Groundhog Day - Story of A Guy Having to Repeat His Day

After many years of hearing about this title referenced in some other movies or TV series, I finally got the chance to watch this film. I was browsing through the TV channels after long day work and stumbled into 1 showing this movie.

Since it already started like 5 minutes, I can only tell it from my point of view starting from the scene where Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray - Ghostbusters, Lost in Translation and others), a weather broadcaster coming to a small town called Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania together with the camera man Larry (played by Chris Elliot) and their show producer Rita Hanson (played by Andie Mac Dowell - Four Weddings and a Funeral, Michael etc). Phil seem to be not interested in this assignment and he was also very arrogant, the opposite of the very calm, patient and sophisticated Rita.

Phil was dropped by at the inn where he will stay for the night, as the news coverage that he has to do is on the following day. After spending the night, Phil was waked up by the song "I got you babe" by Sony and Cher at exactly 6 AM playing on the radio. It's the Groundhog Day (see below for more on this day, only if you're interested to know) and people were informed to get ready for the festivity. When Phil finished taking his bath, he went out of the room and met a person at the hallway and had a short chat with him about the start of spring date. Then he went down stairs and met the waitress at the breakfast place in the inn who offered him for coffee or bread but Phil rejected and really looked down on her when replying. He went out to walk to the location where he was supposed to show the weather news and he was called by a person who knew him from high school and now sells insurance (Ned-played by Stephen Tobolowsky). Phil strongly avoided him and accidentally stepped on mud.

When Phil finally reached the location for his news broadcast, he read the news without interest and after finished, all three of them went to their car to leave the town. Unfortunately due to the blizzard, they were stuck and had to return back to the town which made Phil very upset. He took bath which was very cold as there was no hot water and went to sleep immediately.

The following day finally came, and Phil was waked up at exactly 6 AM with the song "I got you babe" and the radio broadcaster told it's the Groundhog Day which Phil felt very strange and thought probably the holiday was for 2 days in that town. He went out and met the same person in the hallway whom he met earlier and had same conversation, met the same waitress offering the same thing and went out of the inn also found Ned calling him again. Phil felt very strange and went to the location of the news where everything happened exactly the same before.

Phil thought he was going crazy, so he tried to see brain doctor who said he was fine, then went to psychiatrist who could not diagnoze him. He then go to the bar, having drinks with 2 guys he just met and both of them recommended if it's the final day of his life, he should take advantage of it. So he went on to drive car recklessly, got arrested. But again on the following day it's same day again.

Phil then use this knowledge to do all crazy stunts, like getting a woman for 1 night stand, steal money, etc. Finally he decided to try to seduce Rita by getting all information of her likes and dislikes. At 1 day he was doing everything perfectly but at the last minute, Rita rejected Phil's attempt to sleep with her and the following days repeated without Phil ever getting Rita.

Phil finally felt very frustrated and bored and tried to commit suicides but he could not even get himself killed.

So does Phil ever get to go through this particular day? Can Phil make Rita fell for him? Can he keep his sanity? Find out by watching this film till the conclusion. I promise that it will be refreshing and fun watching it till the end.

I had a nice moment watching the movie as I get to see Bill Murray's performance. You can feel his excitement when he realized he could do anything that he want without bearing the consequence but you can also understand his frustration and later felt sorry & happy for him. 

This is a 1993 drama and comedy movie, but not the kind where you will laugh out loud. The time loop is not a mystery to be solved, but only serves as the background. It would also be fun trying to calculate how many days actually was repeated. Can you guess?
And finally, the film I think is supposed to make us think what we would or should do if we are able to go back to repeat 1 day in our lives.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Note:

Groundhog day is traditional holiday celebrated on the 2nd February where groundhog (some kind of marmot) is supposedly able to predict whether the winter is taking longer or the spring will arrive earlier by setting it free from its hole. The whole story of Groundhog Day is available in internet.

Sabar Ini Ujian - First Indonesian Movie with Time Loop Element

When I started subscribing Disney+, I noticed there were quite a lot of Indonesian movies there, though mostly the ones that I was interested in I have already seen, while the rest were horror or typical romantic drama that I was not really a fan of. I actually saw the title of this movie but did not read the synopsis until I read in twitter that it has a time loop element. Obviously it intrigued me and therefore I decided to watch it last night. Well here goes more of the film.

Brief Story Line

Sabar (Vino G. Bastian - Wiro Sableng Pendekar Kapak Maut Naga Geni 212, Chrisye etc) had been out of relationship with his ex girlfriend Astrid (Estelle Linden - Darah Daging etc) for the past four years. So when he got the invitation to her wedding with one of their high school friend Dimas (Mike Ethan), Sabar was very reluctant to go despite the encouragement from his best friend Billy (Ananda Omesh - The Wedding & Bebek Betutu etc) and his mother (Widyawati - Mama Mama Jagoan, Critical Eleven etc).

Before I Fall - A Time Loop Movie from Teenager's Perspective

I was having the usual weekend staycation with my wife few days ago and on Saturday night there was a premiere of new movie on Fox Movies Premium channel which I happened to know from the comments of 1 of my reader in Happy Death Day. I was definitely intrigued to see this as it also had time loop element. So when I noticed that it would play at 8 PM, my wife decided that we should have our complimentary dinner at our room. Although she did not see the movie as she was concentrating on finishing season 1 of Riverdale TV series. Well let us find out more on the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A high school student Samantha (Zoey Deutch - Vampire Academy, Why Him? etc) was a popular girl and was best friends with Lindsay (Halston Sage - Paper Towns, Goosebumps etc), Elodie (Medalion Rahimi) and Ally (Cynthy Wu). It was Cupid's day (Valentine's day) where lots of girls in school were receiving flowers, including Samantha who got it from her boyfriend Rob (Youtuber Kian Lawley) and also from another boy named Kent (Logan Miller - Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse). Being part of popular and "mean girls", Samantha and the others were making fun of the less popular girls, especially when they picked up on an out of place girl named Juliet (Elena Kampouris - My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2). 

Happy Death Day - How to Solve Your Own Murder While Reliving The Day?

Yesterday my wife and I got the chance to see this movie on its premiere day in Indonesia. I have been eyeing to see this one after I saw the trailer to it weeks ago as it was truly interesting. It was a good thing that I was not too busy and able to leave the office on time to see this movie as the rain was quite heavy and usually Jakarta's traffic would be hell. My wife also finished her food tasting event early and both of us reached the cinema location 1 hour before the 7.15PM show in Setiabudi. Ok, let us shall go on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A college student named Theresa aka Tree (Jessica Rothe - La La Land) woke up in a male's dorm room occupied by Carter (Israel Broussard - Flipped, The Bling Ring etc) feeling the worst hangover and could not remember anything from the night before. She immediately rushed out of the room and went back to her own place where she met her friend Danielle (Rachel Matthews) and her roommate Lori (Ruby Modine) who knew it was Tree's birthday. She also went to the class where he met with her lecturer Gregory (Charles Aitken) and continued with her activities till night while ignoring calls from her father (Jason Bayle). Before she reached back home though, she was murdered by a person wearing mask and suddenly woke up in Carter's room again.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - The Latest Tim Burton's Dark Fantasy Adventure Movie

It's been a while since I had a movie marathon day, and last weekend I had the chance to do it again with my wife. It was a Saturday so we went to Cinemaxx and watch this one as our first movie of the day. It was a new movie that just premiered on Friday so it's still quite fresh. Without further ado, below is the story line

Brief Story Line

Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield - Hugo, Ender's Game etc) was a 16 year old teenager who was not having a lot of friends at school and feeling awkward all the time. He was very close to his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp - Elektra, Valkyrie etc) who used to read him lots of bed time stories since he was still a child about Abe's time spent in Miss Peregrine's home where there would be many peculiar children.

Boss Level - A Nice Combination of Time Loop, Good Old Fashion Action and Dark Humor

It's been a while since I watched an interesting new movie on HBO Go platform. This time I found out there was this action movie that I was intrigued and it was a 2020 film that did not make it to Indonesian cinemas. OK, will get straight to it now.

Brief Story Line

Roy (Frank Grillo - Reprisal, No Man's Land etc) was a former special forces soldier who was stuck in a time loop where he was constantly being chased and attacked by a group of mercenaries till he was killed. The day before the time loop, he met with his ex wife Dr. Jemma Wells (Naomi Watts - The Divergent Series: Allegiant, King Kong 2005 version etc) who was working on a secret project under her boss Colonel Clive Ventor (Mel Gibson - Force of Nature, Daddy's Home 2 etc).

Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Still Fun and Light but Seemed to Focus on Highlighting the Future Major Villain, Kang the Conqueror

Like other previous movies from Marvel Studios, my wife and I were highly anticipating this one and decided to buy the tickets when they were already sold in advance last weekend. As our favorite theater did not have any evening show on its first day, we bought the tickets for its third day last night. So let's head down to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

After the events in Avengers: End Game, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd - Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Clueless etc) was enjoying his peaceful life with his girlfriend Hope (Evangeline Lilly - The Hobbit films, The Hurt Locker etc), though he was having a bit difficulty with his now teenaged daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton - Freaky, Blockers etc). And it was not really helped by the fact that Cassie's grandparents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas - Basic Instinct, Wall Street etc) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer - Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Murder on the Orient Express etc) who were quite supportive of her actions.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - A More Family Friendly Sequel with Emphasis on Humor in this Beloved Franchise

This movie was released more than a week ago but my wife and I were unable to see it as we went on short vacation trip. So we only got the chance yesterday during public holiday and saw it in the theater near our home. All right then, let's get to it. 

Brief Story Line

Two years after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Ant-man and the Wasp etc), Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon - The Gilded Age TV series, Gone Girl etc) and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard - It, Carmen Sandiego TV series etc) & Phoebe (McKenna Grace - Crater, The Bad Seed etc) had moved to New York and lived in the previous location the original Ghostbusters stayed in. They continued working on catching ghosts in the city, though their activities would have adverse impact and were disapproved by the Mayor, Walter Peck (William Atherton - Die Hard, Die Hard 2 etc).