Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #6 Groundhog Day

Box Office: $70.6 Million Dollars

Oscar Nominations: None

Oscar Wins: None

MovieRankings.Net: 93/100

Available To Stream: Amazon Prime ($4). It's also on AMC at 12:30 AM on Sunday.

Groundhog Day is so much more than a comedy. It's the closest a movie has come that I've seen that shows what it's like to be a human being. If aliens landed on the planet, this is the first thing I'd show them so they could understand us.

Having Bill Murray play Phil was the perfect choice. The role was originally offered to Tom Hanks who wisely declined to make A  League Of Their Own. It's not that Hanks would have been bad at all. It's that Murray was just so perfect as this bitter man who learns how to be a good person. Most importantly, you believe it. Plus, Hanks ended up doing just fine.

Bill Murray is the best comedic actor of my life. His movie career is obviously incredible but he also had the greatest season in Saturday Night Live history. After the 1978-79 season ended, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd left the show to do more movies leaving Garrett Wilson and Murray as the only men on the cast. This meant Murray had to play every white male character, which for a show in 1979 meant that he was in every sketch. It was an incredible run.

It sounds like the making of this movie was a mess. Old friends Murray and director Harold Ramis fought bitterly on set. Murray wanted the movie to be more cynical and about how people don't really change. Ramis wanted (and got) a movie that is more comedic and about love and redemption. The bitterness between the two didn't end once the movie wrapped. They didn't speak again until right before Ramis died in 2014.

Harold Ramis' daughter Violet Ramis Stihl said:

SOURCE - "They had a few arguments on set, including one in which my dad uncharacteristically lost his temper and grabbed Bill by the collar, and shoved him up against a wall. Eventually, Bill just completely shut my dad out…for the next twenty-plus years."

The supporting cast and town itself make the movie feel so real. Ned Ryerson feels like someone you would kinda want to punch in the face. When Phil realizes that he can't save that homeless man from dying, it hits hard. You needed someone as perfect as Andie MacDowell to play Rita so you understood why Phil would try so hard to win her over.

As brilliant as Murray is in this, Ramis equals that with how well this is directed. He uses the small town of Woodstock, Illinois (Puxatawney, Pennsylvania didn't lend itself to many shooting options) so well that it almost becomes a character in the movie. It also couldn't have been easy dealing with Murray during this shoot. He was throwing temper tantrums left and right. It was also brutally cold with the temperatures most days around 20 degrees.

I don't think this is the funniest comedy of the 1990's. That's Office Space. But this is the comedy that makes me think the most. From simpler questions like 'What would it be like living the same day over and over?' to more philosophical ones like 'How hard is it to truly become better versions of ourselves?' On a set that was fraught with anger and arguments, this is a movie that believes so much in love and caring for each other. 

Not only that but it's also just funny as fuck.

That makes for a pretty great movie in my mind as well as the best comedy of the decade.

6. Groundhog Day

7. The Silence Of The Lambs

8. Office Space

9. The Sixth Sense

10. Boogie Nights

11. Jurassic Park

12. Jackie Brown

13. A Few Good Men

14. The Fugitive

15. The Truman Show

16. Fargo

17. Swingers

18. Reservoir Dogs

19. There's Something About Mary

20. Sleepers

21. Schindler's List

22. Rushmore

23. Fight Club

24. Saving Private Ryan

25. True Romance

26. Dumb & Dumber

27. Kingpin

28. Donnie Brasco

29. Heat 

30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

31. Rounders

32. Unforgiven

33. Trainspotting

34. The Game

35. Out Of Sight

36. Carlito's Way

37. Seven

38. L.A. Confidential

39. Speed

40. Gattaca

41. Misery

42. Tombstone

43. Ransom

44. Wayne's World

45. The Insider

46. Back To The Future Part III

47. A Bronx Tale

48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt

49. Eyes Wide Shut

50. The Sandlot

51. Happy Gilmore

52. Contact

53. The Green Mile

54. Man On The Moon

55. Boyz N The Hood

56. Grosse Pointe Blank

57. Independence Day

58. The Rainmaker

59. Go

60. The Firm

61. Magnolia

62. The Talented Mr. Ripley

63. Tommy Boy

64. The Usual Suspects

65. In The Line Of Fire

66. My Cousin Vinny

67. Awakenings

68. JFK

69. Toy Story

70. Home Alone

71. Jerry Maguire

72. Titanic

73. Billy Madison

74. Apollo 13

75. Braveheart

76. Edward Scissorhands

77. Cape Fear

78. The River Wild

79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

80. 12 Monkeys

81. Stir Of Echoes

82. Mission: Impossible

83. Total Recall

84. Quiz Show

85. For Love Of The Game

86. Being John Malkovich

87. Men In Black

88. Scream

89. Alive

90. Three Kings

91. Glengarry Glen Ross

92. Die Hard With A Vengeance

93. The Blair Witch Project

94. Twister

95. Dirty Work

96. Election

97. Tremors

98. Any Given Sunday

99. The Wedding Singer

100. Clerks