Sure, dumb comedies are a constant in American cinema, but comedies that truly revel in their dumbness really don’t get made often these days. So begins one of the most brilliantly stupid comedies ever. But it is a bit hard to imagine many contemporary films opening with a plainly white derelict sitting in a stairwell and proclaiming ‘I was born a poor Black child’. When people claim that certain movies ‘couldn’t get made today’, it’s usually just anti-woke grumbling from humourless dolts. There's something I want to say that's always been very difficult for me to say: ‘I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit’. But Groundhog Day remains the gold standard by taking a more lighthearted approach that nonetheless manages to deliver a poignant message about the things that really matter. Enough movies and TV shows ( Palm Springs and Russian Doll, to name two) have lifted the time-loop concept to explore similar themes, usually with a heavier hand. Bill Murray gives his most iconic performance as a grumpy, self-absorbed Pennsylvania weatherman who, by some inexplicable cosmic glitch, is forced to live the same day over and over and over and over (and over and over and over and over…) until he learns to look outside himself and let a little love into his heart. It’s not too late to correct that mistake, in the same way poor Phil Connors discovers that it’s not too late to become a better person – in fact, he’s got all the time in the world. Worldwide, however, the words ‘Groundhog Day’ are best known as shorthand for history repeating itself – in fact, there’s probably a not-insignificant population who know the phrase but not the film. The faux-meteorological American tradition known as Groundhog Day predates the movie Groundhog Day by a good century and a half. ‘I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.’ Spinal Tap: for those about to rock, we salute you. Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer would keep gigging as Spinal Tap for three decades – proof that they were so much more than just a joke band in a funny movie. It also, lest we forget, defined an entire genre, accidentally inventing everything from The Office to The Blair Witch Project (not to mention lead axe-man Christopher Guest's entire subsequent career). these ones go to eleven') and some of the meatiest metal melodies this side of Bon Scott-era AC/DC, this is simply a perfect film: from the first chord of 'Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight' to the very final line ('I dunno, what are the hours?'), there's literally nothing about it that could be improved. Sporting arguably the most quotable script in movie history ('no. Yes, our experts have cast their votes and the winner by a clear margin is Rob Reiner's genre-setting mockumentary – or, if you will, rockumentary – about England's largest-livin', heaviest-riffin', filthiest-lyric-singin', biggest-hair-havin', fluffiest-jumper-ownin' heavy rock combo. You're asking, how much more funny could this be? And the answer is none. □ The greatest romantic comedies of all time Just make sure you’re wearing dark pants when you watch. No matter your sense of humour – silly or sophisticated, light or dark, surreal or broad – you’ll find it represented here. With an assist from comedians like Diane Morgan and Russell Howard, actors such as John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker and a team of Time Out writers, we’ve come up with the 100 finest, most durable and, most importantly, hilarious laughers in history. So when a movie can still make audiences crack up decades or even a century down the line, that’s the sign of a classic comedy – and given how difficult it is to pull off a truly timeless comedy, it’s really one of the most impressive accomplishments in cinema. It’s a medium highly dependent upon context, and what’s considered funny now might be met with blank stares 100 years from now. As a general rule, comedy doesn’t age well.
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