Groundhog Day - Film Review
Groundhog Day is directed by Harold Ramis and stars Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliot.
Plot
Phil (Bill Murray), a weatherman, is sent cover the story of the annual emergence of the "rat" from its hole. He gets caught in a blizzard that he didn't predict and finds himself trapped in a time warp. He is forced to relive the same day over and over again until he improves himself.
Review
Ok, so I watched this for the first time today, and I have to say that it is really good.
I'm not entirely sure (like usual) where to start with the movie, so I'll just list off random stuff about the movie until I decide to wrap this up.
Groundhog Day is considered to be an allegory of self-improvement, which is why Phil is an arrogant jerk but later becomes a good person at the end. Harold Ramis , who directed and co-wrote Groundhog Day, said that he never intended the movie be anything more than a good, heartfelt, entertaining story". I can see that, I wasn't coming up with many theories about the movie, I was just entertained.
The movie does not explain why or how the time loop stops, how long it is, and how it ends, as only 38 days are shown in the movie. There are many theories as to how long Phil was in the time loop, in an original draft Phil was stuck in the time loop for 10,000 years. I've read online that in the DVD commentary Harold Ramis says that he was stuck for 10 years, but sometime after the DVD commentary was made he said "I think the 10-year estimate is too short. It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything, and allotting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years."
A blogger named "Wolf Gnards" on his now removed website calculated how long Phil was in the loop, and he came to the conclusion that he spent eight years, eight months, and 16 days in the loop. WhatCulture also did their own calculations and said that he was in the loop for just under 34 years.
Bill Murray and Harold Ramis had so much trouble working on this movie that they actually stopped talking to each other for about 20 years. They finally made up shortly before Harold Ramis died in 2014. Before this, they had collaborated on a lot of stuff like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters 1 and 2, and Stripes.
There's actually quite a bit of funny moments, like Phil driving with Phil (groundhog), Phil's rather dark but funny suicide montage, Phil and Rita's (Andie MacDowell) snowball fight with the kids, Larry (Chris Elliot) being "bought" by an old woman at an auction, Needlenose Ned, Phil casually explaining to Rita that he is a god, Phil constantly waking up to that same radio broadcast, French poetry, and some others. I personally think that the movie really starts to pick up is when Phil is in the car with these two drunks and starts crashing into everything, trying to outrun the cops, and drives on the railroad tracks.
Let's talk about the cast, Bill Murray is great as Phil, he's a jerk in the beginning, but he slowly starts to improve himself over time, you do start to grow on him as the film goes on.
Andie MacDowell is good as Rita. I can't think of much to say as she works with Phil on the news and she is his love interest.
Chris Elliot is funny in parts as Larry but he is mostly just the news cameraman.
Overall, Groundhog Day is a really good movie, it's good, heartfelt, and entertaining. I think you should check it out if you haven't.
Groundhog Day gets an 8.5/10
Previous review - Mary and the Witch's Flower
Next review - Cloverfield
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