Groundhog Day 1993

For a mainstream comedy it’s a little more high concept and clever than you might expect. Bill Murray in the lead role is perfection, it makes the whole movie work. His deadpan and dry sense of humour works brilliantly with this concept, and there’s a lot of well executed set-ups, gags and jokes on top of that. They pretty much do everything with the concept you could think of, because of that it never feels too repetitive or slow (which is the type of issue that can easily occur with time loop films). I love how the protagonist develops a god complex and eventually becomes a nihilistic, depressed asshole, which barely even registers to the viewer as the darkness is all buried under the schmaltzy, feel good tone. I’m less into the third act, however, as everything resolves in a way that’s a bit predictable and basic for my taste. I understand that it’s a holiday film, but it’s not the type of story where you want a ‘and they lived happily ever after’ type of ending. Moreover, I think the directing is fairly weak and continuously drags it down from being great. It looks flat and uncinematic, it’s got one of those scores that tells you how to feel at every turn and the acting of the supporting cast is all over the place. Still a fine watch overall, but definetely not the classic people pretend it is.

5.5/10

Doesn't everybody know this one? Bill Murray plays a generally bitter, unpleasant weatherman who turns on the charm while the cameras roll but tumbles backward into mean, icy sarcasm just as soon as he's out of the frame. Forced to relive the same day on an endless loop, a much-loathed Groundhog's Day on-location report, he slowly works through his issues, loses the chip on his shoulder, finds personal fulfillment and learns how to share a meaningful moment. It's a simple idea, thoughtfully explored, that doesn't run short on heart, ideas or surprises.

Murray is perfect in the role, able to convincingly evolve from contemptible jerk to charismatic goofball, but it's the in-between steps that really make his journey remarkable. His growth doesn't come without pains and struggles, missteps and setbacks, and we share his agony over those tough lessons and bitter disappointments. By the time his sentence in that circular purgatory is at an end, he's hit rock bottom, explored his darkest impulses, reached out for salvation, failed, improved and found peace within himself.

Andie MacDowell is adorable as Murray's co-star, the ever-optimistic, spritely target of our affections, while director Harold Ramis gives the whole package a warm, friendly sensibility that keeps things on the up-and-up and still allows some wickedly dark material to sneak through. A fantastic, character-driven comedy with laughs to spare and sweet, enduring lessons to teach. Worthy of annual viewings.

26 years ago, a groundbreaking film came out that revolutionized the very way that we see film…well…maybe not. Groundhog Day isn’t even the first film of its kind, though it can be seen as one of the first in the subgenre of time loops. Regardless, Groundhog Day is definitely the most notebale, memorable and popular time loop movie that has ever existed, and it’ll probably remain that way for years to come. Think about it. How often does a time loop film come out and the first words that come out of your mouth compares it to this movie? Happy Death Day is often referred to as the horror version of Groundhog Day (there is actually several horror time loop films out there).

So, I am starting a new theme/blogathon. It will be on every time loop film that I can get my hands on, and Groundhog Day will simply be the baseline test, since it is the movie everyone talks about within this subgenre. I will then attempt to watch the other movies in the subgenre. When researching films. I was only able to come up with 31 movies ever made that follow the same basic idea, but some of those are impossible to find. We shall see how far I get. I already have a review on Groundhog Day, but it has been several years since I’ve revisited the movie, so I thought it was pertinent to see how it scores with my newer rating system.

PEOPLE – 15/20 (75%)

Acting – 2/4|Characters – 2/4|Casting – 4/4|Importance – 3/4|Chemistry – 4/4

The people score did a decent job with everything, but it is important to note where things could’ve been improved. Being a dramedy, there are plenty of moments where the acting could’ve technically been better, but wasn’t. So, as far as the range actually goes, it mostly stays the same throughout. You also remember this movie for the concept alone, as well as who is in the movie, not for their characters. Looking at the characters on their own, nothing about their appearance, the way they sound, or any skill or talent of theirs is memorable, they are virtually all just fictional versions of their actor counterparts. Not bad, but the characters aren’t the reason you watch the movie (the most memorable character is Ned the Head). As far as importance goes, nobody has any independent character goals in the film apart from Phil broadly wanting to escape his personal hell, so nobody really has importance in the long run. That being said, most do have a certain influence on Phil, which helps him grow as a person, so it’s kind of important, that’s why it has three points. Everything else is perfect.

WRITING – 9/10 (90%)

Dialogue – 2/2|Balance – 1/2|Story Depth – 2/2|Originality – 2/2|Interesting – 2/2

Writing was near perfection for this film. The only issue found came down to how balanced the film is and feels. Like mentioned previously, no character really has a character goal, the film mostly just follows around Phil as he attempts to first figure out what’s happening and then…just…has fun with it. There’s no real clear path or direction, which means no end in sight. This comes to an imbalanced narrative. Everything else in the category is fine and dandy. Dialogue is memorable, as people still quote this movie, this is a bit of a coming-of-age film, which is often the type of film to have good story depth, and there is plenty of intrinsic value to it, and as far as interesting goes, I am always interested to see the movie, and my interest continues tbrought viewing the movie.

BTS – 9/10 (90%)

Visuals – 2/2|Cinematography – 1/2|Editing – 2/2 |Advertising – 2/2|Music/Sound – 2/2

There are a couple of main things you need to realize about this score for behind-the-scenes. The first thing is the full score for visuals. Obviously, it’s not exactly a visually-stunning movie, so where did I get that score? My score for visuals goes deeper than visual or practical effects. It also looks at lighting, hair, makeup, and production design as well, and because the town of Punxsutawney is practically a character in the film, that’s specific focus on the production design, which explains my score. Another thing I wanted to point out is editing. The editing is clearly well-done because the director shot scenes over and over again in the same locations and the editor had to sort through those shots and sort them out sequentially to tell a story that actually makes sense, and they did. Everything else is mostly self-explanatory here.

NARRATIVE ARC – 9/10 (90%)

Introduction – 2/2|Inciting Incident – 2/2|Obstacles – 1/2|Climax – 2/2|Falling Action – 2/2

This is a largely self-explanatory category, but I will tell you why obstacles only got half points. Because no character had an independent goal, nobody was trying to get from Point A to Point B, so there was nothing in the way of them getting them to that point. In other words, there were no obstacles. There was only one main obstacle, which of course, was the time loop itself, which isn’t quite as strong as a typical selection of obstacles commonly found in any other movie.

ENTERTAINMENT – 8/10 (80%)

Rewatchability – 2/2|Fun Experience – 2/2|Impulse to Buy – 2/2|Impulse to Talk About|Sucks You In – 0/2

My subcategory for sucking the audience in, when broken down, essentially comes down to how much you have to remind yourself to blink while watching it. Do you find yourself needing to hold your bladder, even when you have the ability to pause a movie because it is just that engaging? It happens a lot in film, but does it happen here? Not really. It’s a fun, entertaining movie, but that’s all I can say about that – it doesn’t deeply engage you in any way. Everything else in this category passes with flying colors. We’ve all rewatched the movie a million times, you generally have a good time watching it, I have an impulse to buy it, as I have bought it a couple of times throughout the years, and if you find out a friend of yours hasn’t seen it, you impulsively want to start a movie night specifically to make sure they see it.

SPECIALTY – 40/40 (100%)

Bill Murry – 10/10 | Comedy – 10/10 | Time Loop – 10/10| Halfway Decent – 10/10

As a Bill Murry movie, it’s rather safe to say this is a movie people will mention if somebody brings the actor up in random conversation, as this is one of his most famous and notable movies in his entire career, so that gets a full score. When it comes to comedy, that is extremely difficult to score, since comedy is very subjective, but it does a pretty decent job at displaying what Bill Murray is famous for, sarcastic and passive aggressive humor – and the lines are memorable, so that also gets full points. As a time loop film, it is the most recognizable movie in the entire subgenre, full points, and yes, the movie still stands strong by today’s standards, full points everywhere!

Total Score – 90%