Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Bill Murray Movies

About once a month (usually the last Tuesday of the month), I will do a top 3 on a specific person, whether it be director, actor, producer, writer, etc.  If you didn't gather from the title, this post is on Bill Murray.  Bill Murray has been in many movies that all pretty consistently make me laugh.  In addition to being funny, they have a value to them that makes them enjoyable to watch over and over again.  Bill Murray, has almost three eras of films: the early years with Meatballs and Caddyshack, the middle years with Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, and the later years with Royal Tennenbaums and Lost in Translation.  And we cant forget the sellout years with movies like Garfield. (BLEHHH).  This was a tough one for me to name because I always enjoy his films.  The later years really didn't do it for me, so you wont see any of those films here.  However, I want to give honorable mention to two films that he had small parts in, but still made an unwatchable movie actually entertaining.  As a masochistic dental patient, he absolutely killed it in Little Shop of Horrors (Side Note: this role was actually played by Jack Nicholson in an early version of this film in 1960.  One of Nicholson's first films.)  As arrogant bowling champion Ernie McCracken in Kingpin.

Top 3 Bill Murray Movies


(always in no particular order)
Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day. This movie actually goes into my top films of all time category as well.  Its a film that I can watch OVER and OVER again without losing any entertainment value.  No video clip will truly capture this film...however he does say "poopie" in this clip.



Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters. There is something strange...in your neighborhood.  Who ya gonna call....  Yeah...you know the song...so does EVERYONE.  Funny, Scary, Serious.  It captures all of them.  Its hard to classify this as solely a Bill Murray film, because it relies so heavily on the ensemble aspect of its structure, but I think that Murray drove this movie, and it would have been mediocre at best without him.  I hear there is a Ghostbusters 3 in the works...and that scares me.  Ghostbusters 2 was good...but a Ghostbusters 3?  Honestly....look at how bad the Indiana Jones franchise crashed when they tried to do it all over again with number 4.  Say it aint so Bill!




Caddyshack
Caddyshack.  Nothing I can say on this one.  This clip...which was hard to find one that would allow me to embed in the blog...sums it up.  Enjoy.




Next weeks Topic: Sequel Based Series [3 or more movies in the series]

7 comments:

Ash said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ash said...

Ok, for the record... I used to hate Bill Murray!! Perhaps because I wasn't really able to understand or appreciate his humor but he certainly has grown on me over the years... for my top 3, I'd have to say:
1. Groundhog Day (minus the first time we watched it together and my attached memory of us fighting the whole way through it that we ended up having to turn it off!) *tear* ....then.... *barf* haha
2. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (saw it in the theatre!)
and
3. Scrooged (own it... and still don't know what to think....)
I just had a sudden urge to watch these! :-D

Unknown said...

Your list is similar to mine. The unfortunate thing about this topic is that he really only made a handful of movies that are worth mentioning. I am a fan of his, and I can only think of 10ish movies that he was in. I imdb'd him and realized that he was not as big of a star as I thought he was, but I digress.

1) Ghostbusters - No contest that this is his best movie. Get 'er Ray?

2) Zombieland - pretty much one of the best cameo's in any movie of all time. Mostly in part to the reenactment of his ghostbuster scene.

3) Groundhog Day - I have not seen any other movies like this. I remember asking my parents why dropping a toaster in the bathtub would kill you.

Steven L said...

BTW, R. Kevin is me... Steven... forgot to sign out as him.

Craig said...

i'll definitely agree with 1. Groundhog Day 2. Stripes 3. Scrooged ...Caddyshack was more of a Chevy Chase movie ..i'm just sayin'

skittles said...

O.K. Bill Murray movies I'm going to say little shop of horrors,scrooge and goundhog day all very good Bill Murry movies and also good Bill Murray parts no matter how many times I see any of these moies I will still have a 99% laughing time for all the movies I picked.

Unknown said...

1. Ghost Busters. "Yes no human can stack books like this.
2. Groundhog Day.
and for my 3rd movie it will be the only one that alot of people wont agree with but for some reason I thought it was hilarious
3. The Life Aquatic with Steven Zissou. Thought it was hilarious but then again im a little off kilter.