Groundhog Day (1993) Gets better every year!

Patty O Furniture · 02-02-2015 11:03pm #1

Hi all,

As today is Groundhog Day (again)

it just gets better each year with each viewing, as just watching it now, as i try & watch it almost annually as it gives more resonance on the day i think.

Bill Murray was perfect for this part & probably written for him by Harold Ramis.

As each endless day he's trying to find a finish to each daunting day.

Even when you steal the actual Groundhog & drive off a cliff,
have a bath with the toaster, stand in front of a van, jump off a building!
& not forgetting stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted, and burned.

Here are some links i came across:

Why did Bill Murray get stuck in a time loop?

Quotes from the film

What if there were no tomorrow?

Ned, Ned Ryerson!

Btw: Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow & six more weeks of winter are coming.

Hope you've enjoyed it as much as i did!

Dirty Dingus McGee · 02-02-2015 11:34pm

I thought it was good when I watched it first but wasn't completely blown away by it like other seem to be , its funny for me it seems to be a film that is completely over rated.

Maybe I need to watch it again.

Patty O Furniture · 02-02-2015 11:38pm

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

I thought it was good when I watched it first but wasn't completely blown away by it like other seem to be , its funny for me it seems to be a film that is completely over rated.

Maybe I need to watch it again.

You need to watch it again, although if you hear Sonny & Cher first thing in the morning, don't blame me!

Roar · 03-02-2015 7:57am

It's a masterpiece and a film I never tire of watching. Although it's not a Christmas movie, it's on our Yuletide rotation at home. Murray's finest performance IMO.

Bacchus · 03-02-2015 9:14am

Used to be able to quote it line by line. Brilliant movie.

Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your boots cause it's cold out there today. It's cold out there every day!

Tipsy McSwagger · 03-02-2015 9:15am

One of the best films ever.

LuckyLloyd · 03-02-2015 12:03pm

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

One of the best films ever.

Probably the best comedy film of all time anyway imo.

johnny_ultimate · 03-02-2015 1:19pm

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Probably the best comedy film of all time anyway imo.

The collected works of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati would beg to contest this hyperbole.

adox · 03-02-2015 1:27pm

Watched it with the Mrs last night as we do every year on February 2nd.

We went to see it in the cinema when it was originally released and loved it so have a soft spot for it.

Its infinitely quotable and has fantastic re-watch value. Brings a smile to my face even thinking about it.

Patty O Furniture · 03-02-2015 4:02pm

It looks like someone has counted how many times he's relived the same day over & over again, as i lost count after about 20 i think

How Many Days Does Bill Murray Spend Stuck In Groundhog Day? - YouTube

valoren · 03-02-2015 5:10pm

It's works as a "Bill Murray" star vehicle but it's also a great work of existentialism.

Now that's a classic combination.

03-02-2015 5:19pm

This is what the Groundhog was up to yesterday!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhnUC4bQd8I

pixelburp · 03-02-2015 5:25pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The collected works of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati would beg to contest this hyperbole.

That smacks a little of those old rockers who think there's no good music after prog; despite Andie MacDowell's best efforts, Groundhog Day is as funny, poignant, tragic, empathic, as cathartic as any of the above. Why shouldn't it count as one of the great comedy films?

Sure, Groundhog Day didn't use the visual medium with the kind of imagination or expression that Keaton or Chaplin sometimes did, but often it's worth looking beyond the perfunctory images to the content within.

And that's coming from someone who ... well, doesn't actually like Bill Murray and finds him a bit of a pill.

johnny_ultimate · 03-02-2015 6:44pm

pixelburp wrote: »

Sure, Groundhog Day didn't use the visual medium with the kind of imagination or expression that Keaton or Chaplin sometimes did, but often it's worth looking beyond the perfunctory images to the content within.

Exactly what leaves me cold about Groundhog Day. To me using the visual medium with imagination or expression is exactly what makes a film truly special - and sadly it's where IMO Groundhog Day falls short. It is the product of a mediocre, unimaginative and arguably even hackneyed director, and therefore is distinctly lacking in that spark that makes my heart really jump (I'll use Wes Anderson as a contemporary cinematic comedian extraordinare so we aren't just using dead and gone directors as reference points

). I place a lot of value in a strong authorial voice, and this film IMO lacks that.

That indeed doesn't stop Groundhog Day being funny, empathetic, cathartic etc... (a bit excessively sentimental at times, but that's just me). Thankfully the script and cast do a ****load of heavy lifting where Ramis doesn't, and that's certainly delightful to behold in its own way. It certainly has a potent alchemy, often in spite of itself. I mightn't count it among the greats (and this is all IMO, as Lloyd's comment was too), but that doesn't mean I can't admire it for what it is either

FloatingVoter · 03-02-2015 8:01pm

Groundhog Day is a magical movie. In the same way as Chaplin, Keaton et al. You try explaining why it is or isn't...you just wind up sounding like the talentless teacher who never gets the joke.
It's like a great book or painting, you see it at 18...its good. At 28...a different movie, still great...at 40 ...a classic. I'm looking forward to what I'll think of it at 50.

johnny_ultimate · 03-02-2015 10:15pm

FloatingVoter wrote: »

You try explaining why it is or isn't...you just wind up sounding like the talentless teacher who never gets the joke.

Isn't trying to explain that magic exactly why we talk about films in the first place? It'd be a boring old world of film writing (and we'd be just as well off locking this forum completely) if everybody was happy to just go with 'well that was magic' and leave it at that

It's important to rip apart and challenge the classics - whether that's Groundhog Day or Sherlock Jr or Vertigo or whatever the untouchable mainstay in question may be. To attempt - futile though it occasionally is, given how cinema often works on a purely emotional or aesthetic level - to figure out why it worked for you, or indeed why it didn't (NO film is or should be above dissent).

Sure, Groundhog Day is a thoroughly enjoyable watch, funny and touching in an accessible and charming way. Not much can be said about that (unless you want to really suck the fun out of it and do a structural or deconstructionist analysis of it, which people have actually done :pac:). But hey what's the point in a thread if everybody's just going to say synonyms of 'great film!' and leave it at that? It's always fun to rattle the cage a bit

On another note, have to admit I enjoyed Edge of Tomorrow quite a bit less than others because I kept thinking 'hey, isn't this bit just basically Groundhog Day?!'

FloatingVoter · 03-02-2015 11:44pm

^ A well argued response to a comment on a movie. This kind of thing will give the internet a bad reputation.

the_monkey · 04-02-2015 1:07am

I think this film is over rated, i'd never seen it when I was young when it came out, people always raved about it and recommended it to me and I only got round to watching it last year, it was okkkaaayyy...

I guess this proves that nostalgia is a huge thing for liking some films.

Unpopular opinion I know*

*awaits angry backlash ...

Kunkka · 04-02-2015 11:28am

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Sure, Groundhog Day is a thoroughly enjoyable watch, funny and touching in an accessible and charming way. Not much can be said about that

This is exactly what the movie is trying to be so why complicate it with all this other stuff you're going on about? The movie is not trying to be anything but a heart warming comedy so I really don't know why you're trying to belittle a movie that most people like by comparing it to other people's works that are irrelevant or are you just trying to sound really really smart?

I have no problem with people simply saying they don't like a movie, that's fine as everyone is entitled to their opinion but saying you don't like or rate a movie because it isn't like xyz is just silly.

AnonoBoy · 04-02-2015 12:12pm

Kunkka wrote: »

I have no problem with people simply saying they don't like a movie, that's fine as everyone is entitled to their opinion but saying you don't like or rate a movie because it isn't like xyz is just silly.

To be fair he only started citing Buster Keaton and all that because someone said it's the best comedy movie of all time.

Welsh Megaman · 04-02-2015 1:26pm