Jeep/YouTubeWhat would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same and nothing you did mattered? Well, that just about sums it up for Bill Murray, who’s stuck in a Groundhog Day loop – again.
Every year, on this very day, February 2, Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his home in Pennsylvania to predict the weather. It’s a centuries-old tradition, made even more famous by Murray’s iconic 1993 comedy – did we mention Phil is a groundhog?
Of course, the actor is more synonymous worldwide with the name of the day than the psychic animal itself. And, to celebrate another Groundhog Day and tonight’s Super Bowl, the powers that be have placed Murray back in the same wretched loop.
You can check out the new advert below:
The film follows Phil, a cynical TV weatherman who finds himself reliving the same day over and over again when he goes on location to Punxsutawney.
The new commercial opens with Phil, much older now, waking up in a B&B to the sound of Sonny and Cher. ‘It’s Groundhog Day,’ bellows from the radio. ‘Oh no,’ Phil says, ‘oh no.’
Jeep/YouTubeAfter leaving the room, he runs into pesky insurance salesman Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky), and steals the local groundhog from the town’s mayor (played by the actor’s real-life brother, Brian Doyle-Murray). But how does he escape?
Well, that’s when the purpose of the advert comes in. Murray has returned to the never-ending hellscape of rural America for the best cause there is: to sell big ol’ jeeps. After leaving in a shiny Rubicon, he says: ‘Not a bad day.’
Jeep/YouTubeThe film is still often revisited today, particularly around this time of year – it still holds a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Calum Marsh of the National Post wrote: ‘Are we all just wasting time squandering eternity? The film doesn’t make this accusation lightly. And it takes an outrageous concept, a big premise with a science-fiction spin, to level the idea in terms we accept and understand.’
Cameron FrewKenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: ‘Groundhog Day may not be the funniest collaboration between Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis… Yet this gentle, small-scale effort is easily the most endearing film of both men’s careers, a sweet and amusing surprise package.’
Tonight’s Super Bowl LIV will see the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs go head-to-head the climactic clash of the NFL championship.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.