Ramis, Harold

Caddyshack

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: CHASE/DANGERFIELD/KNIGHT/O'KEE
Title: CADDYSHACK
Street Release Date: 05/15/2007
Domestic
Genre: COMEDY VIDEO

A no-brainer that has become a low-brow classic, this 1980 comedy makes anarchy the rule of the day, unleashing the antics of Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Chevy Chase. Caddyshack is about the scheme of a vulgar land developer (Dangerfield) who wants to build condominiums on the site of a ritzy country club. Director Harold Ramis (who later reunited with Murray to make Groundhog Day) is content to let the comedy follow a variety of wacky detours, most notably Murray's maniacal war with a gopher that has been digging up the golf course. Dangerfield ultimately steals the show, firing off a battery of one-liners, insults, and tasteless gags. Caddyshack is the kind of movie some people have been known to watch several times a year, reciting every line of dialogue like the followers of a bizarre comedic ritual. --Jeff Shannon

National Lampoon's Vacation (20th Anniversary Special Edition)

The Griswolds have planned all year for a great summer vacation. From their suburban Chicago home across America to the wonders of Wally World fun park in California every step of the way has been carefully plotted. Except a few hundred hysterical exceptions. National Lampoon's Vacation is a sublimely goofy comedy thanks largely to Chevy Chase in his signature role of Clark Griswold. The inept but sincere Clark takes misfortune in stride. So what if they lose all their money when their new car gets wrecked. And it's not too bad when Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) deposits sour Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) in their back seat for a lift to Phoenix. But what really keeps Clark's eyes on the road is a flirtation with a mysterious blonde (Christie Brinkley) in a red Ferrari. For those along on the ride National Lampoon's Vacation called "fast funny satire" by The New York Times' Janet Maslin is a jolly jaunt.Running Time: 98 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085392753529

Vacation paved the way for the John Hughes movie dynasty of the 1980s. Written by Hughes (who would go on to write, direct, and/or produce The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, Home Alone, and so on) and directed by Harold Ramis (Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, Stuart Saves His Family), the first Vacation movie introduces us to the all-American Griswold family: father Clark (Chevy Chase), mother Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), son Rusty (future Hughes staple Anthony Michael Hall), and daughter Audrey (Dana Barron). They all pile into the car for a cross-country road trip to Walley World, stopping along the way to view the world's biggest ball of twine. John Candy, Imogene Coca, and Randy Quaid (as yokel Cousin Eddie) pop up along the way. The movie was a big hit, and was followed by several sequels--National Lampoon's European Vacation, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation--but this one is still probably the freshest and funniest of the bunch. --Jim Emerson

Groundhog Day - 15th Anniversary Edition

Bill Murray is at his wry wisecracking best in this riotous romantic comedy about a weatherman caught in a personal time warp on the worst day of his life. Teamed with a relentlessly cheerful producer (Andie MacDowell) and a smart-aleck cameraman (Chris Elliott) TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is sent to Punxsutawney Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. But on his way out of town Phil is caught in a giant blizzard which he failed to predict and finds himself stuck in small-town hell. Just when things couldn't get any worse they do. Phil wakes the next morning to find it's Groundhog Day all over again... and again... and again.System Requirements:Run Time: 101 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/COMEDY OF ERRORS Rating: PG UPC: 043396226456 Manufacturer No: 22645

Bill Murray does warmth in his most consistently effective post-Stripes comedy, a romantic fantasy about a wacky weatherman forced to relive one strange day over and over again, until he gets it right. Snowed in during a road-trip expedition to watch the famous groundhog encounter his shadow, Murray falls into a time warp that is never explained but pays off so richly that it doesn't need to be. The elaborate loop-the-loop plot structure cooked up by screenwriter Danny Rubin is crystal-clear every step of the way, but it's Murray's world-class reactive timing that makes the jokes explode, and we end up looking forward to each new variation. He squeezes all the available juice out of every scene. Without forcing the issue, he makes us understand why this fly-away personality responds so intensely to the radiant sanity of the TV producer played by Andie MacDowell. The blissfully clueless Chris Elliott (Cabin Boy) is Murray's nudnik cameraman. --David Chute

Multiplicity

An overworked contractor has himself cloned to have more time for his work, wife, and family, with hilarious results that almost cost him his wife.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 28-AUG-2001
Media Type: DVD

An inevitable idea: a working man (Michael Keaton) who can't meet all his professional and family responsibilities has himself cloned. It works so well having one copy of himself to take charge of matters at the office that he makes another copy who takes care of the home front. Pretty soon, different aspects of Keaton's personality are emphasized in the different clones: the laborer becomes a macho creep and the domestic god becomes rather feminine. A third clone, struck from the duplicates instead of the original, becomes like a photocopy of a photocopy: inferior. This timely comedy should be better than it is, but special-effects requirements are so labor-intensive that most scenes feel stiff and leaden. Keaton is good in all four parts, and in certain gee-whiz effects scenes, where he even high-fives himself, he pulls off a minor miracle or two. (Of course, a kid did the same thing in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.) The DVD release includes optional widescreen and standard formats and optional French and Spanish soundtracks. --Tom Keogh

Bedazzled

A timid man sells his soul to a sultry devil for seven wishes.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 15-APR-2003
Media Type: DVD

Brendan Fraser stars in Bedazzled as Elliot, a dweebish office worker who yearns for Alison (played by Frances O'Connor from Mansfield Park), a coworker who barely knows he exists. When he blithely says he'd give his soul for Alison, the Devil appears (Elizabeth Hurley, Austin Powers) and says she'll give him seven wishes in exchange. Elliot is dubious at first, but agrees out of desperation. Unfortunately, his every wish always leaves the Devil a little wiggle room. When he asks to be rich and powerful, the Devil turns him into a drug lord beset on all sides. When he asks to be a successful, well-endowed writer, the Devil adds a male lover to the mix. The setup and situations are clever, though Bedazzled doesn't delve into any real moral or theological questions and has a little less bite than the original it's based on (from 1968, starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook). But it does provide some better comic substance than Fraser has had in most of his previous roles (George of the Jungle, Encino Man). Fraser demonstrated in Gods and Monsters that he could hold his own dramatically with the likes of Brit thespian Ian McKellen, and he's consistently been a charming presence in movies enjoyable (The Mummy) and not so enjoyable (Dudley Do Right). Bedazzled may not give him any more movie-making clout, but it does give his fans something to enjoy. O'Connor is entirely pleasant in her largely straight role, and Hurley fills out her part by delectably filling out a number of revealing outfits. An enjoyable bit of froth. --Bret Fetzer

Groundhog Day (Special Edition)

Bill Murray does warmth in his most consistently effective post-Stripes comedy, a romantic fantasy about a wacky weatherman forced to relive one strange day over and over again, until he gets it right. Snowed in during a road-trip expedition to watch the famous groundhog encounter his shadow, Murray falls into a time warp that is never explained but pays off so richly that it doesn't need to be. The elaborate loop-the-loop plot structure cooked up by screenwriter Danny Rubin is crystal-clear every step of the way, but it's Murray's world-class reactive timing that makes the jokes explode, and we end up looking forward to each new variation. He squeezes all the available juice out of every scene. Without forcing the issue, he makes us understand why this fly-away personality responds so intensely to the radiant sanity of the TV producer played by Andie MacDowell. The blissfully clueless Chris Elliott (Cabin Boy) is Murray's nudnik cameraman. --David Chute

Do you ever have deja vu? Didn't you just ask me that? Bill Murray is at his wry, wisecracking bestin this riotous romantic comedy about a weatherman caught in a personal time warp on the worst day of his life. Teamed with a relentlessly cheerful producer (Andie MacDowell) and a smart-aleck cameraman (Chris Elliott), TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania,to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. But on his way out of town, Phil is caught in a giant blizzard, which he failed to predict, and finds himself stuck in small-town hell. Just when thingscouldn't get worse, they get worse; Phil wakes the next morning to find it's Groundhog Day all overagain... and again... and again.

Caddyshack

Comical goings on at an exclusive golf club. All the members are wealthy and eccentric, and all the staff are poor and slightly less eccentric. The main character is 'Danny'; he's a caddy who will do almost anything to raise money to go to college. There are many subplots, including the assistant green keeper's pursuit of a cute (obviously stuffed) gopher.

A no-brainer that has become a low-brow classic, this 1980 comedy makes anarchy the rule of the day, unleashing the antics of Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Chevy Chase. Caddyshack is about the scheme of a vulgar land developer (Dangerfield) who wants to build condominiums on the site of a ritzy country club. Director Harold Ramis (who later reunited with Murray to make Groundhog Day) is content to let the comedy follow a variety of wacky detours, most notably Murray's maniacal war with a gopher that has been digging up the golf course. Dangerfield ultimately steals the show, firing off a battery of one-liners, insults, and tasteless gags. Caddyshack is the kind of movie some people have been known to watch several times a year, reciting every line of dialogue like the followers of a bizarre comedic ritual. --Jeff Shannon

Club Paradise

Pack your bags for Club Paradise the Caribbean resort where the good times and laughter come at you in waves. Academy Award (R) Winner Robin Williams steers their crazed course of this tropical romp as an ex-Chicago fireman who uses a sizable disability settlement to transform a remote island watering hole into a lucrative tourist waterland. Peter O'Toole Twiggy Rick Moranis Andrea Martin Eugene Levy and other comic cohorts cheerfully cavort (and Jimmy Cliff musically riffs) under the breezy direction of Harold Ramis (National Lampoon's Vacation Caddyshack) for a lark that The New Yorker's Pauline Kael judged "as pleasant as can be."Running Time: 95 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569734029 Manufacturer No: 73402

Robin Williams went through a period in the mid '80s when he looked like he'd turned into the next Richard Pryor: yet another brilliant standup comic neutered by the script mills of the Hollywood studios. Indeed, Williams seems almost like a spectator in this film, reacting to a supporting cast extremely deep in talent doing what they can with the mediocre script by Brian Doyle-Murray and director Harold Ramis. Williams plays a heroic Chicago fireman, who is injured and retires after saving several lives in a fire. He takes his insurance settlement and buys a resort on a poor Caribbean island (the film was shot in Jamaica). He spends the rest of the time playing straight man to a gaggle of guests that includes such SCTV alumni as Rick Moranis, Andrea Gross, Eugene Levy, and Robin Duke, as well as Jimmy Cliff and Peter O'Toole. Occasionally rising to the level of mild amusement, Club Paradise is, disappointingly, little more than a series of hit-and-miss sketches strung together by the feeblest of plots. --Marshall Fine

Analyze This

Cast Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal together in a film and it should be a sucker's bet as to who's going to be funnier and who's going to give the more nuanced performance. Somehow, though, De Niro walks away with most of the laughs in Analyze This, a buddy action-comedy about a mob boss (De Niro, natch) suffering from panic attacks who makes a nebbishy shrink (Crystal, natch) an offer he can't refuse--actually, it's not really an offer, it's a command. The good doctor is forced to help the gangster get in touch with his feelings. Had the brilliant TV series The Sopranos not underscored how thin and watery and shticky director-cowriter Harold Ramis's approach to such potentially rich material actually is, the movie--a hit in theaters and De Niro's biggest film ever--would seem more fresh and kicky. De Niro's definitely a hoot as the ever milder menace, and Crystal actually concentrates on giving a credible performance opposite the acting legend (alas, he doesn't turn his character's fear of his patient into inspired comedy, as Alan Arkin did in Grosse Pointe Blank). The conclusion devolves into the requisite gunplay, and Chazz Palminteri and Lisa Kudrow are criminally wasted as an opposing mob boss and Crystal's fiancée, respectively, but overall, it's breezy fun. --David Kronke

The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton lead an all-star cast in this hilarious and unpredictable thriller that critics are calling "very funny stuff" (Richard Roeper Ebert & Roeper).When lawyer Charlie (Cusack) and his partner Vic (Thornton) steal from a mob boss they think they've pulled off the perfect crime. But when they race through a night filled with mayhem lust and lethal surprises they realize that the biggest risk they'll take will be trusting each other.From the director of Analyze This and Groundhog Day The Ice Harvest cracks with outrageous laughs and slippery twists that will keep you guessing until the very end!System Requirements:Running Time: 89 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 025192629624 Manufacturer No: 26296

Holiday movies don't get much darker, or more darkly humorous, than The Ice Harvest, an offbeat comedy that defies expectations. The involvement of director Harold Ramis might lead some to expect a straight-up comedy like Groundhog Day or Analyze This, but despite Ramis's fine and atypically subdued work here, it's the writers (Robert Benton and Richard Russo) who put a stronger stamp on their adaptation of the novel by Scott Phillips. Benton and Russo previously collaborated on Nobody's Fool and Twilight (with Benton also directing), and those films are similar in tone and spirit to this quirky, modern-day film noir, set on a freezing Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, where mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) has a lot on his mind. He's just stolen $2 million from his boss (Randy Quaid), he can't trust his partner Vic (Billy Bob Thornton), he's secretly in love with the manager (Connie Nielsen) of the strip bar he owns, and his best friend (Oliver Platt, giving yet another terrific performance) is married to his ex-wife. Before the night's over, several murders will complicate matters even further, and throughout it all, The Ice Harvest is anchored by Cusack's good-natured presence in a bad-natured story that dares to combine double-crosses and bloodshed with elusive yuletide cheer. It's a strange but oddly appealing combination, not for all tastes but refreshing for that very same reason. --Jeff Shannon