ridiculous rating

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Imagine that, for some inexplicable reason, the entire Universe has been set to a continuous time loop. As soon as the specified time is over, everything in the Universe is reversed back to where it was, the loop restarts, and nobody even realises that this is happening over and over and over again… except for you. If, in your mind's eye, you've already formulated a mental image of a frustrated-looking Bill Murray and a cute little groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, then you can be forgiven for the oversight. I am not referring to the hit 1993 film 'Groundhog Day,' but to a fascinating short film from three years earlier entitled '12:01 PM.''12:01 PM' is based on a short story of the same name, written by Richard A. Lupoff and published in the December 1973 edition of 'The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.' The film stars Kurtwood Smith as Myron Castleman, a meek office worker who finds himself stuck in the aforementioned predicament. However, unlike Bill Murray, Myron is only afforded 59 minutes at a time before the inevitable loop repeats itself. Desperate to uncover an explanation for the maddening phenomenon, he eventually seeks the help of a physicist, Prof. Nathan Rosenbluth (Don Amendolia), who had predicted the "time bounce."Stunningly acted by Smith, and astoundingly clever and original in its execution, '12:01 PM' is an intriguing science-fiction short, sometimes funny and sometimes terrifying. In 1993, it was remade as a feature-length television movie (called '12:01'), starring Jonathan Silverman and Jeremy Piven. 'Groundhog Day' was also released that same year, and it could be argued that Harold Ramis and his team stole the film's general concept, but Jonathon Heap and Richard A. Lupoff ultimately decided not to pursue legal action.

Saw this years ago on Showtime and have waned to see ever since. I love time travel/time bounce movies and books, especially Groundhogs Day (just watched again with my son, his first time). Anyway, great news, at least for now the short is on Google Video, so grab it if you can before the copyright police remove it.Plot is simple, Myron Castleman - g-d - is trapped in a time bounce from 12:01 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Only his conscience doesn't reset, even his body reverts (if he eats at 12:59 he is hungry again at the bounce. He learns that a professor at the Tempus Institute (time in Latin)predicted that (i) matter and antimatter will collide causing the time bounce and that (ii) conscience is independent of the time bounce (but apparently for only some, or one person).Seems to me that this may be a form of punishment, i.e. hell. Also, anyone who experienced this would likely go insane from lack of sleep. Kurtwood Smith gives a stellar performance as the "victim" and by the end you feel frantic and sorry for him wondering how anyone could survive.

I first caught this film in the same way as many of the reviewers here, by catching it as a featured film in the ":30 Minute Movie" segments on Showtime, hosted by Rob Reiner, back in the early 90's. My wife and I were both instantly captivated by the story, which was later remade into a terrible feature-length film, and later modified to become "Groundhog Day." Kurtwood Smith was an inspired choice to play the main character, and the limitations of the 59-minute time frame made his frenzied efforts to escape his inescapable fate all the more terrifying. The ending, while old hat now (since it's been remade again and again), was fresh and shocking for it's time. You ached for Smith's character. The ending haunted me for a long time.This needs to be released as a special feature on an upcoming release of "Groundhog Day," or needs to be released in it's own right. What a fabulous piece of storytelling.T

This was a corker of a short SF film - highly intelligent writing, and loads better than Heap's full length remake a few years later - which had an unnecessary happy ending - and tons better than the (undeservedly) better known Groundhog Day.Last seen on Channel 4 in the UK about 12 years ago, and never commercially released, as far as I can tell ... if anyone's got this on video please get in touch - maybe we can trade. Cheers