Groundhog Day (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2002]

Decent, lighthearted and fully amusing slapstick is hard to come by these days, and 1993's Groundhog Day manages to also be genuinely wise about the human condition. All this and belly laughs too! Bill Murray stars as Phil, a bored, petulant news reporter, who is ordered to give his annual live report from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on February 2. Though desperate to get out of the one-horse town and the appallingly sentimental assignment, Phil finds himself reliving the same day over and over again until he finally mends his ways. The film takes an absurd situation and explores its every imaginable comic possibility. Because none of the other characters are aware that Groundhog Day is continually repeating itself, Phil goes through a repertoire of responses, from conniving lust for Rita (Andie MacDowell) to gleeful nihilism to a Zen resignation worthy of Buster Keaton. Murray is reliably good, and this flick gives him a chance to be warm (though never fuzzy).

Bill Murray does warmth in Groundhog Day, a romantic fantasy about a wacky weatherman forced to relive one strange day over and over again, until he gets it right. Snowed in during a road-trip expedition to watch the famous groundhog encounter his shadow, Murray falls into a time warp that is never explained but pays off so richly that it doesn't need to be. Director Harold Ramis (who co-starred with Murray in Ghostbusters) takes an absurd situation and explores its every imaginable comic possibility. The elaborate loop-the-loop plot structure cooked up by screenwriter Danny Rubin is crystal-clear every step of the way, but it is Murray's world-class reactive timing that makes the jokes explode, and we end up looking forward to each new variation. Because none of the other characters are aware that Groundhog Day is continually repeating itself, Murray goes through a repertoire of responses, from conniving lust for Rita (Andie MacDowell) to gleeful nihilism to a Zen resignation worthy of Buster Keaton. Groundhog Day manages the rare feat of producing belly laughs in abundance and also being genuinely wise about the human condition. --David Chute, Amazon.com

On the DVD: the disc presents the movie in a 1.85:1 ratio and with Dolby surround sound. There are trailers for Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters and Multiplicity, along with filmographies for Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Andie McDowell and Chris Elliot. This remastered edition also comes with an extended documentary "The Weight of Time", which offers insights into the "European"-style script and production difficulties, but is a little over-lavish in its praise of the actors on set. Thought-provokingly, the documentary also touches upon the spiritual nature of the movie and what it has meant to an audience beyond being a simple comedy. Also included here is a director’s commentary by Ramis which, although informative, has too many long breaks and would surely have benefited from the addition of Bill Murray to the conversation. --Nikki Disney