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He has 24 hours to save the world . . . again? In this sci-fi thriller, office employee Barry Thomas (Jonathan Silverman) is caught in a "time bounce" caused by a glitch in his company's secret project. Now the same day occurs again and again - and Barry's the only one who can do anything about it, including saving the life of beautiful research assistant Lisa Fredericks (Helen Slater). Fans of Groundhog Day and Back to the Future take note, this critically acclaimed cult favorite is finally on DVD for the first time.

I’d seen Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge back in the ‘80s and mostly remember the balancing bus in the crazy opening scene. When former editor Pete M. Bracke reviewed the entire A Nightmare On Elm Street Collection in September of 1999, he noted that this first Elm Street sequel was infamous as one of the most homoerotic mainstream horror film ever made at the time. After many years, I just happened to see that sequel again early this year and, holy cow, Pete is absolutely right. The scene with the S&M gym teacher stripped in the showers has to be seen to be believed. That and many other sexually repressed scenes had originally flown right over my head. Since 12:01 director Jack Sholder directed the 1985 Elm Street sequel, I wondered if there would be any unexpected elements in this 1993 sci-fi thriller. Sholder’s 12:01 doesn’t have any surprises; it remains a straightforward kind of film.

Books or movies that flip back and forth in time can confuse my pea brain, but 12:01 really makes it work. The film starts off a little slow, but the plot matures and gains momentum around the twenty-five minutes in; have a little patience. Be aware that the film is infused with entertaining comedy. I laughed my head off when Barry sits in his chair and has an unexpected surprise. It becomes fascinating to watch the actors replay their scenes with subtle variations as slightly different interruptions and discoveries occur during the 24-hour time loop of Monday, April 26, 1993.

To make this film work, you must not only willingly suspend your disbelief for the time loop, but for one more critical element. In Groundhog Day, only Bill Murray’s character his aware of the day repeating over and over again; everyone else loses their memories of that day each time it repeats.  In 12:01, only Barry knows what’s going; he was spared from memory loss by receiving an electric shock at the instant of the time bounce. This might be a huge pill to swallow, but, hey, this is science fiction. He must work his way through more than a few nuances and minor elements to understand the big picture and find the solution to the time trap. It will not come easy; he must deal with betrayal, murder and passion.

Hardworking actor Jonathan Silverman (Weekend at Bernies) as Barry seems like a great guy, and Sholder says he is in the audio commentary, but Silverman drives me a little nuts. He’s certainly energetic and has great hair and loooong eyebrows. He truly has great comedic physicality and timing. But while he’s sincere and engaging to a degree, he over-emotes and can come across as annoyingly stagy - just like he was in 1988’s Stealing Home. Helen Slater (Supergirl, Secret of My Success) has that open, alluring, beautiful Olivia Newton-John kind of face and generally works very well on screen as a smart, concerned scientist. Minor quibbles include Slater frequently speaking too quietly and her dialogue doesn’t seem to fit her innate personality. Martin Landau has been a good friend of Sholder through the years and definitely gives his role a strong sense of gravitas.  Jeremy Piven (Entourage) is peculiar as Barry’s snarky, quick-witted, ready-for-a-beer office buddy, Howard (what a great name!); his may be the best performance of all the actors.

Some of Piven’s quirky lines were ad- libs, which can make a sci-fi director a little nervous. But Piven quickly won Sholder over - as well as myself - as a spineless but charming flake. This film was constructed and executed carefully. While the general public might not remember it, it definitely had an impact on fans that paid particular attention to the details. Critics have also been partial to this film, which originally aired for Fox Television. Despite it’s style and age (a slow set up, all computers are in DOS, lame cover art), this is definitely a film that is worthy of finding a bigger audience on DVD.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in anamorphic video. This is a mighty clean transfer. I was impressed with the warm and natural saturation of colors. And a few scenes with primary colors have a sharp vibrancy. Grain is surprisingly minimal throughout, even during the low-lit scenes around the one-hour mark where I expected the evening shadows in the cabin to be rough particles. Blemishes are virtually extinct. Small object detail isn’t too sharp, however, which highlights one of the two problems with this transfer; much of it is soft. With diminished sharpness, only relatively still shots in close-up reveal finely grained textures such as the actors’ clothing and hair. Skin tones look very natural, though occasionally a tad on the red side. Minor edge halos are noticeable, like on street curbs. Contrast is good with average blacks and clean whites, but it’s clear that blacks lag behind. They are never as deep as they should be and show some fading during what sometimes looks like an attempt to extract an actor’s facial features from the shadows. Mid-tones of the chromatic scale are emphasized inside of the office building, which can make the visuals dull at times; this is not like the sharp, dynamic headquarters of Alias. Other than that, this is a consistently clean, solid transfer.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The disc includes a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, despite the fact that the back of the keepcase says it only has one stereo track. So that’s good news. Opportunities abound in the film for many nuanced sounds ranging from the vast and perky office to the action sequences to the score. However, the audio is ordinary at best. The dynamic range is respectable with discernable, clean highs and fair lows. Nothing is distracting, but more airy highs and rumbling, richer lows would have been more engaging. Front directional effects are nicely audible on occasion, but they are relatively flat which voids imaging potential. Dialogue is fairly clear, and it’s obvious that the lively Silverman speaks very clearly, and Slater (in the same shot) speaks far more softly, so it feels unbalanced times – why the performers weren’t corrected during their shared scene remains odd. Surrounds are not discrete and generally highlight vague background noises and bleed from the score. The synth score by Peter Rodgers Melnick is bland and painfully ordinary for a TV movie; its presentation is clean and respectfully follows the onscreen drama but without much inspiration or a strong frequency range. I’m tempted to say no one cared much about souping up the audio performance of this project. Home theater audio is fairly intimate and a place for audio engineers to shine if supported.

From what I could discover, the show was originally in stereo, so this bump up to Dolby Digital 5.1 is a small blessing. After comparing the two tracks, the newer mix is better defined and with more natural sounding dialogue.

No subtitles or Closed Captions are included, which has been a near-constant criticism of many Image Entertainment releases since DVD debuted in 1997.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

An audio commentary by Director Jack Sholder is included. Sholder is disappointed with the lack of style, “it’s straightforward.” He feels that more could have been done to punch up the film. However, he remains pleased with the clever story, which is based on Richard Logoff’s short story 12:01 PM. A casual Sholder likes the structure of the script, is proud of a few of the production moments, and offers anecdotes about the actors and genesis of the film. This is a solid, but unexciting, commentary.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.