#A PERFECT DAY THE MOVIE HOW TO#
#A PERFECT DAY THE MOVIE MOVIE#

Lancaster: “I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen.”Īnd my favorite, when Phil is drinking in the bowling alley with the two locals: “This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.” “OK, rise and shine, campers, and don’t forget your booties ‘cause it’s coooold out there today.” One is The Lady Eve and the other is Groundhog Day. There are two movies I know almost by heart.

#A PERFECT DAY THE MOVIE MOVIE#

You know a movie script is special when you catch yourself cribbing heavily from its dialogue in everyday conversation. My wife and I have each gotten the date of our wedding anniversary wrong more than once, but we both know that come Feb.2, we’ll be curling up with Groundhog Day. We can’t stop watching, laughing, counting (there are 38 days depicted, Rita slaps Phil 10 times), pondering and puzzling, and then, like the all-night carolers in Punxsutawney, going back and doing it over again. As with all great movies, its truth are immutable and its fans are obsessive. But that wouldn’t be a Harold Ramis movie.Īt the Analyze This press junket, a writer told the director that his niche had become “goofy redemption comedy.” What distinguished Ramis was his insistence that laughs could be cheap but they had to be real: the humor in this movie always arises out of the characters-if different characters said the same lines, they wouldn’t be funny at all.

#A PERFECT DAY THE MOVIE HOW TO#

And very few directors have known more about how to get laughs. He co-wrote the script (even co-authored the hilariously peppy song that plays under the credits ). That said, Groundhog Day is Ramis’s movie. But truly, cast and crew are all peerless. Andie MacDowell is a charming foil, and Stephen Tobolowsky is the perfect insurance salesman from hell. Bill Murray did his best work as the cynical, smartass weatherman Phil Connors (who blessedly, though he achieves enlightenment over the course of the story, never stops being a smartass). Danny Rubin’s original script provided the concept.

Movies, of course, are collaborative ventures. Irony of ironies, no matter how often you hit repeat, this story of a man living the same day over and over just keeps getting better. For my money, you have to go back to Preston Sturges’s ’40s comedies to find its equal. But Groundhog Day is in a class by itself.

Ramis made a lot of funny movies, including Animal House, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, and Analyze This.

A perfect day the movie