Bill Murray’s movies are worth reliving
“Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.” The 1993 comedy Groundhog Day from director Harold Ramis (written by Ramis and Danny Rubin) sees bored weather reporter Phil (Bill Murray) trapped in a surreal time loop that has him forced to
CADDYSHACK (1980)
Groundhog Day is actually the second movie in which Bill Murray takes on a pesky rodent. How could we forget his original run-in with an elusive gopher as Carl Spackler in the golf comedy Caddyshack (directed by Harold Ramis)? Carl’s subplot sees him trying to zap a destructive vermin at the upscale Bushwood Country Club with a rifle and a high-pressure hose. The antics of the boozy, gambling, putter-throwing golfers played by Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield add to the hilarity.
STRIPES (1981)
Pre-ghostbusters, Slovakian-born, Canadian-raised producer-director Ivan Reitman directed Murray and Ramis in this comedy about a couple of bored misfits (boredom often shows up in Murray’s characters) who enlist in the army as a kind of prank. After barely surviving boot camp, they find themselves taking an experimental armoured assault vehicle on a joyride across Europe.
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
The original sci-fi comedy that has spawned a sequel (1989), an all-female remake (2016) and a reboot (coming in July) sees Reitman again directing Murray and Ramis, along with fellow Canadians Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis, as they try to banish spectres, ghouls and green ectoplasmic slime.
LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003)
Murray here is in a rare sombre role as a middle-aged actor of fading fame stuck in Tokyo and losing his zest for life. He recovers it briefly by communing with a similarly lonely and spiritually lost young woman (Scarlett Johansson).
ZOMBIELAND (2009)
At the risk of spoilers, Murray makes a relatively brief appearance as himself in this violent, dark comedy about fighting to survive the zombie Apocalypse that stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone.
ST. VINCENT (2014)
Murray gets to play both comedy and empathy as a cranky Vietnam veteran who becomes less anti-social by agreeing to babysit the lonely son (Jaeden Martell) of his divorced neighbour (Melissa Mccarthy).
These are perhaps not worth watching again: OSMOSIS JONES (2001)
This film is brought to you by the Farrelly brothers, one of whom is known for the Oscar-winning Green Book. Osmosis Jones, on the other hand, will just make you green. The film stars Murray as Frank Detorre, a sloth of a man who barely takes care of himself — or his personal hygiene. The gross-out factor continues after he swallows a bad egg and contracts a virus called Thrax. Inside his body, an animated blood cell voiced by Chris Rock must fight off the evil Thrax to save Frank’s life.
GARFIELD (2004)
Perhaps Murray should just stay away from animated movies altogether. He voices everyone’s favourite lazy tabby in this one, but in a GQ interview, Murray admitted he accepted the role only because he thought the script was written by the legendary Joel Coen (Fargo, etc.). Only after he recorded his lines and saw how unfunny the script was did he find out it was actually written by Joel Cohen, emphasis on the H. Critics largely panned the film.