Hello, friends in time, and welcome to a regular feature on Cinema 52 where I put my weekly viewing of Back to the Future on hold and watch another movie featuring time travel for comparison. It may not keep me sane, but it will probably always involve one guy shouting, “This doesn’t make any sense!” And that’s good enough for me.

GROUNDHOG DAY (1993)

If you think watching the same movie every week can drive you nuts, try living each day like there’s no tomorrow, whether you want to or not. Groundhog Day follows cynical TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) as he reluctantly makes the trek to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the rodent-centric festivities of the titular holiday. Keeping him company are his chipper producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and his sarcastic cameraman Larry (Chris Elliot), who manage to get on his nerves at every turn. To make matters worse, Phil quickly discovers that it is never not Groundhog Day, and oh my god, why am I writing about this movie like you’ve never heard of it?

Alright, if you really know nothing about this flick, I’ll be nice and give it a proper review, but we’re gonna get all up in this movie in big fat spoiler-y ways, so if you managed to miss this one, just skip to the end when you start seeing bullet points.

WHEN: 1:29 pm EST, January 27th, 2013

WHERE: In the living room of my apartment in Portland, ME

FORMAT: DVD on a Vizio 32″ LED HDTV

COMPANY: None

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STATE: A bit tired and somewhat chilly. I’ve had a revelation about The NeverEnding Story as a myth, so I’m poised to take notes on anything moon-related.

REACTIONS OF NOTE:

• The DVD automatically starts after one run-through of the music. Good thing I was ready.
• The DVD quality is quite grainy. There’s a little hair in the opening sequence I can watch travel across the screen.
• Bastian knows that the attic key is available. How often does he hide in there? Also, why is the key hidden behind glass? Is the attic for emergency use only?

Bastian busted the glass during the last math test. Polynomials are a bitch.

• The matte paintings hold up on the DVD. The filters seem brighter, but the colors are a little washed out.
• The Blu-Ray definitely did a nice job cleaning up the green screen shots. The outlines and the coloring look dismal on the DVD.

WHERE: In the living room of my apartment in Portland, ME (Isla Nublar)

FORMAT: 25th Anniversary Edition Widescreen DVD on a Vizio 32″ LED HDTV

COMPANY: None

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STATE: Eating a quesadilla with tomato soup and drinking iced tea, fairly sleepy, ready for science.

TODAY’S NIFTY VIEWING PLAN:
I’m watching my first five viewings of Back to the Future in reverse chronological order of the format I purchased them in. That’s Blu-Ray, iTunes digital copy, the 25th anniversary DVD, the original DVD release (in fullscreen, ugh, what was I thinking?), and VHS. Also, because science, I set up my phone to take a picture of me every thirty seconds. Never before has watching a man watch a movie been so thrilling!

And in case you were hoping for nose picks, sorry, hangnail and an eye boog.

WHERE: In the living room of my apartment in Portland, ME (Isla Nublar)

FORMAT: iTunes digital copy on an iPhone 4S, wearing Sony clip-on earbuds

COMPANY: None

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STATE: Pretty tired, anxiously awaiting a 100% iPhone charge.

TODAY’S NIFTY VIEWING PLAN:
I’ve decided, in honor of the whole time travel theme, to watch my first five viewings of Back to the Future in reverse chronological order of the format I purchased them in. For the record, that’s Blu-Ray, iTunes digital copy, the 25th anniversary DVD, the original DVD release (in fullscreen, ugh, what was I thinking?), and VHS. Last year, as part of my required weekly Top Gun viewing, I tested out some of the capabilities of the iPhone. Here’s my modified list for tonight’s Back to the Future outing.

• Test the battery. From a full charge, and with the GPS Location Services turned on.
• Judge the quality of my viewing experience. How does it compare to a standard living room set-up?
• Log all interruptions from various apps. One of the shittier aspects of a movie on your phone.
• Siri… no, that was really stupid. Siri is dumb.