mrockman-1 This short picture stars Kurtwood Smith as Myron Castleman, a drone in an engineering firm, who is so insignificant that even the office manager treats him like dirt. At the start of each repeated hour, Castleman finds himself standing on an island in the middle of a heavily traveled city street. He's carrying a briefcase. Apparently, he's out to lunch. A series of set pieces ensue: a man holds a wet bag of groceries that weakens and dumps its load, a man tells a lame joke while waiting for his "lunch" order at a hot dog stand in a park, a man sitting on a bench gets a fecal gift from a bird, and a pleasant woman sitting on another bench strikes up an acquaintanceship. There is an impressive audio and visual effect that signifies the moment that the hour is about to repeat. As in "Groundhog Day," it is entertaining to watch Castleman play with the unusual situation by putting himself in grave danger, knowing full well that any damage done will be erased when the hour repeats. The rude physicist at the Tempus Institute finally believes Myron Castleman because Myron describes the transition event, that only he can experience, which exactly corresponds to the physicist's predictions. Castleman is in quite a fix. Only he is able to perceive that time is repeating like a stuck record.

Richard McLaughlin This guy has shown up in so many things and perhaps best known from "That 70s Show", but if you ever saw 12:01 PM, you would have a new appreciation for his talent. This short is extremely well written about the frustrations of going through a time loop over and over for an endless eternity. In the process, he experiences so many things that we may take for granted. During one of his hours, he falls in love with a young lady in the park, then as his hours begins anew, she no longer knows him. During another hour, he helps needy person who others prefer to torment. Then during yet another, he sees a newspaper with an article that a scientist predicted this might happen. He calls him to discuss it, learns a little, then on the next loop he rushes to see him. When he finds that there is nothing he can do, he realizes there is no way out of his situation, so he wrestles a gun from a security guard and blows his own brains out only to find himself standing back on that same corner at the end of the hour as he has and always will. Kurtwood Smith delivers the pain and frustration like no one else could. This short made me a big fan of his. If you get a chance, watch this short! It's truly a 10.

Gorge Hiker This is a great science fiction short story in the vein of Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, and Spider Robinson, with the science integrated in the storyline, and not in advanced technology.Kurtwood Smith is excellent as a man caught in a 59 minute time loop. He slowly realizes what's going on, and tries to figure out how to stop it. Many have tried to equate this with Groundhog Day (another excellent film), but this story is much darker, where Smith is in a more dire situation as his character frantically tries to find a physicist who might be able to help. Can he escape?

Roy Wagner The similarities between this 30 minute "movie" from 1990 and the feature movie "Groundhog Day" from 1993 are too similar for them to not be more closely related. The latter surely must have been influenced by the earlier movie.The stories are very similar, but even more similar is the outstanding way in which both movies are directed. Even though the "same" timeframe is being repeated, the director shifts the camera perspective and dialogue encountered each time so neither film is boring.