Groundhog Day – Little Bits of Gaming & Movies

Little Bit of History: Written and directed by Harold Ramis, relased in 1993. In 2006, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. In June 2008, AFI acknowledged Groundhog Day as the eighth best film in the fantasy genre.

Little Bit of Plot/Story: Phil Connors, a self centred and arrogant Pittsburgh TV weatherman is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. However, he finds himself in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over, again and again.

Little Bit of Character: Murray plays Phil Connors with Andie MacDowell as love interest Rita Hanson. With Chris Elliott as Larry the camera man, Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned Ryerson. Even Bill’s brother, Brian Doyle-Murray appears as Buster Green.

Little Bit of Influence: In 2004, Italian film director Giulio Manfredonia shot a remake of Groundhog Day under the title of È già ieri (It’s Yesterday Already). The Tom Cruise starring film, Edge of Tomorrow is often cited as a Sci-Fi version of Groundhog Day. Plus a stage musical version of the film is scheduled to premiere in 2016.

Little Bit of Memories: I recall going to see this with my old pal, Paul with our friend Dean (at the Odeon cinema on New Street, Birmingham). If I remember correctly we were actually going to the cinema to watch something else, but that film had already started, so we decided to go watch Groundhog Day instead…and glad we did too. It was and still is an amazing film.

Little Bit of Watchability: Is this film still watchable? Oh yes, very much so. I actually find it a far better film now than I did back in the 90s. It’s brilliantly written and directed by Harold Ramis with Bill Murray on top form playing the awkward Phil Connors. If you have never seen Groundhog Day, you NEED to see this film right now.

Phil Connors: “What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.”

Please, also have a read of my Harold Ramis “In Memorandum”.

Little Bit of History: Written & directed by Harold Ramis, relased in 1993. In 2006, Groundhog Day was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and in June 2008, AFI acknowledged the film as the eighth best film in the fantasy genre.

Little Bit of Plot/Story: Phil Connors (Bill Murray), a self centred and arrogant Pittsburgh TV weatherman is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. However, he finds himself in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over, again and again.

Little Bit of Memories: I recall going to see this with my old pal, Paul with our friend Dean (at the Odeon cinema on New Street, Birmingham). If I remember correctly we were actually going to the cinema to watch another film entirely, but that film had already begun and we missed the start, so we decided to go watch Groundhog Day instead…and glad we did too. It was and still is an amazing film.

Little Bit of Watchability: Is this film still watchable? I would say very much so indeed. I actually find it a far better film now than I did back in the 90s. It’s a brilliantly written and directed picture Harold Ramis with Bill Murray on top form playing the cantankerous Phil Connors. If you have never seen Groundhog Day, you NEED to see this film right now.

Phil Connors: “This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”

Please, also have a read of my Harold Ramis “In Memorandum”.

Little Bit of Character: Bill Murray plays Phil Connors with Andie MacDowell as love interest and assistant Rita Hanson. With Chris Elliott as Larry the camera man, Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned Ryerson. Even Bill’s brother, Brian Doyle-Murray appears as Buster Green.

Little Bit of Influence: Italian film director Giulio Manfredonia shot a remake of Groundhog Day under the title of È già ieri (It’s Yesterday Already) in 2004. The Tom Cruise starring film, Edge of Tomorrow is often cited as a Sci-Fi version of Groundhog Day. Plus a stage musical version of the film is scheduled to premiere in sometime 2016.

Little Bit of Watchability: Is this film still watchable? Oh yes, very much so. I actually find it a far better film now than I did back in the 90s. It’s a brilliantly written and directed picture Harold Ramis with Bill Murray on top form playing the cantankerous Phil Connors. If you have never seen Groundhog Day, you NEED to see this film right now.

Phil Connors: “You want a prediction about the weather, you’re asking the wrong Phil. I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.”

Please, also have a read of my Harold Ramis “In Memorandum”.

To a lot of people, the name Harold Ramis won’t really won’t be too familiar.
But to many others, the name is one of the best comedy writer/directors of the 80s and 90s and also did a bit of acting along the way too.

While the name may not be one that stands out to some people, maybe one of his many acting roles would.

Yes, Harold Ramis played Dr. Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters.
But Ghostbusters is jumping ahead a little, so before I get too far ahead of myself, allow me to get back to the beginning and remember Harold Ramis correctly.

Born Harold Allen Ramis on November 21, 1944.
Harold was part of a group of comedians that all worked together that became known as The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in the 70s. With the likes of John Candy, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi among many others.
They were a comedy troupe that were taking American comedy into a new direction.

Ramis even became a joke editor for Playboy magazine.
Then in 1974 John Belushi brought Harold Ramis and other Second City performers, including Bill Murray, to New York City to work on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.
In 1976 Ramis became a performer and head writer of the late-night sketch-comedy television series SCTV.

Ramis eventually left SCTV to pursue a film career and wrote a script which would eventually become National Lampoon’s Animal House. Which went on to become the biggest comedy film of 1978.

Ramis next co-wrote the comedy Meatballs, starring Bill Murray and marked the start of a long term friendship between the two. His third film as a writer and his directorial début was Caddyshack relased in 1980.

Caddyshack went on to become one of the most loved comedies of the 80’s and once again featured Ramis friend, Bill Murray.
So what was next for Harold? In 1984, Ramis collaborated with Dan Aykroyd on the screenplay for Ghostbusters as well as it’s sequel, Ghosbusters II in 1989 in which he also acted alongside his friend Bill Murray.

Which brings me to quite possibly my personal favourite Harold Ramis/Bill Murray team up…

Written and directed by Harold Ramis, as well as making a cameo too. Groundhog Day is one of the very best comedy films of the 90’s

Alas, the Ramis/Murray friendship soured in the later years. In fact one of the main reasons we never got a Ghostbusters 3 was due to Ramis and Murray falling out in the mid 2000’s.
A friendship that was never fully repaired.

Ramis also wrote and directed the Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal starring Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That from 1999 & 2002 respectively.

In 2010, Ramis contracted an infection that resulted in complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis and lost the ability to walk. After relearning to walk he suffered a relapse of the disease in late 2011.

Harold Ramis died of complications of the disease on February 24, 2014 he was 69.

Harold Ramis: “Well, for me, it’s the relationship between comedy and life – that’s the edge I live on, and maybe it’s my protection against looking at the tragedy of it all. It’s seeing life in balance. Comedy and tragedy co-exist. You can’t have one without the other. I’m of the school that anything can be funny, if seen from a comedic point of view.”

Please also check out my Groundhog Day overview.

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