Year One : Movie Review


Even if the movies directed by Harold Ramis haven't always been great, there's usually a seed of greatness nestled in the concept. A mob bigwig who works out his insecurities on the shrink's couch ("Analyze This"), a husband who clones himself with absurd and disastrous results ("Multiplicity"): These are ideas that give good actors (in the first instance, Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, and in the second, Michael Keaton) something to run with. And even if Ramis had directed no movie other than "Groundhog Day," with Bill Murray as a TV weatherman doomed to live the same day over and over again, he'd still be able to claim the honor of having made a masterpiece: "Groundhog Day" is bliss, the kind of comedy that feels so effortless, it makes you wonder why more comedies can't be even half as good. Can making a decent -- let's not even use the word "great" -- comedy really be so hard?

See www.salon.com for full review

Author : Stephanie Zacharek