12h01 - prisonnier du temps

12:01 is one of those movies that no one ever heard of but if they see it will remember it forever. In the same vein as Groundhog Day but with a much more interesting plot, 12:01 is the story of someone caught in a time bounce who must live the same day over and over and each day see the woman he secretly adores killed before his eyes. Silverman plays the part beautifully from answering his Mothers pointed questions to his impatience to finally get it right. Helen Slater is also wonderful as the love interest killed each day.

The movie moves quickly through the days and provides all sorts of interesting little moments as Barry Thomas tries to stop the bounce while saving his girl.

A beautiful story acted out by excellent acting and directing. I strongly urge you to find it in a video store or tape it off late night TV if you have the chance. Once you have seen it you wont forget it.

Don't let the premise fool you into thinking this is a rehash of Bill Murray's movie - this is a GREAT little story unto itself. It's closer to Office Space & Back to the Future than to Groundhog Day.

With a well-constructed plot & engaging characters, you can ignore the obvious writing & cinematography constraints of working on a TV budget. Watch for the pearls: Jeremy Piven & Marin Landau will sneak through with their organic performances if you're not paying attention. But everyone from the office dominatrix to the wiry assassin are well-developed; I even felt like "Mom" was part of the cast! So what IS the story about? A hard-working downtrodden everyday guy with a little tardiness problem. On the day that he FINALLY works up enough nerve to talk to the office cutie that he's had a crush on for longer than his mother can stand, she gets killed. And he has to watch it happen. ...again. And if he doesn't figure out what to say & do, he'll have to keep watching it. But the key is to figure out who ELSE is watching her, and why his interest in her has caused our hero to wake up Tuesday after Tuesday after Tuesday...

12:01 is definitely worth watching again, and again, and again, and...

I put a tape in the video machine one night to record this unknown film called "12:01" - the synopsis in the TV guide seemed interesting. I kept that tape for months, watching it over and over, just to see the subtle changes in each day being lived again. Brilliant.

Everybody seems to rave about how "original" Groundhog Day was/is but I saw "12:01" on UK TV well before Groundhog Day even hit the cinemas over here. "12:01" may have been a low-budget TVM and may have its flaws but the concept of the day after day scenario is just as good.

The sad thing is that I actually logged on tonight to order both "12:01" and Groundhog Day but I can't find a UK supplier of "12:01" and it would be such a shame if it were never seen again.

Try to imagine a combination of Back to the Future and Groundhog Day, and you've got 12:01

This was a decent scifi flick, and I found it highly enjoyable. It was a great combination of scifi, fantasy, romance, and humor. Jonathan Silverman and Helen Slater were both well cast, and if you rent this, you will not be disappointed.

*** out of ****

This is my my second movie I saw where the day keeps repeating. The first one was a short on Showtime. It was a serious flick. In that one, it was worse; in that movie the same HOUR kept repeating as opposed to the same DAY repeating, not to mention that that flick was NON-comedy. Anyway, I was glad to see that that this film had some comedic elements. I like to find my favorite line in a movie. In this one, it would have to be where his mom calls, and Barry tells his mom "I can't talk right now, mom. The day's repeating" and hangs up. I saw it when it ORIGINALLY came on TV, so I don't remember it much, but I do remember I thought it was 2 hours well spent.

On a side note, I saw Groundhog Day after this movie. Groundhog Day is different enough from this movie so you can watch both and not feel like you're having the day repeat. (sorry, COULDN'T resist).