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Murray's most cinematically successful run-in with the animal kingdom is Harold Ramis' wonderful 1993 comedy "Groundhog Day", which Columbia has just re-released on DVD, in dreaded Special Edition form. However, for DVD lovers who hate when companies reissue films, thereby enticing you to buy the same movie twice, this new release is worth the expense.

Although Murray is always an interesting and surprising comic actor, one thing he's never done to complete satisfaction is play the romantic lead. Even in the original "Ghostbusters" (which featured Murray and Sigourney Weaver in the phoniest screen kiss in memory), Murray uses the same brand of comedic smarm to charm the girl and belittle his mental inferiors. His approach never really worked until Groundhog Day. Here, with the help of a funny and mature script by Danny Rubin, Murray excels as a TV weatherman forced to relive February 2nd over and over again until he learns to be a nicer person and profess genuine love for his producer, played by the lovely Andie MacDowell. Murray was able to mix his own brand of sarcasm with the filmmakers' more thoughtful desire to make his transition as real and convincing as possible.

As the movie opens, we meet Phil Connors (Murray), a TV weatherman in Pittsburgh who is being forced (for the fourth year in a row) to drive to Punxsutawney, PA and cover Groundhog Day, an occasion when, as Connors puts it, "a large squirrel...predicts the weather." The way Connors treats his producer Rita (MacDowell) and his cameraman Larry (Chris Elliot), it's obvious he's earned his reputation as a "prima donna." After Connors files his report, the crew leaves town. However, a blizzard (one which Connors failed to predict) sends the threesome back to Punxsutawney to spend the night. When Phil wakes up the next morning, he's surprised to find that it's February 2nd again. In fact, tomorrow will also be February 2nd. And the next day. Ultimately, to Phil, it is always February 2nd. He wakes to the same song on his clock radio every day. He sees the same people, saying the same thing, every day. Over and over. Because it is February 2nd. Forever.

At first, Connors uses his newfound freedom to bed beautiful women and eat whatever he wants. Then feelings begin to emerge for Rita, love that is unrequited since she'll forget everything at midnight. So as his 24-hour fate becomes more desperate, he resorts to a strategy unique to Phil Conners: he becomes a nice guy.

I had not seen Groundhog Day for a number of years and while I remember liking it, I forgot just how good it is. It's one of those movies where everything feels perfectly balanced. It's just funny enough. It's just romantic enough. Ramis keeps Murray's baser instincts in check, while allowing him plenty of room to be Bill Murray. Casting is solid down the line, most notably in Steven Tobolosky's hilariously over-the-top reading of insurance salesman Ned Ryerson. The film is superbly edited, keeping everything fast-paced but never confusing. Finally, a sweet and resourceful score by George Fenton holds it all together.

In films like Bedazzled and Multiplicity, director Ramis has worked with the theme of redoing and re-imagining your life until you get it right. But such a concept does not apply to Groundhog Day. It got it right the first time.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The video quality of the original Groundhog Day DVD was quite good and this new special edition lives up to, and occasionally surpasses, its predecessor. The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and sports a clean and bright look. Unfortunately, I must note one shot that is too bright: there's a shot where Murray walks through the Punxsutawney town square and as the camera pans across the rising sun, it almost blew out my TV. And since Murray relives the day constantly, the shot is repeated four times!

But that is the only glitch in an otherwise well-balanced transfer. There is very little dirt on the print, although I'm tired of transfers that make no effort to clean up opening credit sequences. Just because there's some text at the start of your movie, doesn't mean you can't clean up that picture as well. Blacks are even and deep. Contrast is good, although there is a bit of edge enhancement. There is some grain, but nothing to hamper your enjoyment of the film. Detail is sharp; you can read the label on the bottle of ketchup at the diner and even see the cheese on the danish that Murray brings to his coworkers. Colors are well saturated. There's a lot of colorful clothing in the film and it all looks vivid with no tearing or chroma noise. In all, a bright, colorful, worthy transfer.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

The original DVD release of Groundhog Day featured only a Dolby 2.0 track. However, Columbia went to town on this new special edition, which features a new English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. (The DTS track that is indicated on the packaging is NOT included on the actual disc.) The overall 5.1 presentation is an improvement over the 2.0 mix, and makes for a fuller and more enveloping presentation. The biggest beneficiary is the score, with Fenton's varied instrumentation making considerable use of the lefts and rights. Background noises are nicely parceled out to all channels, although imaging and surround effects are kept to a minimum, the latter used mostly for the townsfolk as they talk and shuffle down the street. Like the video, the audio is nicely balanced; nothing overwhelming to distract from the comedy. There are no defects on the track, no hiss, no distortion, no dropout.

Also included are French, Spanish, and Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 surround dubs, English Closed Captions, and subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, Korean, and Chinese.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Columbia has put together an admirable package of goodies, however there are two crucial elements missing. First of all, since Murray is a legendary cutup, there must be dozens of outtakes locked in a vault or saved to a VHS tape. Unfortunately, the only outtakes are in the documentary. Secondly, the extras suffer from the absence of Murray. He does not appear in the documentary, nor on the audio commentary. Although not a big self-promoter, Murray's presence would have greatly enhanced the DVD.

Luckily, what we are left with is pretty solid. The key supplement is a screen-specific audio commentary with director Harold Ramis. Ramis is always an enjoyable interview, funny and honest with a welcome bit of self- deprecation. Those qualities are all evident in the commentary, although the actual amount of juicy information imparted is rather thin. Ramis does talk of his worry that since other countries have no idea what Groundhog Day is, they may not be interested in the movie. In fact, in Brazil the film was retitled, "The Black Hole of Love." Ramis also claims that through the course of his many Groundhog Days, Phil Connors goes through the five stages of death: denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. In all, a fair commentary from a nonetheless enjoyable personality.

The other major extra is a 25-minute featurette called The Weight of Time. It features new interviews with Ramis, writer Danny Rubin, producer Trevor Albert and actors Andie MacDowell and Steven Tobolosky. The interview footage is full screen while the clips are in anamorphic widescreen and look as good as they do in the film. Ramis says the script originally began with Phil Connors already in the time warp; however, he rightly figured that the audience would then be deprived of seeing Murray's initial reaction to his predicament. Also in the original script, Connors is said to have relived February 2nd for thousands of years. The doc contains some grainy outtakes and plenty of black and white stills. In all, a pretty standard but interesting documentary.

The disc also includes three trailers. The first is a widescreen preview for "Groundhog Day." The second is for the Nicolas Cage comedy, "It Could Happen to You", which is presented in full screen and has some dirt, but the stereo audio is pretty aggressive for a trailer. The final preview is for the wonderful 1986 Francis Coppola comedy "Peggy Sue Got Married", also featuring Cage. It is full screen, but the picture is cleaned up nicely. Look for a young Jim Carrey about halfway through the trailer.

Rounding out the extras are filmographies on Murray, Ramis, MacDowell and Elliot.
All the supplements can be accessed by navigating some fun animated menus, which sport a colorful, cartoonish look.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts