What should be a winning formula, with Ramis directing and Murray starring, manages to turn into one long drag.
Murray plays a cynical TV Weatherman, reporting in a small town on their Groundhog Day celebrations. He finds himself stuck there, reliving the same day over and over again, and therefore able to manipulate the events he knows are coming.
If this had remained a straight comedy things may have worked, but the film decides to cloak itself in a social message aura and tries to make some far-reaching preachy comments. What life was in the basic premise soon wears thin and the film drags itself along for the remaining hour or so.
The film seems to be universally admired so maybe I'm not enlightened enough to fully appreciate it. It presumably has an element which hits a nerve with a certain audience - with me it didn't just miss the mark, it missed the entire block.
Murray plays a cynical TV Weatherman, reporting in a small town on their Groundhog Day celebrations. He finds himself stuck there, reliving the same day over and over again, and therefore able to manipulate the events he knows are coming.
If this had remained a straight comedy things may have worked, but the film decides to cloak itself in a social message aura and tries to make some far-reaching preachy comments. What life was in the basic premise soon wears thin and the film drags itself along for the remaining hour or so.
The film seems to be universally admired so maybe I'm not enlightened enough to fully appreciate it. It presumably has an element which hits a nerve with a certain audience - with me it didn't just miss the mark, it missed the entire block.