Pajiba

Don't knock Arbor Day. It's the only holiday left without its own shopping bonanza and themed Peeps.

Freaking random.

On the other hand, I do love this movie. But only because it was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois, right next to my hometown of Bumblefuck, and everyone in all the neighboring towns flocked to Woodstock in hopes of spotting Bill Murray or getting picked to be an extra. That was a good time, and I remember the cast and everyone were rumored to have been very friendly and approachable.

Still. Out of all the movies in the world...

Also, with the list you mentioned I can only assume you live in Boston, and Boston has holidays that seem to only exist in Boston - even some that only seem to exist in certain sections of Boston - so your holiday overload may be regionally-inspired.

As much as I love Stripes, Ghostbusters and Scrooged, I've never gotten around to seeing this one. Off to Netflix I go...

I love this movie!!! Between Ground Hog Day and Scrooged, Bill Murray is really up there on my list of actors I can watch over and over and over. Something about those two movies makes me never tire of them.

!!! One of my favorite movies ever, TK, great review. It's such a wonderful showcase for Murray's talents-I love any film where he gets to be simultaneously manic and vulnerable.

"This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather."

Side note, last weekend my best friend and 7 of his buddies rented an RV and drove to Punxsutawney to watch the ceremony and as an excuse to spend the weekend wasted. The real town is not half as cute as the movie version, but his disturbing pictures of locals dressed as life size groundhogs more than made up for it.

I couldn't have written it better. Mostly because I have ADD and an eighth grade education.

I love this movie and will watch it whenever it comes on TV, even if I've just seen it on another channel. I find Bill Murray sexy in a way that confounds and shames me... I watched Charlie'S Angels because he was in it. I even sat through The Life Aquatic because he was in it, and I hated that movie but not really because... you know... Bill Murray.

For your information, benighted hordes of non-Bostonians, Patriots' Day is among the most important holidays, celebrating the first two battles of the Revolution and (much more importantly) kicking off the weeklong April vacation.
And only Boston-proper schools get Evacuation Day off. That fact bothered me throughout my youthful suburban years.
And I know this page mainly exists for disagreements, so here goes:
"Hard to call a classic"
?!?!?!?!
When I think "classic movie," this is about the third film that comes to mind.

Great review. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Bill Murray, and I always will. Oh, and Happy Completely Random Day Off Of Work That Will Just Happen to Be The Day That The Place You Need To Go Observes, So You Can't Do What You Needed To Do That Day, Day!

Andie MacDowell is such a blight on acting that I cannot bring myself to watch what is otherwise an apparently delightful film.

And yet, I am able to overlook her to enjoy Four Weddings and Funeral...but I am a total anglophile and a sucker for the accents.

I wouldn't hesitate to call this a classic, TK, on re-watchability and quotability alone. As much as I love Ghostbusters, which is clearly a classic, GD blows it out of the water. Just pitch-perfect from start to finish, with one major quibble, the same one I have with Scrooged: the stupid, sappy ending that drains the dark, biting humor out of all that has gone before.

"Let's live here"? That's the last line of a comedic masterpiece? I'm not against a happy ending, but it needs to have some bite, a great one-liner to close it out. Come on Bill! Director's Cut!

Seriously, how is it possible that people haven't seen this movie?! It was shown on an alternating loop with The Jerk on TNT and TBS for about a decade. Anyone but Murray as Phil Conners = shitbomb.

I love everything about this movie with the exception of Andie McDowell. She's annoying as fuck and horribly, horribly wooden, so I pretend she doesn't exist. But Bill Murray . . . man. He was genius in this role. The depth and range of his performance, and the subtleties, as you mentioned, make this one of his stand-outs for me--it's actually one of my all-time favorites. I disagree that the movie is inane, contrived, cloying, obvious, or trite--it totally works because of Murray. He somehow elevates what *could* have been all these things into a sublime movie that holds up after multiple viewings, but it would have completely failed with any other actor. And not quotable? Pshaw. It's plenty quotable, just not in an "I'll be bah-ck" kind of way.

"What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today!"

Quite simply the best movie Bill Murray has ever made - yes, better than Rushmore, better than Lost In Translation, better than Ghostbusters and Stripes, all of it.

All of those are good movies, but Groundhog Day is just perfect in every possible respect; the comedy is just about timeless because it appropriates timeless themes (stagnation, death, the nature of God) and brilliant slapstick and it's-just-funny moments (the radio announcers yelling "it's GROUND-HOG-DAY!" all the time never fails to get a laugh out of me).

It's one of the very, very few completely perfect comedies.

I love this movie. I do. But then again, I love anything associated with February, the greatest month of the year. Shoot, it's so great, I was born in it.

I'd rate this movie as a classic, no question. It has a point, but it doesn't beat you over the head with it. Instead, you get to make the journey from douchbaggery to town hero with Phil, and you fall in love with him along the way. You know, I may have to switch tonight's pint of Guinness for a sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist.

Then again, maybe not.

I truly love this movie. My favorite part has to be the weather report that he gives on his last day, before he rushes off to start doing good deeds, in which he quotes Dostoyevsky and has all of the other newscasters and all town members in tears.

Plus, who doesn't love it when Murray holds Ned close and tells him "I have missed you..."

Comedy. Gold.

Fan...tastic. I absolutely love this movie, and can never resist turning the tv to it whenever it comes on, no matter what else is on.

Then again, I watch anything Murray is involved in. You have a good point, TK, this man could act circles around the current generation. He has a true sense of comedic timing and gets into his roles in an unironic way that seems to go over many "actor's" heads. You are always sure of being able to enjoy his performance, even if the movie he's in is crap. Great review.

Who else could go for some flapjacks right now?

TK, alright, so maybe not so random. I've been looking at other reviews of this film, and they have been overwhelmingly positive. I think I may need to re-watch, as I have not seen this since...oh, 1995 (when I was in 8th grade).

This is an Ebert quote:
"Groundhog Day" is a film that finds its note and purpose so precisely that its genius may not be immediately noticeable. It unfolds so inevitably, is so entertaining, so apparently effortless, that you have to stand back and slap yourself before you see how good it really is.

Makes sense - I remember thinking that this was a fun movie, but not one worth watching again or thinking about. But I likely didn't take the time to really watch it - perhaps I should.

Oh, and you know what else is fantastic about this movie? There's no explanation. No Morgan Freeman As God showing up to say "well, you're going to live this day again and again until you get it right," no mad scientists in the background talking about tachyons, no time travel black hole, no angels, no nothing.

If God works miracles - and this is essentially a story about a miracle, albeit a tortuous one - then that's how he does it. Quiet-like, no bow for credit.

I haven't thought about that movie in a LONG freakin' time.. but I love it. LOVE IT!

Kermit - Andie MacDowell does indeed stink. But you can get past it, I know you can. Bill is so frickin fabulous in this, that it's a pleasure to watch Groundhog Day, even with the buck-toothed, cigar-store indian MacDowell as his romantic lead.

Give it a shot.

I dunno... I'd come close to calling it a classic. The movie may not be high art, but it moves smoothly through the narrative with no real bumps or jiggles and makes no notable mistakes. No missteps. Within the limitations of its own aspirations, it's the Perfect Movie.

Not to mention that this film was the first time we'd ever been allowed to see a more sober, realistic side to Murray's flawed weirdos. There had been a stab at real character growth and depth in Scrooged, but it would still be a few years before he got Rushmore. Groundhog Day was an early stand-out effort that let the man show us his range. My personal test - would the actor today, with his experience and perspective and proven ability, agree to this role if offered it now, physical appropriateness aside? I think the man from Lost in Translation would agree to be in Groundhog Day - not something I can say about Larger Than Life, for instance.

I have seen this movie more times than I care to think about and yet every time he lets the groundhog drive, it kills me. Just flat out kills me. Plus, growing up in the vicinity of Wiarton Willy, an albino forecaster, and having my birthday occur on that most important day in the Feb. I have a soft spot for this film.

I used to work for a news outlet and my boss had covered groundhog day in Wiarton for something like 25 years. One day a year he gets to get up at 4am and drive to cover the event. He cursed it and probably still hates it to this day, but on the plus side, it's almost as though they made a movie about him...

I have seen this movie more times than I care to think about and yet every time he lets the groundhog drive, it kills me. Just flat out kills me. Plus, growing up in the vicinity of Wiarton Willy, an albino forecaster, and having my birthday occur on that most important day in the Feb. I have a soft spot for this film.

I used to work for a news outlet and my boss had covered groundhog day in Wiarton for something like 25 years. One day a year he gets to get up at 4am and drive to cover the event. He cursed it and probably still hates it to this day, but on the plus side, it's almost as though they made a movie about him...

Kolby: We share a birthday month!

I think most people warm to this film because it's really an allegory of our daily lives. When I worked as an employee in the corporate world, every day WAS Groundhog Day. You woke up, you went to work, went through the motions and went home every day. I'm not talking about jobs that are necessarily boring (I traveled internationally and had a pretty good time), but that whole "stuck" feeling. That impossibility to escape feeling. So it's really a film that most of us can relate to because when that alarm goes off every morning and we see the progression of pain to frustration to sad acceptance on his face, we've all been there.
Of course, he gets out at the end.

Love this movie, even though it amplified my hate of Sonny and Cher more than what I thought it could be.

"Too early for flapjacks?"

This movie is waaaay quotable...

Groundhog Day is hard to call a classic

Not it's not. It's in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, and the WGA named it the 27th best screenplay ever written, ahead of Fargo, Taxi Driver, The Usual Suspects and a bunch of other bona fide classics. Also, theologists from multiple religions revere it.



It's not hard to call it a classic at all, because it is one.

There is nothing pointless about "Administrative Professional's Day" we need some recognition DAMNIT!

Actually, yeah it is utterly pointless however more pointless are the range of cards celebrating said pointless day that are available through Hallmark. Good God, I love Hallmark.

Also on the list of things I love: This movie, Bill Murray and the concept that a rodent seeing a shadow could possibly predict the weather.

On the topic of Andie MacDowell - does anyone else find it weird that her voice really doesn't look like it's coming from her body. Seriously: she sounds like her dialogue is being dubbed in by someone else entirely in everything that she's ever been in. It's freaky.

"Don't drive angry."
I love this movie so much. I don't love Andie MacDowell, but every other part of the film is just perfect. I want to have Bill Murray's babies, but that goes without saying.
And in my house, any time we ever see Stephen Tobolowsky on the screen these days, we yell "Ned! Ryyyyyerson! Needlenose Ned, Ned-the-Head...."

My friend's family celebrates Groundhog Day every year - it's the only holiday where almost everyone in their 40+ member family is free. We sit around, get drunk, eat too much, and catch up with everyone. This movie plays on a constant loop the entire night. This movie is best enjoyed when you're seeing it for the fourth time in a row at 2:00 AM. "Is it too early for flapjacks?"

Another good line to quote from this movie when you're drunk:

"Would you like to throw up here or in the car?"

"I think - both."

Three-nineteen, that is the greatest thing ever. I wish I knew those people.

Alex - believe it or not, her voice WAS dubbed in Greystoke. Her southern accent was so thick at the time that no one could understand a damn thing she said.

TK, great review. 'Groundhog Day' surely does deserve the treatment it rarely gets.

By the by, Ramis did direct 'Caddyshack,' but Ivan Reitman directed 'Ghostbusters.'

Bill Murray is the man! I think "Rawley Sinclair" from Royal Tennenbaums should be added to that list of characters he plays so well.

I saw this movie in the theatre. My mom wanted to go and I went along for company. I dragged my feet a bit because I had no interest in seeing a Bill Murray comedy in the 90s...

I remember how astonished and delighted I was, that first viewing, at how great it is, how warm-hearted and geniunely funny.

--But Andie McDowell...She's pretty and everything but she is just a fucking block of wood, aint't she. She's the only drag in this whole movie.

On a related note....did it annoy anyone else to hell and back when she started singing in Micheal? It honestly almost made me turn that movie off.

I believe that Harold Ramis recently said that he figured Bill Murray's character repeated the same Groundhog's Day for at least ten years. Ouch.

This is one of those movies that I find myself watching all the way through each time I stumble across it on t.v., even though I own a copy. That's my own personal definition of classic.

Great movie. Great review.

Kids caught GD on tv last year and thought it was hilarious.

Oooh get you with the trivia Kolby! I didn't know that, which isn't surprising.

That's a brilliant fact! I will now claim it as my own and sllip it into conversation at dinner parties.

Should I, you know, ever actually attend any.

The only reason I look forward to Groundhog Day is because on some channel this movie will be playing.

With 36% prognostication accuracy, flipping a coin is a better predictor of weather than some rodent's shadow. I hate Groundhogs day.
The movie on the other hand....that I can live with.

Whoops, good catch Ian.

So, um, regardless of what the rodent sees, isn't it always about six weeks from Groundhog Day until the first day of Spring? I mean, think about it.

This Groundhog Day, our local weather rodent refused to come out of his burrow at all because of the freezing rain.

I don't know how they interpreted that one.

But he was IN "Ghostbusters". He's Egon.
I bought this dvd a year ago, watched it, broke it, and bought it again. We most recently watched it just under a week ago (duh). As quoted by who'd you say? Ebert? you definitely don't notice the genious of it from only watching it once. It holds up view after view. Classic, definitely.

Andy McDowell is tolerable in this movie, but there's a curious bangability about her. Not so much then as now though. Has anyone seen her in those Neutrogena or Maybeline commercials? ....whatever the product is. She looks hot.

I'm not saying she's worth losing a finger over, but I can definitely see her arching her back and hanging her head backwards off the edge of my bed while I slowly dip my nuts into her mouth.

But I couldn't spoon with her afterwards...I'd choke on her hair.

'Phil?!'

'NED!?' (Punch to the face)

Oh, I adore this movie.

Gelis--

10 years?!? This is why I love this movie. Because by the end, when he has a host of amazing skills and you wonder "how freaking long did this last?" And it's the realization that it took YEARS that is just kind of . . . shocking. And sad. I think it's easily overlooked in the movie but my god, how desolate is that?

I can't stand Andie McDowell either. She grates on me like you would not believe (or maybe you would). But I still love this movie.

As for the actual Groundhog day, one of the many reasons it's ridiculous to me is here in Alberta, we do not start contemplating the end of winter on February 2nd. From February 2nd, only having six more weeks of winter would be wonderful. But it's likely to be 10 or more.

PissBoy - you are a true romantic.

but I can definitely see her arching her back and hanging her head backwards off the edge of my bed while I slowly dip my nuts into her mouth

Yeah, I can totally see the two of you doing that, too. Weird.

Nice review. After I read the mention of Caddyshack, I started remembering all of the awesomeness of that movie.

I love Caddyshack.

"Morons, your bus is leaving."

I must have see this movie a bajillion times, yet until I read this review I never noticed that Phil and the groundhog had the same name. Weird.

:reads Pissboy's comment, wets pants, leaves:

My GOD.

Now look what you did, PissBoy....

I also feel compelled to mention that this is one of the rare movies that you can watch with your kid and be equally entertained by (perhaps over the age of 9 or 10-ish). There just aren't enough of those that are smart and clever and not gratuitously violent or sexual in some squingy way.

I fucking ooze romance.

And I didn't do it! She did! I have no control over her bladder!

would you say her panties went moist?...

Your fault! You owe me a pair of pants!

Oh great. Here we go with the "moist" business again.

But I can't help but remember George's mother in "Dead Like Me" hating that word. And George in her ghostly form, rearranging the letter magnets on the refrigerator during her wake to spell "moist".

I miss that show.

All of the above was just to stall time before I admitted that I *gasp* have never seen this movie.

Blame Andie MacDowell.

[Slinks off to make Kahlua brownies...]

That's a good way to say it. At least then it's got some poetry to it. I'd love to think that I have the power to make someone evacuate his/her bladder but I don't. But if I did, then my name would have true meaning. I could be in the next X-Men spinoff! My suit would be made out of yellow leather, kind of like Uma's outfit in Kill Bill V.1. And my power would be psychokinetically spasming someone's bladder, making them flee from battle in surprise and embarrassment. I would rule...

Until my arch enemy showed up. Dependor. Pissing his/her pants will be no big thing for obvious reasons. (I'll leave the sex of my arch nemesis up to the writers...but can't you see a sexy female villain in adult diapers and thigh-high villain boots?) The only way I can defeat her is by getting her in a pool, cuz adult diapers weigh a TON when they get water-logged and she would drown. Kind of like Bruce Willis's character in Unbreakable except he didn't wear diapers, and if my story were a movie it would fucking suck so bad.

And by "Good way to say it..." I am referring to Shadow's comment

PissBoy...I would love to meet you one day to shake your hand. You took a random comment, and ran the hell out of it. Bravo, my friend, bravo. I am in awe of your powers of bladder-evacuation and dementia-inspiration.

Don't knock Arbor Day. It's the only holiday left without its own shopping bonanza and themed Peeps.

There's nothing wrong with themed peeps! Any excuse to enjoy their sweet marshmellowy goodness other than Easter is fine in my book. Even though it contradicts the diet i'm currently on.

On another note, they just enstated another arbitrary holiday up here in Canada. Feb 18 is now called "Family Day". Slightly absurd, yes i'd say. I would call every day family day. Any excuse to not go to work is grand, and I was actually looking forward to this day. Then my work informs us that we still have to work. Balls my friends, Balls!!!! At least we get holiday pay.....I suppose

Don't drive angry!

I freaking love Bill Murray.

And i meant to say my movie WOULDN'T suck so bad.

Only Pissboy could concoct such a voluptuous sounding movie plot from my pants-wetting. You are an inspiration to us all.

Could your villain do a pee pee dance whenever she's monologuing about how she's going to kill you? That would be so. Awesome.

HA HA HA! Dependor!

Pronounced Dee-PEN'-door!

And no...there would be no pee-pee dance. That would be for all her minions to do as they wet themselves. When Dependor monologues she will speak, and then at random points, she pauses with this look of relaxed, relieved comfort on her face (she's peeing at this point), and then goes back to speaking.

What About Bob?

PissBoy - does she also get that shiver that comes just as you're about to finish? That always happens to me.

It would have to be a female villain...a male villain would be preoccupied trying to shake at the end of it.

I love Groundhog Day!
Don't let Andie MacDowell put you off. Set yerself down with the kahlua brownies and enjoy the bitter genius of Murray.

There was a stretch of time that his movie was on cable on a near-daily basis and I've since been away from this film - I've maxed out. It will take me another year or so before I come back to it and enjoy it.

But it is a classic. "Watch out for that first step, it's a DOOZY!"

And my personal favorite: "You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil.
I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold...it's gonna be gray...and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life."

Well, in my house we celebrate German Shepherd and Golden Retriever day. Both are days of drinking merriment and ....eh... more, drinking, in honor of our beloved four legged pets.

Ha ha ha! I can hear you defeating Dependor now..."Activate Golden Shower!"

Jax - No fair! Nova Scotia hasn't yet adopted Family Day (no pun intended). So, no vacay until Eastertime for me.

PissBoy - I love your crazy sick mind. Who's playing Dependor? June Allyson? (whoops, I just looked at her Wikipedia page, and that's not going to work so well...)

socalledonlycousins wrote: "Let's live here"? That's the last line of a comedic masterpiece?

Actually, the last line is "We'll rent first." (Doesn't detract from your point, I know.)

That notwithstanding, this movie is a classic.

To those of you who are fans of the McDowell woman, I read an interview of hers, back when she was A-List and did that Green Card flick with Depardieu. Anyway, she told the interviewer that she hardly ever wore panties.

Make of that, what you will..

I make of it that she's ready to do some old-fashioned teabagging.

"...Anyway, she told the interviewer that she hardly ever wore panties."

Damnit....

Thank you socalled! At least someone agrees with me.

And oddly enough, she and I have something in common. I don't wear panties either. Or any underwear for that matter...

Proudly going into my 13th year without getting my junk jammed in my zipper.

Reason #27,413,002 that I love this site: a discussion about the clever and family friendly film Groundhog Day becomes one fraught with diaper-wearing supervillains and teabagging a pantyless Andi McDowell.

Don't ever let anyone tell you you haven't accomplished anything, PissBoy.

Hee...I'm glad some of us have goals.

Does that mean PissBoy wins the comment diversion award again?

PB, don't forget that you both have a radiant smile.

Hey, speaking of Piss, Boy - any progress on the t-shirts? It's getting cold up in this piece.

I love, love, LOVE this movie. Thanks TK!!

I'm starting to think there are gonna be no movie reviews up today. And I was so looking forward to a review of "The Hottie and the Nottie."

/sarcasm.

LadyJane, I looove What About Bob!!

Oookayyy. Anyhow. I'm with LadyJane, What about Bob make me laugh so hard I need a dependor.

The logo design for the bus tour is 100% complete and sitting on a transparency ready to go. Whiskeybabyninjastar! isn't even off the table yet for color balancing. Lots going on right now. I am waiting on new screens to come in so I can begin MAKING the Bus(ted) Tour tees. It looks as though my own personal Tee Shirt site won't be up in time so I'll be setting up an ebay merchant page so orders can be placed.

Phat girl: ha ha ha! Nice.

I have to say Pissboy this time you've really outdone yourself. The Dependor saga should go down in Pajiba history as one of the best segues to grace the site.

Have I told you lately that I love you, PissBoy?

PissBoy: I've been bouncing through the comment threads hollering for you, but to no avail. (Seemed like your energies were otherwise engaged in moist-ish discussions.)

Rebeccah sent me a sweet graphic of Whiskeybabyninjastar! she drew. I'd love to pass it along to you if you're interested.

Just send me an e-mail.

Strange and bitchy. Whatever.

Pissboy - I've seen the graphic 'Bama is referring to and it is, in fact, the absolute balls. Look into it, would ya.

I will never forgive the fucking $100,000 of pork that went towards the Punxsutawney Phil Museum of Weather and Climate in '05.

The movie is a classic though.
Carry on with your piss comments, please.

You can call this movie a classic since it has undeniably added an entirely new definition of "Groundhog Day" into our cultural lexicon.

As in "My pathetic fucking life is just like Groundhog Day" (and you DON'T have to qualify the statement with "...the movie, not the holiday"

And I had a crush on Andie McDowell for years after I saw this move. I don't care if you all think she's a "piece of wood" - I got a piece of wood for her...RIGHT HERE!

"side of your eye, side of your eye"

"be the hat"

"I'm A god. I'm not THE god."

"Am I right or am I right? Or am I right? Right? right?"

Oh, FUCK!

You know what folks? I'm an asshole. While we were watching it Mrs. TK totally made Perl's excellent point re: Groundhog Day making it into our cultural lexicon, and I fucking spaced on it completely and left it out of the review. So honey, if you're reading this, I'm very sorry.

Also, if you're reading this... I know, alright? I know. They're crazy. We'll talk about it when we get home.

"This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. What a hype. Groundhog Day used to mean something in this town. They used to pull the hog out, and they used to eat it. You're hypocrites! All of ya! You got a problem with what I'm saying, Larry? Untie your tongue, and you come out here and talk. Am I upsetting you, princess? You know, you want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction. It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life."

"Once again the eyes of the nation have turned here to this tiny village in western Pennsylvania...blah blah blah blah blah. There is no way that this winter is ever going to end as long as this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don't see any other way out. He's gotta be stopped. And I have to stop him."

"....Am I upsetting you, princess? You know, you want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction. It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life...."

Awesome quote!

That sums up the whole thing quite nicely.

"You speak French?"..."Oui". Deadpan genius.

Holy Crap tt_marie we must be neighbors!!! I live near Woodstock too, and I got married in the Gazebo on the square, and my mom told everyone she knew about the wedding being the same place as the movie Groundhog Day. I love The Square, I think its $3 to see a movie at the small theater and they have some of the best restaurants in the area. Pirro's is right across from the theater and they have amazing Poached Pears. Another thumbs up for the movie too.

I saw this when it came out and I wasn't sure how they were going show reliving the same day over and over and over without getting boring, but they did it right.

Being a weaver, whenever Andie McDowell was on screen, I was completely mesmerized by her handwoven scarf. That's all I remember about her part in the movie. Her scarf.

Come on, TK, have all the commenters finally put this whole "not quotable" myth to rest?

I always know there's a kindred spirit in the room if I can say "It always makes me think of Rome, the way the sun hits the buildings..." during a toast and get a chuckle.

Bill Murray is one of my favorite actors and I do like this movie. LOVE him, however, as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters. ("Egon, your mucus")

AND, what about Meatballs? A classic Bill Murray movie, in my humble opinion.

AND, what about Meatballs? A classic Bill Murray movie, in my humble opinion.

Posted by: Bev M. at February 8, 2008 6:47 PM

--------------------------------------------------

Your wisdom is truly godlike.

"I'm your program director, Jerry Aldini..."

"If we win or lose IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER!...."

Pajiba needs a handy copy of Chase's Calendar of Annual Events to truly appreciate the depth of our slavery to celebratory nonsense. It's always good for a laugh.

FYI for all those in Pajiba land, these are quotes from the original script to the movie, that did not make the movie:

At the end to Rita, after he wakes up:

"I've been waiting for you every day for ten thousand years. I dream of you every night of my life. You've been my constant weapon against total despair, and just knowing you exist has kept me alive."

This is when he steals the groundhog: the groundhog is on the seat next to him

"You know who I am, don't you? Look in the mirror. It's me. We're Phil. I knew you'd understand. This is the winter that's never gonna end. You predicted it. You called the storm, I didn't."

Also Ryerson was supposed to be over Phil's body after he swan dived off the tower.

So this gives you the approx. time I guess and some other changes. As with any movie, there is a bit of a difference b/w script and final production. I came across the script in my brother's house, he used to do all the lighting at the Woodstock Opera House and did some for the movie. He just up and gave it to me about a year after it was made.

Anyone want to buy the script, make me an offer.

I also left out that there is a church scene right before he declares to Rita that he is a God. It was almost like a Blues Brothers moment with the golden light of a sign from God, but the organist ruins it by hitting a wrong note.

If anyone is really interested make me an offer.

What about Bob?

I was just going to say what richmac did about Phil living through it for 10,000 years. And the way he knows it's 10,000 years is he reads one page from the library at the B&B each day to keep track of time.

Also, there's a weird sequence where he steals an airplane and visits his mother.

first post but this should be geeky enough to get me my membership card.
groundhog day is a cross quarter day.
go six weeks from an equinox or a solstice and you get a holiday.
dec 21st + 6 wks = groundhog day (feb 2nd)

mar 21st + 6 wks = may day (may 2nd)

jun 21st + 6 wks = lammas/candlemas day (aug 2nd but rarely if ever celebrated anymore)

sept 21st + 6 wks = samhain (nov 2nd) which was celebrated as the coming of winter/dead and referred to in olde germanic cultures as the day of the dead or all hallows day. of course if you're talking about dead guys showing up, the night before would be big time creepy, hence all hallow's eve (halloween) became the celebration where they gave out treats to keep the spirits from wanting to do them harm, and lit pumpkins and brooms (sticks with hay) on fire to illuminate the paths for the spirits so they wouldn't stop.

i'll stop geeking now
but this movie is just as good and quotable as ghostbusters. and andie macdowell obviously got attacked repeatedly by the groundhog because of her wooden performance. But it's murray's movie and he absolutely kills. This is where i really started to like him, since i grew up on original SNL and thought his characters were often the weakest, and in caddyshack he was playing the buffoon, really well but still a buffoon. Here his character was a killer mix of cynicism, vulnerability, and playfulness.

Pissboy, My friends and I love to play the superhero game when drinking and my fav of all time was the friend who wanted the power to tele-poop. All he would have to do is think poop thoughts at they enemy and they would poop themselves.
I actually fell on the floor in the bar from laughing at that one! Add to that your super talent and the bad guys of the world would never get anything done! Too busy changing pants! Especially if there were always pools nearby!

This movie and Ghostbusters are two of my absolute favorite movies ever. To call the movie unquotable, however, is perplexing.

"Don't drive angry!"

Broken Flowers... really?

OK, so I haven't read the whole review, but I'm just going to go ahead and say that I'm in favor of institutionalized holidays, regardles of their specific significance. Call me a fascist, but they're like paid mental health days, no?

I loves me some Andie, she's really pretty in this one. I'd try about 10,000 days to nail her too.

Very nice review. Somebody once wrote about the Nuke LaLoosh character in "Bull Durham" that's one of the most difficult things for an actor to do in a film is to portray a character growing up -- maturing emotionally. That's pretty much what Murray does here, and it is a fine piece of acting.

Two other points:

It pisses me off to no end that in the version that runs on TV, one of the more clever bits gets cut: When Phil astonishes the other people at the B&B by providing all the "Jeopardy!" answers (questions? whatever) before the clues are revealed.

And can someone explain the appeal of "Ghostbusters" to me? It's mildly funny, at best. "He slimed me"? That's a big laugh line?

Oh, and this is for PB and Trixie: My daughter and I came up with a trio of the three most useless superheroes: Awesome Possum, Ossum Ostrich (yeah, I know) and Timmy Turtle. Their superpowers: play dead, hide head in sand, pull head into shell. So Evil Otter gets away with all the shit, as in, "Oh no, Awesome Possum, Evil Otter has kidnapped Daphne Dog and tied her to the railroad tracks! What are you going to do?" And Awesome Possum plays dead.

Just for the record, the ostrich's hiding its head in the sand thing is a myth. Cute superheroes nevertheless, though. :- )

bucdaddy, it truly pains me to see that you don't like Ghostbusters, a movie I honestly think is one of the funniest of all time. Hopefully it's because you haven't seen it in a long time. Do me a favor, and give it another shot... this time, ignore all of the mainstream, "he slimed me" humor, and focus on Murray's subtle sarcasm, Ramis's nerdy genius and... just... just try it again? For me?

Another classic. "Am I right, or am I right or am I right? Right? Right? Right?"
sandman: good point, groundhog day is a cross-quarter day. Also used to be THE major goddess celebration on the pagan calendar. Then the goddess Brigid was appropriated as St. Brigid and it suddenly became a Christian holiday. But that was a long time ago and now the holiday is actually coming back to its original spring-forecasting roots.

Sorry TK, I can't agree with you that this is the stupidest holiday. Isn't it nice, in the shittiest winter month, to realize that spring is actually coming?

Phil Connors: Excuse me, where is everyone going?
Fan on Street: To Gobbler's Knob. It's Groundhog Day.
Phil Connors: It's still just once a year, right?
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Phil: Ned, I would love to stay here and talk with you... but I'm not going to.
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Phil: Commander, what's going on?
State Trooper: There's nothing going on. We're closing the road. Big blizzard moving in.
Phil: What blizzard? It's a couple flakes.
State Trooper: Don't you listen to the weather? We got a major storm here.
Phil: I make the weather! All this moisture coming up out of the Gulf will push off to the east and hit Altoona.
State Trooper: Pal, you got that moisture on your head. You can go back to Punxsutawney or you can freeze to death. It's your choice. What's it gonna be?
Phil: [pauses] I'm thinking...
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There are many more. This is definitely a film that grows on you. Never seen anything like it. Every time it comes on I get sucked in.
One scene that stands out is the snowball fight. I remember he starts loosing it the more times he tries to make the night go right. In the last snowball fight he comes across as a maniacal lunatic trying to keep his composure. Classic, for sure.

Another one-
Psychiatrist: You know, I think we should meet again. How does tomorrow sound?
Phil: (has a pillow over his face and starts thumping the pillow)
Psychiatrist: Is that not good?

"Yeah, they're hicks, Rita."

I don't know what your doing right now, but can you cancel it?

Wellllllllll ... maybe for you, TK, but ONLY for you. I skipped a chance, tho, couple weeks ago. Second-run theater in my town was showing GB on the big screen (or what passes for a big screen in a big old one-screen Gothic Castle theater that got carved up into three screens). If it shows up there again, like Rocky Horror does once a month, I'll make the effort. For you. Only for you ;)

Other lines from GB that I remember and just don't think are that funny:

"We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!"

"Do you want this body?"
"Is this a trick question?"

But I'll grant that I'm probably forgetting other, more subtle deadpan one-liners.

For old Murray, I'm a much bigger fan of Caddyshack (of course) and, for some reason, Stripes. At least most of Stripes, up until they go rampaging into East Germany to rescue Sgt. Hulka, when things go very very flat.

Thanks.

God, I HATE Caddyshack. Lame!

But I looove this movie. Great review!!