Groundhog Day (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [1993]

On the DVD: the disc presents the movie in a 1.85:1 ratio and with Dolby surround sound. There are trailers for Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters and Multiplicity, along with filmographies for Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Andie McDowell and Chris Elliot. This remastered edition also comes with an extended documentary "The Weight of Time", which offers insights into the "European"-style script and production difficulties, but is a little over-lavish in its praise of the actors on set. Thought-provokingly, the documentary also touches upon the spiritual nature of the movie and what it has meant to an audience beyond being a simple comedy. Also included here is a director's commentary by Ramis which, although informative, has too many long breaks and would surely have benefited from the addition of Bill Murray to the conversation. --Nikki Disney

I have to say that Groundhog day is one of my favourite comedies - one of those feel-good movies almost guaranteed to cheer you up on a rainy day. In terms of comedy, it delivers consistently - Bill Murray's lines are crisp as a Punxsutawney winter and his timing has really never been better. Harold Ramis also has to be congratulated for managing to play the trick of repeating the same scenes over and over again just enough that you get an idea of what hell Phil Connors is going through without it becoming an irritation (as I found it did with the more serious film "Memento").

Murray's character seems effortlessly at home in the lead role who at times both offends with his arrogance and amuses with his razor sharp wit. It's no surprise then to note that in his director's commentary, Ramis notes that Bill Murray's own changeable character is not a million miles away from the incorrigible Phil Connors.

It's to Murray's (and Ramis's) credit that we fully emphasise with Murray's transition when, as each new day seems to remain February 2nd, he becomes at first baffled, then drunk with the power to do what he wants and then lonely, depressed and suicidal before he realises what life is really about and tries to turn his life around.

In that there's a little message for all of us living out our own little groundhog days. I particularly enjoy the moment where Phil (crying into his beer with his new-found drunk friends) begins complaining about his lot: "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and everyday was exactly the same and nothing that you did ever mattered?" he says, fishing for sympathy. His friend weighs up his life stuck in a dead end job in Punxsutawney and says with a drunkard's irony: "That just about sums it up for me". Priceless.

I'd recommend you buy Groundhog day and put it on one lazy Sunday. I'll guarantee you'll play it again and again. You just won't have to play it every day (unless you really want to). My only negative comment is that the DVD package itself is not very inspiring and the menu itself just a little embarassingly twee.


This is the stuff that dreams were made of!   December 8, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Have you ever wanted to be able to relive a day in your life? Ever thought what would be possible if you got trapped in time? Well this is it. Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell are fantastic in their parts of a depressed weatherman and the woman he falls in love with. As the film progresses you see more and more of the way Harold Ramis has fantasised about having an endless day, and the humour in the film is sublime. I particularly enjoyed watching Murray's character develop within the small US community, and with fantastic fillers such as Ned and Larry, how could you resist?

MAKE SURE YOU WATCH THIS FILM ESPECIALLY IF YOU LOVE GOOD EASY COMEDY.


A modern classic - feel good rom com   November 30, 2009
Fiction Fan (Madchester)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is one of those films you can watch over and over again and still enjoy - somewhat like the main character (Bill Murray) re-living that one day in his life until he gets it right. Knowing how things turn out doesn't detract from the fun.
There's an element of wish fulfillment in there - who wouldn't want to relive some part of their life over and over until they got it right? but the cast are so engaging, the writing so good and the story so entertaining that it's hard to fault.
Probably Bill Murray's greatest film role (and maybe Andi Macdowell's too - although she was good in Four Weddings and a Funeral, if that's your kind of film).
Recommended.


Cultural Phenomenon   February 14, 2009
Martin Turner (Marlcliff, Warwickshire, England)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Medic: "Sometimes people just die". Connors: "Not today."
The death of the old vagrant, and Phil Connors's inability to save him, is the turning point of what is at the same time one of the funniest films ever made, and a redemption narrative about a man who is so utterly self-centred that it takes him the same day a thousand times to change his life.

"Groundhog Day" is, in essence, one gag repeated over and over again until it becomes an utterly unforgettable experience. Phil Connors (Bill Murray), Channel 9 Pittsburgh's weather man, is trapped by a blizzard he failed to predict in the tiny town of Punxsutawney, and condemned to repeat the same day almost for ever, until he finally gets it right. In the meantime, he first experiments with the power of immortality, before trying, and failing, to win the hand of producer Rita (Andie MacDowell). Failure takes him to the point of suicide, which he tries in dozens of forms, only to wake to the clock tumbling down onto 6:00 am and the same radio track, back at the start of Groundhog Day. But it's his encounter with a vagrant on his last legs that transforms him. Getting him to the hospital too late, he is unable to save him that day, and all his efforts on the subsequent repeats fail to do anything more than give the man a better death. Unable to save one life, Phil sets out to save every other life and every other day in Punxsutawney, by which means he finally wins the heart of Rita, and thus completes the day and makes it onto the next one.

By far the funniest movie of the nineties, Phil Connors was a part made in heaven for Bill Murray, giving him full rein to express his sarcastic, cynical wit, and then to to explore his softer, human side. Andie MacDowell has really never been better.

There are lots of movies which are worth watching again, and at the last count I've watched this one at least a dozen time, but Groundhog Day has the unique attribute of being the only movie that you feel like you've watched a dozen times even when you've only seen it once. My brother in law once watched the movie four times in the same night, for the ultimate in temporally disorienting experience.

Groundhog Day is more than a movie. It's become a cultural phenomenon, so that one needs to do no more than mention it, and everyone knows what you are saying: "It's like Groundhog Day", is an expression of the very worst of self-repeating fiasco.

Groundhog Day is one of my all time favourite films, and one of my top two comedies (the other is The Blues Brothers). An absolutely top recommendation if you've never watched it, and one of the best films of any kind to own rather than rent.


A Sciuridae In The Life   February 2, 2009
DJ Dave Boring (Birmingham, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

What would life be like if we were immortal? Alternatively, what if we could undo every single faux-pas we had ever made? Would we live a blissful existence with no regrets or would we slowly descend into madness as we tried to tweak our lives into perfection? Groundhog Day forces us to ponder these admittedly heavy philosophical propositions, while adding a healthy dollop of Frank Capra sentimentality to prevent a mass audience disjunctive meltdown.

The story, while hardly original in itself, involves TV meteorologist Phil Connors (Bill Murray playing his usual sack-faced, misanthropic self) and his team head down to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to witness the (very real) Groundhog Day festival that is held annually on February 2nd. Once on air, Phil sardonically announces "This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather" and proceeds to dismantle the whole tradition, much to the dismay of his producer Rita (refreshingly bland Andie 'Revitalift' MacDowell) and their cameraman. After the broadcast, a blizzard hits the town - we're lead to believe that this is clearly some kind of cosmic judgement on Phil for his dismal outlook as he'd earlier predicted otherwise - and the whole crew are stranded for the night in Punxsutawney. Phil wakes at 6:00AM (to the sound of Sonny & Cher's 'I Got You Babe') and proceeds with the previous day's intention of leaving the town behind. After a series of seemingly familiar encounters with the locals, Phil makes his way to the town centre and finds himself once more at the Groundhog festival. His producer and crew clearly have no memory of this time-loop and mistake Phil's irked, confused manner for his usual egocentrism. This then sets the pattern for the majority of the second act: Phil wakes at 6:00AM, to the same annoying song, sees the same people, who say the same inane things. For a man whose entire existence is based around the predictability of seemingly random events, Phil is initially confused and somewhat angry but, once he begins to comprehend the existence of the time-loop and its implications, his ego takes over and he becomes almost godlike. Phil lives the same 24 hours over and over again; he soon realizes he cannot die. He can be killed - and, on several occasions, a despairing and weary Phil attempts suicide by various means - only to wake up at 6:00AM, completely unharmed.

This being a comedy by Harold Ramis rather than a tribute to the black existentialism of Ingmar Bergman, Phil proceeds to use his newfound powers to seduce Rita, cynically fine-tuning his technique, day after day, until she finally falls for him. In her ignorance, Phil becomes Rita's perfect man. I'm not entirely sure what this says about modern relationships and the perception that men are ultimately changed by the women they love - that's a whole other essay - but, despite Phil's best efforts to please Rita, the relationship eventually flounders. This also ties in with Phil's other notable experience of powerlessness as he tries repeatedly to save the life of a homeless man. It's at this point Phil finally realizes the limitations of his frozen situation: to escape the loop he must completely embrace the warmth and possibility of an unpredictable life and live it, and this time without his trusted cynicism to shield him. In other words, he must learn to live as a mortal man. The film resolves itself shortly afterwards, a la 'It's a Wonderful Life', ending with Rita and Phil together again, and looking forward to a life together albeit one relocated to Punxsutawney.

Although it is unspecified in the film, the amount of time thought to have passed is ten years. This is mentioned in the Director's Commentary included on the DVD but why it shouldn't have been a hundred or even a thousand years is clearly beyond me. Personally, I like the idea of a Methuselahn Bill Murray and, since the story is about both the isolation that comes with ultimate knowledge and the living purgatory that predictability brings, it would be a much more powerful and satisfying film if it bridged an unthinkable and intolerable time span. As it stands, it is still a very enjoyable film indeed. A film that both manages to go beyond the limited confines of its genre without alienating the intended audience with an unusually heavy concept or by being overly glib in its ruminations and conclusions. A film, one hopes, you will find yourself watching over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.