the groundhog day project

1. I am currently "watching" Stargate SG-1 - "Window of Opportunity" and playing Carcassonne . I watched Groundhog Day this morning. 2. Yesterday's blog entry was not good. It was so not good that I don't even want to link to it here like I usually would. I do not want that trash just one click away... even though it's right over there in the list of links on the right. 3. Time has passed, so forget #1 and Tru Calling - "The Last Good Day" is on now. Role switch for Tru and Jack, and Tru's father says to Jack some crap about how his role has always been to make sure the day ended just like it did last time. Except, as I have complained before, until Jack showed up in town part way through season one, there was no one making the day change to counter Jack... unless there are rewindy people in every major city. Hell, maybe that's why Phil Connors was repeating his day. He was there to make sure the Old Man died. So, other than the ...

Two months since Luc was killed. Jack just saved a kid from getting hit by a truck--and didn't get thanked. Oh, watching the season two premiere of Tru Calling - "Perfect Storm." (In other news, I got my LEGO version of Gobbler's Knob started and I think I figured out all the mechanics for the Groundhog Day board game.) I'm wondering, as this episode goes, how Jack is as good at what he does as he is. Conversation between Jack and Tru's father implied that the good/bad pairing used to be Tru's mother/Tru's father, and now it is Tru/Jack. There wasn't some interim good rewinder between the time of Tru's mother's death and Tru's first rewind. So, prior to Jack arriving on the scene a few episodes before the end of the first season, he wasn't acting against anyone, so he shouldn't be as good at this as he is. Less important nitpick: Jack was not there when Tru got information on the boating emergency so he shouldn't h...

Before I get into Tru Calling , I must wonder aloud--or whatever the onscreen text version of aloud is--have I shared Noel Taylor's (1993, February 12) review of Groundhog Day ? Back in '93, Taylor wrote a review for the Ottawa Citizen and, well, he didn't really like the movie. Probably because he's a Canadian fool, but I can't be sure; I don't know the guy. Anyway, the title of his review is "Even Bill Murray can't save repetitive comedy." And, he says, somewhat accurately, "Murray being nice is less fun than Murray being insufferable," and less rightly, "He does his best, but Groundhog Day is one of those comedy routines Murray should have been glad to escape from." Counter that with Bill Provick (1993, September 3), also at the Ottawa Citizen : "If only Bill Murray could be this funny all the time. Perhaps he should always co-star with a groundhog. He was hilarious as in Caddyshack as the crazed groundskeeper stalki...

Two things to talk about today: 1) Paul Hannam's (2008) The Magic of Groundhog Day and 2) a few more episodes of Tru Calling . For the record, I have not finished reading Hannam's book. And, I might not do so. Mostly because, somewhat appropriately, the book is fairly repetitive. Hannam made his point early on, and then he's repeated that same point in slightly different ways a few chapters since. I may sample a bit here and there in the later chapters, see if he takes it anywhere interesting. But, I've got other books I need to be reading on this summer break. How about some highlights? In the meantime, Tru Calling 's "The Getaway" is messing with time again... in the annoying way, I mean. New guy--Jason Priestly's guy whose name I haven't noticed yet for some reason--is just starting work, which would be how long after his interview in the previous episode? This is television so no interview process takes more than a week, I'm sure. But,...

Watching another episode of Tru Calling (episode 12 - "Valentine") and it's shaping up to be the most like Groundhog Day yet; a blocked road, an isolated location (even no cell service--which was not an issue for Phil in the movie but was an issue in Ramis' drafts; Phil drove up in his own car and had a car phone which cuts out at one point.). But, it's Tru Calling so there's a murder. (For the record, I called which guest star was the murderer, but then he showed up dead... but with what looked like scratches on his neck like maybe he tried to kill again and got scratched. I'm not ruling out the possibility that I am wrong.) Something occurred to me while watching Groundhog Day today. Ned is not interested in getting reacquainted with Phil. At least not in the film version. In Ramis' drafts, Ned is excited just to be recognized by Phil. But, in the final product, Ned is just trying to take advantage of their past relationship to make a sale. C...

Watching Tru Calling again, and Luc and Tru have known each other for more than a month now according to dialogue but Tru's brother and Tru's best friend only got together like once according to dialogue, even though those things happened a day apart if anyone would bother with actual continuity. Groundhog Day doesn't have this problem, but imagine a Groundhog Day TV series... like Day Break minus the cops and criminals or Tru Calling minus the talking dead people. It would end up having a whole lot of continuity problems. Unless they had an entire crew of writers and producers responsible for nothing but continuity. Continuity is good. Groundhog Day doesn't have much in the way of continuity errors. The Phil Sign Girl's disappearing friend is the big one. That the DJ banter and the street scene outside don't have quite the same timing from Day 1 to Day 2 would be a little one. (I've gone over errors before , so let's not linger.) Continu...

Note: I've only read half of the recently discovered "third revision" of the screenplay, so I won't get into picking that apart just yet . Today, I've watched 3 more episodes of Tru Calling and, while I don't intend to go episode by episode like I did with Day Break , I figured I'd share some thoughts. Also, I've had some thought about the future of The Groundhog Day Project after Day 365. First, Tru Calling : Episode 6 - "Star-Crossed" - Turns out Davis (Tru's boss) knows what she can do, so there's a brief conversation about it, and she's got a great response to Davis calling her repeat-a-day gig "a gift." She says, "Candles are gifts, boots, bath salts maybe, but this is... I don't know what this is..." My first problem (for this entry, not my first problem with the show; that would be the lame, 90s-indie-band-that-never-made-it-big theme song) here is the more Tru does this, especially now with h...

On the one hand, I'm watching the first few episodes of Tru Calling to see if I want to give this series a shot in regards to this blog--every episode, as I understand it, does involve a time loop, after all. On the other hand, I've been thinking about relationships today--someone I know learned her relationship isn't what she thought it was and I was thinking about two suggestions one could make when a relationships fails (not to imply a lack of fault, with that phrasing). You could 1) take things more slowly next time, be cautious, be wary, don't get too invested until you have proven you can trust the new guy (or girl), or 2) risk the pain because going all in is worth it... On a third hand, today is day 316, so I have this smartass urge to once again discuss Phil Connors as a Christ Figure because, well, the oft signed biblical verse John 3:16. But, that topic has been discussed to death. Not unlike a Christ-Figure. (Meanwhile, some obvious loop markers on ...

As I figure it, this is the 82nd day from the end [or not] of the Groundhog Day Project . On the 82nd day from the beginning, I was talking a lot about love. Looking at that entry, I see a surprisingly amount of detail and seriousness, and a complicated structure--a parenthetical some 13 or so paragraphs long, for example. I was thinking of writing a sort of sequel to that entry, something I may do any of the remaining days if I do not have something planned, but I think that entry alone covers the topic of love and Groundhog Day pretty damn well. And, I've spent other days on that topic. I may be all loved out. My son thinks I've run out of things to talk about. It is starting to be harder to find specific topics to tackle, but there are things left to cover. Some of what's left, though, involves planning ahead, watching extra stuff--there are some time loop movies left ( Edge of Tomorrow coming out in theaters soon, for example), and I'm still considering samplin...

This entry is for new arrivals. It is unfortunate that a sad event--the death of Harold Ramis--might bring me new readers, but I welcome you nonetheless. This is The Groundhog Day Project where I watch Groundhog Day every day--today is day 210--and blog about it (or inspired by it). If you want to catch up, there are indexes (of everything prior to February) on Day 180 , Day 121 , and Day 62 . Or, if you just want to understand why I'm doing this, maybe read this , this or this . In the meantime... I meant to write about e' gia Ieri today. That translates as "it's already yesterday" but the film is also known as Stork Day . It's the Italian remake of Groundhog Day . Variety , 15 February 2004, tells us that producer Riccardo Tozzi and director Giulio Manfredonia "were talking about making a 'what if' comedy and decided to go straight to that subgenre's original source." The thing is, I never managed to watch it today. And, it...

This is another "short" entry. I wanted to share a bit of what goes into this blog. There are the books: Oh, and the DVD and blu-ray are in that unfortunately blurry photo. I'll get a clearer photo on the next resumption. And, there's Rubin's book, of which I don't have a physical copy: But, a lot of the more in depth stuff comes from a couple binders. The one most visible in this photo (below) is the one with a bunch of journal and periodical articles in it. Also, on the left in this photo are newer arrivals in a manila folder and the handwritten version of " The Ballad of Phil Connors ." The 3x5 cards are mostly notes on recent title adjustments . And, this photo should give you an idea of the pieces in that larger binder: Not pictured too well is the binder under that one which contains a printed copy of Ramis' second revision of the screenplay for Groundhog Day with some handwritten notes. Also in that binder is a copy of Julie...

Today, I think I’d rather stay in bed and recite the movie to myself than watch it. Fortunately, as I recently mentioned, watching the movie can fix a bad mood. Anyway, as I press play on the film, it occurs to me that it’s not my personal circumstances getting me down, per se. It’s that today is Day 33 and I still can’t play piano, still don’t speak French (though, neither, probably does Phil), can’t ice sculpt, won’t be going home with a nice dorky girl like Rita from a nice energetic party. In fact, I won’t be doing much of anything today. I should be throwing a Groundhog Day Project party to celebrate making it as many days as Phil does ( on screen, anyway ). I mean, a whole week was nice, making it a month a few days ago was great. But, this is a milestone—there won’t be another milestone for a while, the point at which I can definitively say “It’s like I said, I love this film; I’ve seen it over a hundred times.” I should mention, however cheesy and on-the-nose the lyrics a...