Groundhog Day (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [1993]

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

I have to say that Groundhog day is one of my favourite comedies - one of those feel-good movies almost guaranteed to cheer you up on a rainy day. In terms of comedy, it delivers consistently - Bill Murray's lines are crisp as a Punxsutawney winter and his timing has really never been better. Harold Ramis also has to be congratulated for managing to play the trick of repeating the same scenes over and over again just enough that you get an idea of what hell Phil Connors is going through without it becoming an irritation (as I found it did with the more serious film "Memento").

Murray's character seems effortlessly at home in the lead role who at times both offends with his arrogance and amuses with his razor sharp wit. It's no surprise then to note that in his director's commentary, Ramis notes that Bill Murray's own changeable character is not a million miles away from the incorrigible Phil Connors.

It's to Murray's (and Ramis's) credit that we fully emphasise with Murray's transition when, as each new day seems to remain February 2nd, he becomes at first baffled, then drunk with the power to do what he wants and then lonely, depressed and suicidal before he realises what life is really about and tries to turn his life around.

In that there's a little message for all of us living out our own little groundhog days. I particularly enjoy the moment where Phil (crying into his beer with his new-found drunk friends) begins complaining about his lot: "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and everyday was exactly the same and nothing that you did ever mattered?" he says, fishing for sympathy. His friend weighs up his life stuck in a dead end job in Punxsutawney and says with a drunkard's irony: "That just about sums it up for me". Priceless.

I'd recommend you buy Groundhog day and put it on one lazy Sunday. I'll guarantee you'll play it again and again. You just won't have to play it every day (unless you really want to). My only negative comment is that the DVD package itself is not very inspiring and the menu itself just a little embarassingly twee.


Great plot, great philosophy, great comedy   March 29, 2000
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Bill Murray plays a not too sympathetic TV weatherman who's suddenly stuck in a snowy town he hates to be in. He's stuck there because he wakes up morning after morning at 6 a.m. to the same day, February 2, Groundhog Day.

He just can't escape, he's there, in the same place, whereas everybody else live through this February 2 for the first time.

He experiments with this life of his. He tries to be evil, tries to be over-good, tries not to care, tries to care too much, tries to commit suicide in all possible ways.

Until he decides to live. To exploit all the positive and creative possibilities of living and not growing older and not having people blame or praise him for what he did yesterday (today!).

An interesting philosophical experiment, more intense than other movies that play with similar thoughts.


This is the stuff that dreams were made of!   December 8, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Have you ever wanted to be able to relive a day in your life? Ever thought what would be possible if you got trapped in time? Well this is it. Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell are fantastic in their parts of a depressed weatherman and the woman he falls in love with. As the film progresses you see more and more of the way Harold Ramis has fantasised about having an endless day, and the humour in the film is sublime. I particularly enjoyed watching Murray's character develop within the small US community, and with fantastic fillers such as Ned and Larry, how could you resist?

MAKE SURE YOU WATCH THIS FILM ESPECIALLY IF YOU LOVE GOOD EASY COMEDY.


A modern classic - feel good rom com   November 30, 2009
Fiction Fan (Madchester)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is one of those films you can watch over and over again and still enjoy - somewhat like the main character (Bill Murray) re-living that one day in his life until he gets it right. Knowing how things turn out doesn't detract from the fun.
There's an element of wish fulfillment in there - who wouldn't want to relive some part of their life over and over until they got it right? but the cast are so engaging, the writing so good and the story so entertaining that it's hard to fault.
Probably Bill Murray's greatest film role (and maybe Andi Macdowell's too - although she was good in Four Weddings and a Funeral, if that's your kind of film).
Recommended.


Cultural Phenomenon   February 14, 2009
Martin Turner (Marlcliff, Warwickshire, England)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Medic: "Sometimes people just die". Connors: "Not today."
The death of the old vagrant, and Phil Connors's inability to save him, is the turning point of what is at the same time one of the funniest films ever made, and a redemption narrative about a man who is so utterly self-centred that it takes him the same day a thousand times to change his life.

"Groundhog Day" is, in essence, one gag repeated over and over again until it becomes an utterly unforgettable experience. Phil Connors (Bill Murray), Channel 9 Pittsburgh's weather man, is trapped by a blizzard he failed to predict in the tiny town of Punxsutawney, and condemned to repeat the same day almost for ever, until he finally gets it right. In the meantime, he first experiments with the power of immortality, before trying, and failing, to win the hand of producer Rita (Andie MacDowell). Failure takes him to the point of suicide, which he tries in dozens of forms, only to wake to the clock tumbling down onto 6:00 am and the same radio track, back at the start of Groundhog Day. But it's his encounter with a vagrant on his last legs that transforms him. Getting him to the hospital too late, he is unable to save him that day, and all his efforts on the subsequent repeats fail to do anything more than give the man a better death. Unable to save one life, Phil sets out to save every other life and every other day in Punxsutawney, by which means he finally wins the heart of Rita, and thus completes the day and makes it onto the next one.

By far the funniest movie of the nineties, Phil Connors was a part made in heaven for Bill Murray, giving him full rein to express his sarcastic, cynical wit, and then to to explore his softer, human side. Andie MacDowell has really never been better.

There are lots of movies which are worth watching again, and at the last count I've watched this one at least a dozen time, but Groundhog Day has the unique attribute of being the only movie that you feel like you've watched a dozen times even when you've only seen it once. My brother in law once watched the movie four times in the same night, for the ultimate in temporally disorienting experience.

Groundhog Day is more than a movie. It's become a cultural phenomenon, so that one needs to do no more than mention it, and everyone knows what you are saying: "It's like Groundhog Day", is an expression of the very worst of self-repeating fiasco.

Groundhog Day is one of my all time favourite films, and one of my top two comedies (the other is The Blues Brothers). An absolutely top recommendation if you've never watched it, and one of the best films of any kind to own rather than rent.