Don’t drive angry
Phil Connors is an unhappy man. He is a weatherman who has outlived the usefulness of his job. He wants a change, but can’t see one until he he gets past his annual meeting with a certain groundhog in a small town called Punxsutawney. Having to travel every year to shoot a news story in the town, completely focusing on the groundhog that determines if there is gonna be an early spring or six more weeks of winter, he presents the situation as drab and boring (maybe a bit pointless as well). Ready to get the hell out of town, Phil soon finds himself stuck in the backwards town thanks to a blizzard that he assured folks wouldn’t occur. Armed with his camera man, Larry, and his producer, Rita, Phil tries to find a way to enjoy the 24 hours of his life while he’s stuck. Regretfully, those 24 hours of Phil’s life suddenly start to repeat over and over again until Phil can’t stand it anymore. He can’t hurt himself, he can’t die, there are no consequences to his actions, but he continues to live the same day repeatedly.
Bill Murray’s role as Phil Connors could not have been a more perfect match for Harold Ramis’ film. Murray, as Ramis mentioned in the special features section of this Blu-ray, can play both happy and angry, but you could never tell which one he was. That uncertainty, that cynical approach to life help to define Phil Connors as a solid character. It also helped to generalize what a good portion of people’s lives tend to fall into. Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis wrote a wonderful story for this character, as they tried to show people that when life has gotten to a point where it’s so terrible that you can’t be happy, you must look outside yourself to find inner-peace by making other’s lives better. There are a ton of morals in this small movie, all of which find a perfect place in everyone’s lives.
To this day, this movie still seems solid. It fits the bill and applies to life now as it did 15 years ago, quite frankly that makes me happy as a movie goer. If there were any complaints about the film it would be that it seemed a bit drawn out. It pushed the audience’s patience to the brink as it should have wrapped up a day or two earlier than expected. How can I say this? Well, the movie already establishes that Phil is continually repeating his day. The movie’s best point might be the cause of the complaint, as Phil must discover, with the audience, that he has to start thinking outside of his life to keep his life moving forward. It takes too long to establish the purpose, as it’s bordering on the edge of not happening. With that said, it still turns out well at the end.
HD as crisp as a winter breeze
The transfer from film to HD is good. I think that it sputters in some areas, as the 1080 doesn’t shine through as much as older movies that have been transferred. When I talked with the VP of Blu-ray for Sony Picture Home Entertainment, Rich Marty, at CES this year he said that the transfer quality varies from film to film, depending on format. I think that this film certainly falls into a 75% good category when it comes to that HD transfer. It’s much better than the DVD, but there are some areas where the line between HD and film blur a bit. Mostly in the darker scenes. As for the audio, nothing but good stuff here as you get TrueHD 5.1. You’ll be singing ‘I Got You Babe’ before you know it.
As for the features, here’s what you get:
– Needle Nose Ned’s Picture-in-Picture Track: This is hilarious! I love that guy, he’s pretty much great in all his films. I’ll always know him as Needle Nose. Entertaining, more than any other P-in-P that I’ve seen.
– Audio Commentary with Director Harold Ramis: I could listen to him all the time. Interesting man, fantastic writer, here’s praying he’ll be helping to push the next Ghostbuster film.
– A Different Day: An Interview with Harold Ramis: He gives some great insight about the film and what went into it. A truly entertaining featurette.
– The Weight of Time Documentary: Really good stuff.
– The Study of Groundhogs: A Real Life Look at Marmots: Oh, it is what it is. Cute at most.
– Deleted Scenes: There’s always a reason why scenes are deleted.
Overall, I think half the features here are worth you time, the other half are optional. I like that they did include some insightful views about the film and tried to make it more than just another movie put out on Blu-ray. A good set of features.