Groundhog Day [DVD] [2002]

This is a film that ought to be compulsory for everyone to watch - there are a lot of those - but the mixture of philosophical drama, slapstick comedy and the romantic feel-good factor is just right. Although Murray plays his character with comic gusto and there is never a dull moment when he's on-screen, the poignant, terrifying and lengthy process of his redemption shocks the viewer into the realisation that this is not, strictly speaking, a comedy film. It is, however, a testament to the cast and the directors that it manages to keep its pace and sense of humour and doesn't turn into a leaden moralising mass. Although Americans can't make a war film about another country's war, they can do this kind of magical fiction about their own society. What is good about the setting and the people in it is that it is so believable - despite "Hairdo" at the beginning, the cast is full of the misfits and weirdos very rarely seen in American productions. Murray is not a clean-cut kid, and in his very smugness at the beginning is ten times the character that Andie Macdowell is, and since her Rita too is flesh and blood, that is saying an awful lot. Too many ordinary heroines would fall for Phil Connors' womanising and his too-hasty attempts to gratify her, both while he is still manipulating various townswomen into sleeping with him and after he has begun to realise that he should start to treat women (in particular) better. Although Rita is a liitle saccharine-sweet at the beginning, she knows herself and Phil enough by the end to come across in a better light. Eventually you begin waiting with baited breath for 6am, to see whether Phil has made it out or whether he must live yet another day. And the final scene does keep you in suspense just a moment longer as the clock ticks over one last time from 5.59 to 6.00... The director calculates in the commentary that to become as good a piano/synth player as Phil Connors ends up, he'd need to spend at least ten years in his loop cycle - and that's not including what has gone before he takes his first piano lesson. That's the scariest part about it, and when you watch the included documentary and listen to the commentary (which is essentially watching the film over again, as the director takes care not to speak over the dialogue) you begin to realise the enormous amount of thought that went into the production of this. One frame does cut to a shot of the "Woodstock Jewellers" - showing up the fact that this was actually filmed in a small town in Illinois, as the real Punxatawney is not as picturesque as the film requires the town to be - but otherwise the illusion is firmly implanted in th e viewers' minds. Sadly the problem with the car chase scenes is that - if the roads are so good after a blizzard strong enough to close the freeway out of town, couldn't he just try to leave? Although it raised a question in my mind, the effect is only slight and if you are fully absorbed in what must be the most gripping film I've ever watched, then you'll hardly notice. The DVD (my Collector's Edition at any rate) comes with a lovely set of extras, including a full range of dub languages and subtitles. I watched it through in English with Polish subtitles (I speak this fluently and find it good to learn more colloquialisms by this method) but heck, if you wanted to try, say Italian with Hungarian or French with Czech, you could end up watching the film a hundred times - which really would be a Groundhog Day experience. Also when you click on a menu item the cursor changes from 5.59 to 6.00, which is a classic touch and which more DVDs should have.

How many films do you know start with a premise that is outrageously impossible, undoubtedly reducing the cast to hysterics, let alone the audience, and yet have such a deep, no, forget that, DEEP message. This film wants to teach us so many things. I can't believe that it made me laugh so much, while in a way, slapping me hard around the face in doing so... I bear tribute to the skills of the madman that brought this into being. Essentially, what happens, is that a bored weatherman drops inot a provincial (real) town called Puxatawny, not realising that his life, as he knows it, is about to be turned upside down. He slowly realises, to his horror, that he somehow cannot help but re-live this one day over and over... and over again. Boring? Forget it. Bill Murray is hysterical; after seeing this the fifth time or so I ached all over; I needed a hankerchief, I laughed so much. Bill is like me so badly that I can't look at this straight without getting at least six sevenths paranoid. So how does the director KNOW ME SO WELL? Well, I think that he knew Bill Murray, who plays the part amazingly well, veering from smart and savvy, impossibly funny, to lost and scared, to cynical (the incident with the police car just cracks my eldest son up totally). Then it gets dark; Phil gets lonely and morbid, and it is odd to see just how far this is played by Murray, seemingly prepared to follow a dark path with a very bad destiny. But no, it isn't to be that way; he finds, or is shown... a way out. This is frankly when I get a bit shaky. When bill/phil finds that the way out of misery and despair is ... to truly love ... then my knees start to knock a bit and I need the tissues again. Because this is truly the touch from heaven, whether it is mentioned or not; certainly the touch of the Almighty (who does not appear on the credits especially. But he's there). This is where the film gets epic, and the miraculous is right there in front of you; Everything bill / phil touches suddenly is set alight; people live better lives, or simply don't die that day; one old man is saved a lonely death; quite a lot of amazing things in fact. I have to say that the film at this point is truly transcendent, and unlike almost anything else; it becomes simply astonishing, and lights up with tremendous power and beauty. The ending is, of course when Bill/phil is no longer thinking about himself. It ends unapologetically on a truly happy note that perhaps never could happen in real life. Or could it? It's too good to be true - it's ridiculous, but by then you don't care because the better half of you knew that it was impossible from the beginning, but that is no excuse - who cares? What matters about the impossible if no one else is watching? It's brilliant - more than it should be - almost like being in love? I need a run around the block now. That's quite enough...

Groundhog Day is one of those films you can watch again and again — clever, funny and surprisingly heartwarming. A true feel-good classic that never gets old. The DVD quality is great too.

I had seen bits and pieces of this film for the first time on TV one day, and had been hoping to see the whole thing ever since. I finally decided to stop waiting for a re-run and buy it. I'm sure I'll want to see it again anyway. The plot is unique, about living the same day over and over again. There are some things that are a little hard to believe, but all in all it is well-done and portrays the important changes that occur in a person when he is given a second (and third, fourth, fifth) chance to live one day of his life. We would all be better people if we tried to do all the good that we could every day. At the same time, there is plenty of humour to keep one smiling throughout. I would have given it five stars if it hadn't been for the scene where he takes advantage of a woman knowing there will be no consequences; it could have been a great family movie for all ages if it hadn't been for that.

Le tenía cierto recelo por ser una película de romance, pero me tragué mis palabras al verla, es una gran película que resuelve muy bien sus primicias, no es pretenciosa y la trama se desenvuelve de forma magistral, un clásico que no tiene desperdicio.

Il video e buono e anche il sonoro la storia e stupenda con una sua morale lo consiglio

Dvd arrived early and was in perfect condition! this movie is classic Bill Murray...many chuckles throughout... Thank you

I got this for Christmas because I had not seen it before. There are so many references to this movie in popular culture that it is important to see it. Of course, there have been a number of other movies since that employ the time loop gimmick, but this is the one everyone refers to. The movie itself is enjoyable. A cute reluctant romance. All in all it’s a must see.

What a beautiful "Twilight Zone" movie this is. The story line centers on the spiritual metamorphosis of Bill Murray's character, Phil Conners; a cynical and unhappy weatherman, who endures a near endless number of consecutive Groundhog Days on his journey to the good life. When Phil becomes trapped in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania, following a freak snow storm that flies in the face of his faulty weather forecast, he appears destined to remain there, reliving the same February 2nd over and over again. While all those around him are oblivious to his initially frustrating, later depressing, but ultimately liberating, humour-ridden predicament. One night, Phil finds himself in a bar, complaining to a couple of the local patrons, "Well what would you do if everyday you got up, and everything was the same, and nothing ever changed; nothing you did mattered?" After pondering the question for a few moments, one of the guys chimes in with, "Well, that about sums it up for me!" When I first saw this movie back in 1993,I immediately loved it. But one of my younger brothers was bothered by the repetitiousness of it, and didn't much care for the film overall. Sometime around the year 2000, he heard a couple of DJs discussing it on the radio, and calling it as a "cult classic". Whereupon my brother decided to watch it a second time. The second time, he got it! It was also around this time that I realized I'd missed some things from when I'd first watched it, and began watching it repeatedly. Convinced I'd discover even greater insights into how to live a better life. Friends I was living with at the time found my doing this hilarious.