a few good scenes with her sister and the Prom scene.
But it's still very watchable and has a cool soundtrack.

(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2010 on March 12th, 2010)

NCIS Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

1. YANKEE WHITE
A Navy commander carrying the "football" on Air Force One collapses mid-flight and dies.

My Thoughts:
This is a start of an awesome series.  I have been hooked since day one... when this episode first aired. I really enjoyed every one of the main characters from the very first episode. There is not many shows you can say that about. I also really liked how they introduced  Kate. And Gibbs... he is just a trip! I don't know what I would call his type of humor... sarcastic don't seem to fit it right... but what ever you would call it... it is another thing that brings me back episode after episode. In this episode there is an elaborate plan to try to kill the president on Air Force One.

2. HUNG OUT TO DRY
A Marine is killed during a night training jump, and Gibbs (Mark Harmon) thinks it's a murder.

My Thoughts:
This was another really good episode. Talk about a terrible way to die! I couldn't imagine... Of course it would be hard being the couple that was in the SUV as well. I had to laugh on how DiNozzo finally got to try sky diving. That is something that looks awful fun... yet completely scary to me. I myself have never even seen a plane close up let alone fly in one!

3. SEADOG
A Navy sailor is killed, an apparent casualty of a drug war, but Gibbs and his team refuse to believe the sailor was dirty,

My Thoughts:
Another really good episode. I really get a kick out of all the bluffs and such Gibbs pulls on this show. His character is one tough SOB!... but at the same time you can tell he really cares about people.

4. THE IMMORTALS
A young sailor is found drowned In what appears to be a video game gone wrong.

My Thoughts:
OK... I have to admit... I for one have never seen the appeal these online games has. Sure I enjoy playing a video game here and there... but never had the urge to play something online with thousands of other people. Give me a console hooked up to a TV and a one player game that I can play here and there when the mood hits... and that is all I need. and talk about taking the game to the next level... These sailors were right nuts! Pretty cool episode though.

(From NCIS Marathon on November 29th, 2007)