Run Lola Run
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: June 18, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Fabulously kinetic. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Tykwer's style gives the movie an explosive energy that never quits, marking him as the most ingenious new talent to hail from Germany in ages. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
As essential in its own way as Anton Karas' celebrated zither work was to "The Third Man," Lola's music is perfectly suited to the film's aims and just about addictive in its throbbing, insinuating rhythms. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
An existential chain reaction, yet as remarkable as his cinematic gamesmanship is the way that he traces the anatomy of feeling in Lola. Read full review
100
Film ThreatChris Gore
I can't rave about this film enough -- this is passionate filmmaking at its best. One of the best foreign films, heck, one of the best films I have seen this year -- go see it! Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The formula has rarely been done as well as it is in this goofy, audacious, visually stylized omnibus of what-ifs that operates on its own peculiar logic, and powers along with the force of a truck on the Autobahn. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalZachary Barnes
The movie is both a thought experiment about individual choices (and the conditions that influence them) and a formal exercise in repetition and variation. Read full review
90
Film.comGemma Files
The kind of thing Franz Kafka might have dreamed up, had he only had access to a daily dose of MTV.
90
Film.comErnest Hardy
MTV, comic books and gangster flicks are all in Lola's cinematic family tree; it's a heady, breathless ride.
90
VarietyDavid Rooney
A highly accomplished, compact feature, which, while it may be light on depth, is rich in humor, rhythm, energy and inventiveness. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A movie that really zips along; it offers some of the same pleasures as the silent slapstick comedies, particularly the Keaton films, with their sense of how sheer velocity carries its own wit. Read full review
90
NewsweekAndrea C. Basora
With her Doc Martens and her spiky, fire-engine hair, Franka Potente makes a perfect Lola. Like the film itself, her tough, flashy exterior cloaks a warm emotional center. Read full review
88
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
A knock-down, haywire ballad of the adrenalinization of love and despair. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Has as much depth as it has energy and action. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film's extra-special trick, the one that kicks in under your radar because it's so busy with all the flash, is that it makes you care deeply for Lola and Manni. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Tykwer deliberately blows away all traces of the mundane and the familiar, so that not even the closing credit crawl moves in the expected way. Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
Wisely, Run Lola Run lasts something under 80 minutes; any longer, and it would have been as exhausting and boring as a half-hour Donna Summer track. Read full review
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
It's both fractured and fluid, with a helter-skelter syntax and a ceaselessly infectious backbeat. Beyond that, it's a blast. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
It doesn’t add up to much, which is part of the point as well as the fun, but what makes the film noteworthy is its pure pop adrenaline. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The rush subsides, however, the minute the movie ends, and leaves the viewer with the faint aftertaste of a processed sugar high. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
The action is so fast that the viewer almost breaks out in a sweat...Ultimately vapid. Lola never does develop as a character, and the fuss seems ultimately pointless. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I would not want to see a sequel to the film, and at 81 minutes it isn't a second too short, but what it does, it does cheerfully, with great energy, and very well. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Fun, fun, fun. Take the title at its word, because this movie is nothing less than a flat-out, lung-pumping, 76-minute sprint. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Furiously paced.
70
SalonCharles Taylor
Potente pumps strong and true from the first frame to the last. Read full review
70
ColliderJeffrey Speicher
What the cast and crew of Run Lola Run achieves is pure innovation in film. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
An enjoyably glib and refreshingly terse exercise in big beat and constant motion. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Corliss
Invigorating and annoying, Lola could use a dose of Ritalin. Best to take this 76-minute riff on alternate destinies as an antidote to Europe's minimalist art-house cinema and to enjoy Potente's sweaty radiance. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJoshua Klein
May be all Eurotrash flash, but it's not often that a film packs this much visceral punch. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
About as entertaining as a no-brainer can be--a lot more fun, for my money, than a cornball theme-park ride like "Speed," and every bit as fast moving. But don't expect much of an aftertaste. Read full review
40
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Kind of like watching a John Waters film on fast forward with all the good parts cut out. It's empty of charm and meaning, but it certainly kills time, for those who wish it dead. Read full review
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