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| Groundhog Day | 
| Category: Movie
Buy New: $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  349 reviews
Sales Rank: 1988
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 102 minutes
ASIN: B00170I7GG
Theatrical Release Date: February 11, 1993
Release Date: December 2, 2008 (New: This Week)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 This is a profoundly funny film February 5, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Bill Murray has done many funny films "The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)" and many profound films "The Razor's Edge" (1984). This film is profoundly funny. What would you do if you had all the time in the world? This movie covers just about everything you can think of.
Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a conceited self-serving weatherman. He gets caught in a time warp while covering the Groundhog Day events. Everyday becomes Groundhog Day. After exhausting all the fun things you can do, he has time to confront himself and reflect on what is important.
In "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990) people relate that environment to where they work.
Groundhog Day summed this up in one statement:
Phil Connors asks, "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?"
Ralph answers, "That about sums it up for me."
Michael ~ Andie MacDowell
An Hilarious Morality Play February 2, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This movie is that rare Hollywood production, a fine work of art. Ostensibly an ordinary comedy with a fantastical angle, the film is actually a felicitous combination of morality play and comedy. And it accomplishes that delicate balancing act between humor and pathos. It's laugh-out-loud funny. Besides, the technical mastery of continuity and timing that keeps the viewer interested through the obligatory repetition required for the theme of a man caught in a time loop, the story examines the ways and means we can play out our lives. Given enough time and trouble, we can choose one or a succession of methods with which to deal with such a predicament: disbelief, panic, realization, despair, opportunism, futility, self-awareness, and growth. The hero passes through all of these. The movie is a profound lesson on life without a sermon, with wit and humor, with only glimpses of melodrama, and most of all with the gift of hope. Despite the misery of this world, with a constant and continual effort to improve we can find the secret of existence, meaningful love, and the truth about ourselves. Unappreciated after its release, later seen as a sleeper, this minor masterpiece will in time become more widely appreciated and eventually an esteemed treasure.
It Never Gets Old February 2, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I watch this movie every Groundhog Day. The unique premise, the little details, the slow realization by Bill Murray's character that life is enriched by living each day fully.... Call me a sentimental old fool, but I love this movie.
My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I watch this movie every Groundhog Day. The unique premise, the little details, the slow realization by Bill Murray's character that life is enriched by living each day fully.... Call me a sentimental old fool, but I love this movie.
Almost Bill Murray's best comedy. January 29, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is very close to being Bill Murray's best film. You have to look to "Scrooged" for that. But lets face it, Bill was handicapped a bit here. First, he had to play opposite Andie McDowell. Unfortunately, Ms McDowell is just this side of a lump of clay as acting ability goes.
Second, the final act of the film. Murray has to be a nice guy. Not his forte by any means. And the rest of the cast has to pick up the "funny" for the remainder of the movie. Fortunately, by that time you've had such fun that you barely notice that flaw.
All in all, a very good movie that could've been great.
Add a Real Midwinter Holiday to your Life. January 20, 2008
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
By February, NOBODY is wishing for a white anything, but our holiday decorations have been put up for weeks. Wouldn't it be nice to have a midwinter feast that actually came in the middle of winter? Try Groundhog Day.
Groundhog Day is really an outgrowth of a medieval midwinter feast called Candlemas (as well as a host of pre-Christian traditions from Ireland and other European regions). So if you feel like you need one more holiday to get you through until spring, consider celebrating Groundhog Day. If you don't know about Groundhog Day, this movie is a good primer on how it is celebrated in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania every year. And, yes it has a sort of moral lesson, which is embedded with enough humor and charm to go down sweetly.
Bill Murray plays "Phil," an obnoxious big-city weatherman sent with his attractive, but distant producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for Groundhog's Day.
The plot really starts when Phil wakes up the next day to discover that it is Groundhog Day all over again. Incredulously, he relives the same events he went through the day before, then falls into bed exhausted and confused.
The next day is Groundhog Day again - the same day Phil just lived through. And so is the next day. Phil catches on and begins acting out his frustrations and using people, knowing he'll have no consequences. But, eventually, boredom and Phil's failure to make any headway with Rita convince him that "all is vanity."
Finally, two factors change Phil's attitudes toward life, toward other people, and even toward his strange situation.
First, Phil learns compassion through an old vagrant who dies in the street late at night, moving Phil to try to save him the next day and the next.
But the deepest change comes as Phil falls into real love for Rita. Though Rita awakes every day disliking the Phil she knew yesterday, Phil realizes a little more every day just what Rita could mean to him. If only he deserved her, that is.
Phil has already pretended to change. But when Phil realizes he really needs to change, he does. He learns to play piano. He reads good books. He even starts becoming kind to other people. By the movie's end, compassion and love have motivated Phil to become the person that he should have been all along. Apparently, all he needed was a little encouragement and an apparently infinite number of tries to get it right.
Too bad we don't get the same number of "redos" in life. Or do we?
Couldn't every day be a bit of a "redo" if we wanted it to be?
This movie is worth watching once a year. I HOPE the anniversary version is worth the extra investment, but as it's not out as I type this review, I don't really know. I do know that it's easy to see why the deleted scenes on the "Special Edition" didn't make it into the movie.
Happy Groundhog Day. Or did I just say that?
Paul Race, Editor, Family Christmas Online(tm)
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