Time Travel Movie Fest: 12:01


1990 time loop story

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A guy with a briefcase finds himself stuck in a time loop that forces him to relive the same hour of his life over and over again. At least it's during his lunch.

I watched two versions of this Richard Lupoff story, and this short (around 25 minutes) was definitely the one I preferred. It stars Kurtwood Smith (that guy!) as the unfortunate soul stuck in this purgatorial crisis, and his best moment is when he goes completely nuts and just starts screaming. I waited for this to get wacky, but it retains this consistent existential tone. It begins in medias res, and unless you know there's a time-loopy plot, you really don't know what's even going on, just that Smith's character is a little intense for some reason. The explanation for the time loop is all pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo, but the science doesn't need to matter anyway. Instead, you're forced to think about what this poor individual is going through psychologically, and, for me at least, it made the experience a little horrifying. This kind of had the feel of a colorized Twilight Zone episode but without any Rod Serling. I really enjoyed it.

You can find this on Youtube if you're interested.

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