Review of Groundhog Day (1993) by Nick E — 13 Nov 2012

This is a really enjoyable film and is probably Bill Murray's best movie in my opinion. (even better than Ghostbusters.) It stars Bill Murray as a very obnoxious and egocentric weatherman from Pittsburgh named Phil Connors who is put on assignment to cover the "Groundhog Day" event in Puxsutawney Pennsylvania.

Phil has done coverage of this annual celebration for four years and hates every minute in the small boring town and is always trying to leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately for him however, a blizzard roles in and forces him to stay till the next day.

At 6:00a.m the next morning, Phil wakes up to the radio broadcasters stating that it is February 2nd, Groundhog Day. Of course this comes as a bit of a shock to Phil who is even more surprised when he sees that all of the decorations are still up and everyone is heading to the park to see the unveiling of the groundhog.

As he talks with many of the townsfolk and his film crew, he realizes that he is the only one who knows about the day before and that it is still Groundhog Day his most hated time of the year. He wakes up the next day and realizes that every day from then on starting at 6:00a.

M would be Groundhog day and only he would be aware of the passing time. Throughout the movie, Phil begins to understand how the repeating system works and how he can use it as an advantage, for instance he will talk with women and learn much about their personal life one day and then the next day meet them as a complete stranger and act as if he has known everything about them for years as a high school friend of some kind in order to win their affection.

He also goes through fazes where he just does whatever he wants like stealing from the bank after memorizing the gaurd's routines that day, and being a complete A- hole during the broadcast of the unveiling of the groundhog knowing there will be no repercussions.

He even goes through a faze in which all he does is kill himself just to see if he wakes up at all. He tries to tell others, but no one ever believes him due to their acknowledgment of who he generally is.

It is a very funny and well written movie that has Bill Murray delivering his very dry and sarcastic humor he is known for as well as a good amount of situational humor. However, this is also a very heartwarming movie that could probably fit under romantic comedy as well, hell I think it should be considered a holiday classic even though it's a holiday that probably only 1 out of like 98 Americans actually celebrate wholeheartedly.

If you can go out and buy this one; it came out in 93 so you can probably go to a bargain bin in Walmart or Best Buy and find it for about 4 to 5 bucks easy, or at least give it a rent, it's a great movie to sit down with some friends or the family and enjoy.