12:01
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Movie Reviews of 12:01
Movie Review: Far above average TV movie
Summary: 5 Stars
12:01 will remind you in many ways of Groundhog Day, as the hero of the movie is living the same day over and over again. However, this movie was made years earlier, and the scope and tone of the movie are completely different. Where Groundhog Day provided Bill Murray's character with a unique chance at self-discovery and redemption, here our hero is trying to save the woman he's developed a crush on from being murdered, and find out why his day keeps repeating over and over again.
Jonathan Silverman is charming and funny in the role of a less than serious employee in a scientific firm's personnel department, who by chance is the only person who understands that the same day is repeating over and over again.
Jeremy Piven is seen before his increase in fame, and is also amusing as Silverman's practical joking friend.
Helen Slater is convincing as the beautiful and brainy scientist who Silverman must convince of both the existence of the "time bounce", and his feeling for her.
Martin Landau gives his usual strong performance as the head of the research which ultimately creates the time bounce.
As does Murray in Groundhog Day, Silverman tries various combinations of actions to make his day "go right", keeping notes as he does so. I think writers for both movies were inspired by video games: "Hey, what if you could hit the reset button and live a day over and over again!"
I was so impressed with 12:01 when it originally aired that I carefully checked the TV listings each week hoping it would rerun. When it did I taped it. I was delighted a few years later to find it available on DVD and get a superior viewing format to my aging VHS tape.
At the time it aired it was a unique and very interesting story concept. The cast is great, and all give great performances. If you are a fan of any of these performers, or you like a little light Sci-fi with some comedy, then I recommend this film to you without reservation.
Movie Review: History behind this movie
Summary: 5 Stars
12:01 was originally based on Richard Lupoff's short story 12:01pm, he wrote the story around 1972-73 it was published in Dec 1973's edition of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
In 1989 a 30 minute film was made by director Jonathan Heap.
In 1993 the 12:01 movie was made with Helen Slater and Jonathan Silverman.
Then Hollywood got a hold of the movie and did a remake, I never found out what they called the movie but Richard Lupoff basically called them a pack of hollywood thieves.
I thought at first it was Groundhog Day but Lupoff states they changed the name but not the story so it couldn't of been Groundhog Day as the story was so different. So if anyone knows what the Hollywood release was called please tell, as Lupoff doesn't state in his book what they named it.
To read the short story you'll have to buy the book by Richard Lupoff called Before...12:01...and after. There are 23 short stories in the book 12:01pm being one of them.
Anyway, I think this movie is great, some may say its cheesy but hey I like cheese sometimes. I like Helen Slater and Jonathan Silverman I think they work well together in this movie. Plus i've always been interested in anything that involves time changes, like time travel, parallel universes etc.
It does make me think what I would actually do if I got stuck in a day that was repeating, I would only hope it wasn't a work day..lol
I have a copy on VHS but I wish they would release the DVD. It was a dissapointment to find them advertise a release date then the day of its release say it was not available.
Movie Review: A brilliant and overlooked gem
Summary: 5 Stars
12:01 was first recommended to me in a video store, where I was a regular customer. I later taped it from a TV channel and saw it again several times. I have been looking regularly for (and forward to) a DVD release of 12:01, and am very delighted that this very superior "small production" is finally being given the DVD treatment that it rightly deserves.
12:01 is both funny, suspenseful and romantic - a rare quality, and seldomly succesful when deliberately aimed for. But here, the entire movie, from script and production to direction and acting, is well made and highly original, playing on all sides of the story's aspects and the audience's feelings with flawless and tastefully good timing.
12:01 deals with a time paradox, and is one of the best sci-fi movies based on a time theme, that I ever saw... But it can also be seen by people without any preference for sci-fi, simply as a kind of family film.
A TV production, 12:01 was overshadowed by the box office comedy, Groundhog Day, which has a very similar time paradox theme. This was sad, since 12:01 is by no means a cheap imitation of Groundhog Day.
If you are in doubt as to whether this is really an overlooked gem, take a further a look at IMDB.com where people who saw this movie also find it brilliant and sadly overlooked.
Movie Review: No damage done to the space-time continuum.
Summary: 5 Stars
As I recall (I only saw it the one time, 13 years ago), this is a gem of an adventure/romance/murder-mystery/hard-science scifi movie. The cause of the day's repeating is "plausible", as is the hero's being exempt from the cluelessness everyone else experiences that the day is repeating, as are the motivations of all the principal characters.
Silverman's character has an alarm clock that I'd love to have, "Get up, lazy boy!"
I had one very slight quibble at the end of the movie, that I felt was the director's mistake, but may have been the fault of some studio honcho. The idea of the story is that the day "bounces back" as the result of an event. I don't recall whether they explicitly invoked the image of a record (you remember vinyl LPs) skipping, but that is the idea I took away ... that there was a skip or bounce or jump. At the end of the movie, there is, and they only did it the one time as I recall, a visual montage (is that redundundundant) of the day rewinding. That was jarring to me, went against the idea of the bounce or skip or jump and didn't make hard-science sense.
But hey, I am definitely pre-ordering the DVD!
Movie Review: It's About Time!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't really express in writing just how extremely happy I am that 12:01 is finally out on DVD. It's been on my wish list since the DVD format was invented. The only copy I had was on the VHS that I had recorded off the air (with commercials (:[) on FOX-TV in 1993 and watched over and over and over, not unlike Barry's day repeating. As others have noted, the always beautiful Helen (Supergirl) Slater positively glows in this film. In the lead role, Jonathan Silverman excels as the discouraged office worker who witnesses his only real love being murdered in broad daylight, then being given the chance to undo it, while being thwarted at every turn.
As a fan of all time-warp stories, I count this as my favorite. Had it been released in the theater, it would have done very well indeed. It is good for all ages to see the the lengths that the hero of the story goes to in his desperate attempt to save the lady that he loves from afar. Ten stars out of ten and two thumbs up from me.
Run, don't walk, to get this exceptional movie while it's available!