IMDb #216 Review: Groundhog Day (1993)

Source: Wikipedia

What if you had all the time in the world to do whatever you want? No, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.

Of course, there’s a catch. You’re Bill Murray (hooray!), playing himself but as a prima donna weatherman and not an acclaimed actor/screenwriter/party-crasher. Also, it’s still the 1990s, and you’re inexplicably trapped in a twenty-four hour timeloop in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on February 2nd.

Stir up this weird batter, bake for 102 minutes, and presto! Comedy.

All this happens, more or less.

Phil the weatherman (yes, the same name as the groundhog, stop asking) wants what he doesn’t have. Happiness. Respect. The affection of his sweet female co-worker. When he drops into an endless recursion of time, he resorts to a timeless video game tactic: save scumming. He reloads “old saves” until the desired result, the “perfect end.”

Not without a montage of failures. He pigs out, picks up chicks, flirts with suicide, then always glitches back to the original save point.

Only his memories survive, even if injuries and consequences don’t. So he uses the excess time to learn useless but entertaining skills, unlike folks who spend time reading movie review blogs.

Thus a cynic, who can’t score with the Grim Reaper, transforms into a charismatic superman whose bachelorhood sells for $339.88.

Finally, the true message surfaces. Be nice, or who knows what arbitrary horrors the cruel universe might inflict upon your sad wad of conscious particles.

Horrors such as having this review reposted every day for the rest of the year.

102 minutes.