Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1136 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-02-18
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Collector's Edition, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, Italian
• Subtitled in: Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic, Portuguese, Hungarian, Italian, French, German, Turkish, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Danish, Dutch, English, Hebrew, Spanish, Hindi, Bulgarian, Polish, Swedish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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).

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Special Features
Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
Region 2

Customer Reviews

Day, after day, after day, after day.......
This is one of my all-time favorites. Bill Murray is simply perfect in the role of cynical, sarcastic and disillusioned weatherman gone bad. Though a comedy, the film does have a moral twist. But buy it for the fun stuff, it's absolutely hilarious. Then see it again, and again, and again....

You have to love it...
It's not a 'great movie' with a spectacular or even clever plot but it's so incredibly funny. Repetitive - no doubt, but that's the whole point...
This must have been a very cheap movie to make because they could probably just use every take of every scene they shot in the movie.

It's great comedy, and with some extra layers if you're willing to look for them. I do not like all Bill Murray movies - but in Groundhog day he's brilliant.

Bill Murray funny-bitter-twisted overload
I love this film, especially the thought of putting Bill Murray into a time loop until he has to resort to learning the piano and being nice!

A great film, with Bill Murray being his normal hilariously grumpy self, and everyone else around him going about their robotic ways day after day (except that it is the same day). It invites the viewer into a fantasy to ask "what would YOU do if you were stuck in a time loop?", (I would definitely push that annoying insurance salesman into the puddle, lol!) a bit like the hypothetical: "what would you do if you won the lottery?" that always comes up in conversation from time to time.

What an interesting idea - that we're stuck in a temporal loop, until we learn our lessons and learn how to get out. That sounds rather like reincarnation.

Anyway it's a fun entertaining film, with a wicked sense of humour.