Run Lola Run (1999)

Recall the adrenaline shot in “Pulp Fiction”? Where Uma Thurman shot up awake, crazy eyes and screams? The whole film jumped. That’s “Run Lola Run,” an 80-minute rush about a red-haired German punk (Franka Potente) who has exactly 20 minutes to find 100,000 Deutsche Mark, or her Z-Level mobster boyfriend (Moritz Bleibtreu) likely gets capped. Out the door she goes, over to poppa’s bank to get the money and – FAIL. She dies. As she bleeds out, she screams, “No!” And fate listens: Her quest -- and the movie -- begins again. And again. Director Tom Tykwer’s film is a blast. It tosses the rules for fun: Lola repeatedly passes the bum who caused all this mess, and as she passes other no-names – a bike thief, an old woman, and an office drone – we see their three cracks at fate. Before the whole gimmick becomes redundant, the film shuts down, heart still pounding as fast as Lola’s feet hit the pavement. A-