[video] "12:01" A Postview, copyright p-m agapow 1997
A well-meaning but bumbling clerk (Silverman) takes a shine to one of the scientists (Slater) at his workplace but she is gunned down in front of him. Mysteriously, that night he is flung back in time to replay this day endlessly. He investigates a sinister experiment at the heart of both the murder and his time travel.
Previously, this Richard Lupoff story was filmed as a terrific and much blacker short feature, also called "12:01" (1990) and starring the wonderful Kurtwood "can you fly Bobby?" Smith. (Highly recommended, if you can get your hands on it.) It also bears a close resemblance to "Groundhog Day", of which it has been called the flipside (cv Leonard Maltin). As the two were released in the same year, it's difficult to see how much influence there could have been. But "12:01" (1993) seems to have snipped out the noir and nihilism of "12:01" (1990) and substituted the romanticism of "Groundhog Day" without the morality tale aspects.
Confused? Me too.
"12:01" (1993, that's this one, okay?) lumbers itself with enough liabilities it's a wonder it ever recovers. Jonathan Silverman (remember? "Weekend at Bernies"? 1 and 2?) attempts to scrap up enough charisma before the bank forecloses on his acting career. Helen Slater ("Supergirl") wrestles with blandness. Martin Landau as the head of the research laboratory is left to chew the scenery. Add one murder plot, some artificial urgency, a sprinkle of dumb coincidence and allow to simmer. Serve lukewarm.
But while "12:01" never quite lives up to its predecessor, it manages some competence of its own. There is a consistent logic behind the time loop and Silverman's slow realisation of what is going on and his subsequent reaction are scripted with some care. (Some care. Some dumbness and also some care.) A modicum of pacing and a lack of the saccharine that (for me) ruined "Groundhog Day" helps make what could have been a disaster into a minor but diverting story.
Wonderful it ain't, but it passes muster. [**/ok] and one of the better episodes of "Space 1999" on the Sid and Nancy scale.
"12:01" Directed by Jack Sholder. >From a story by Richard Lupoff. Starring Jonathan Silverman, Helen Slater, Martin Landau, Nicolas Surovy. Released 1993.
------ paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse "There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire." [archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]
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