The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)

This Bill Murray comedy, modelled after the spy farces of the sixties, has lots in common with Austin Powers and nothing at all to do with the Hitchcock movies "The Man Who Knew Too Much", with Murray, as droll as always and especially funny doing a traditional Russian folk dance towards the end of the movie, playing an American in London who thinks himself a participant in a theatre sport event, not realising he is in fact embroiled in a political assassination plot.

★★★☆☆

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Because they (Ivan Reitman's son Jason, who writes and directs the movie, and a group of producers that includes Dan Ackroyd) are trying here to make a movie that appeals nostalgically to kids of the 80s but also enthuses a new generation of millenials about the Ghostbuster franchise (after the vapid Melissa McCarthy one pretended the original didn't exist and aimed itself solely at the pre-teen market), the set up of Ghostbusters: Afterlife is necessarily laboured with the movie adopting the deliberate pacing of, say, the original Christopher Reeve Superman movie to build links between the ghostbusting action in 80s Manhattan and that in 2021 smalltown Summerville, Oklahoma where young Phoebe and her brother Trevor stumble across Ghostbuster research into ghouls called Zuul and Gozer.

★★★☆☆

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Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

The appeal of Wes Anderson movies continues to elude me even now I've watched Moonrise Kingdom, his 2012 - what? Adventure? Children's book come to life? - about a New England island community searching for a pair of child runaways, a story the director again presents in his trademark fastidious style with those elaborate, unwarranted visuals that stifle all else including the performances of innumerable Hollywood stars who are all forced to act like simpletons.

★★☆☆☆

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Quick Change (1990)

A trio of friends nonchalantly carries off a bank robbery in the opening scenes of this hilarious Bill Murray comedy only to encounter trouble afterwards when an uncooperative New York City throws its criminals, mafiosi, an early career Stanley Tucci, inept taxi drivers, and stubborn bus drivers in the way of their easy getaway!

★★★★☆

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Ghostbusters (1984)

It is hard to imagine, despite decades of advances in cinema technology and the various sequels and reboots that started with the Melissa McCarthy one in 2016, that anyone is ever going to improve upon this classic 80s comedy - even rewatching it today, so many years after its initial release in 1984, it impresses with its special effects and comedy, and Bill Murray is in top form as the drily hilarious Dr Peter Venkman who, with his fellow Ghostbusters, takes on New York's growing number of paranormal problems including the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

★★★★★

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Groundhog Day (1993)

Bill Murray is perfect as the worldweary, bad-mannered weather presenter Phil who finds himself living the same excruciating day over and over in small town America, in this hilarious 80s comedy classic from Harold Ramis which sees Phil first becoming dismayed by his situation, then taking full advantage of it, and finally learning the lesson that frees him.

★★★★★

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Ghostbusters II (1989)

Apparently not even Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, the writers, thought Ghostbusters II was a good idea - it was never going to improve upon the original - but as far as studio-driven money-grabbing sequels go, it is pretty fun: like a Lethal Weapon sequel, the cast has grown and so things are busier - Dana has a baby, for one, and there are several new characters standing between the Ghostbusters and the city mayor, and Louis Tully has been adopted into the Ghostbusters' circle, so his role of goofball demigod conduit is handed over to newcomer Peter MacNichol who plays a very Rick Moranis-ish 'Igor' assistant to the evil Vigo - when their evil plot requires a loan of Sigouney Weaver's baby, the Ghostbusters get their proton packs back on.

★★★☆☆

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St Vincent (2014)

After an unpleasant first twenty minutes of vice, noise and yelling, this comedy drama in the vein of 'Little Miss Sunshine' hits a more palatable bittersweet note with its story of a kid being looked after by a cranky old man; fans of Bill Murray and Little Miss Sunshine will forgive the movie's conceits and excesses.

★★☆☆☆

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Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)

Wes Anderson brings Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox to life in his usual self-consciously quirky way, occasionally amusing with his all-American The Honeymooners approach to the British text, but more occasionally irking.

★★★☆☆

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Lost In Translation (2003)

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson float around Tokyo detached and lost but end up connecting and in a country as inaccessible to outsiders as Japan - a country that Director Sofia Coppola clearly knows well - the connection they form is a strong one.

★★★★☆

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