Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      From the Uncharted lighter to the giraffe plushie. Read More
    • 2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      From Brendan Fraser and Angela Bassett to a potential upset in Best Actress, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. Read More
    • Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Here are the 18 contestants who will be vying for $1 million. Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. Bill Murray Movie Binge? Try 14 Essentials and a Few Bonus Picks

Bill Murray Movie Binge? Try 14 Essentials and a Few Bonus Picks

Before seeing ''St. Vincent,'' marathon this list, from ''Caddyshack'' to ''Rushmore'' to ''Zombieland''
By Joe McGovern Updated October 15, 2014 at 05:00 PM EDT
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Meatballs (1979)

Bill Murray | After a couple of seasons on Saturday Night Live , Murray chose a PG-rated comedy about camp for his first starring role. It established himÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

After a couple of seasons on Saturday Night Live, Murray chose a PG-rated comedy about camp for his first starring role. It established him as a performer who's fun for the whole family, a reputation which holds true to this day—though also allowed his cynical worldview to permeate, especially when his malcontent counselor leads the kids in a chant about life: ''It just doesn't matter!''

1 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Caddyshack (1980)

Bill Murray | In the beloved country-club comedy, Murray ad-libbed the role of the speech-impaired groundsman, who equates killing a gopher with winning the war in Vietnam. It'sÂ…
Credit: Getty Images

In the beloved country-club comedy, Murray ad-libbed the role of the speech-impaired groundsman, who equates killing a gopher with winning the war in Vietnam. It's the comic version of Marlon Brando's nonsensical garbling in Apocalypse Now.

2 of 15

3 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Stripes (1981)

Bill Murray | ''Chicks dig me,'' says Murray, as a new Army recruit introducing himself to the platoon. ''Because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do it'sÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

''Chicks dig me,'' says Murray, as a new Army recruit introducing himself to the platoon. ''Because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do it's usually something unusual.''

3 of 15

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Tootsie (1982)

Bill Murray | As Dustin Hoffman's playwright roommate, Murray is not a part of the movie's main narrative but rather a sort of essential Greek Chorus, offering dryÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

As Dustin Hoffman's playwright roommate, Murray is not a part of the movie's main narrative but rather a sort of essential Greek Chorus, offering dry wit commentary on the story's absurdity as it rolls towards its climax, and culminating in his delivery of this movie's best line: ''That is one nutty hospital.''

4 of 15

Advertisement

5 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Ghostbusters (1984)

Bill Murray | His sarcasm has never been sharper than in the scene where he arrives at Sigourney Weaver's apartment only to find her possessed by a demon.Â…
Credit: Everett Collection

His sarcasm has never been sharper than in the scene where he arrives at Sigourney Weaver's apartment only to find her possessed by a demon. ''That's a different look for you, isn't it?'' he says. Other bon mots: ''You know you could've picked up the place if you were expecting someone.'' ''I guess the roses worked, huh?'' ''We never talk anymore.'' And when she speaks in a dog's growl: ''What a lovely singing voice you must have.''

5 of 15

6 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Scrooged (1988)

Bill Murray | This holiday perennial gets funnier and nastier as the years go by. In one scene, a technician can't get antlers to stick on the cuteÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

This holiday perennial gets funnier and nastier as the years go by. In one scene, a technician can't get antlers to stick on the cute little head of a mouse and Murray—as the classic Dickens antagonist, smartly updated to a lonely showbiz executive—asks him, ''Have you tried staples?''

6 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Quick Change (1990)

Image
Credit: Everett Collection

Murray codirected this clever, underappreciated caper costarring Geena Davis and Randy Quaid as part of a trio of bank robbers struggling to flee New York City after pulling off a big heist. Though comic, there's an undercurrent of malaise from Murray that presages the direction his career would go with filmmakers Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola. His clown thief is, of course, ''the crying-on-the-inside kind.''

7 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

What About Bob? (1991)

Bill Murray | A horror-film premise—psych patient embeds himself with doctor's family—is bent into a summer comedy, with Murray and Richard Dreyfuss darkly jousting as the patient andÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

A horror-film premise—psych patient embeds himself with doctor's family—is bent into a summer comedy, with Murray and Richard Dreyfuss darkly jousting as the patient and doctor, respectively. No other Bill Murray movie better touches upon his divided persona, that peculiar split in which he can be one minute adorable, the next minute arch.

8 of 15

Advertisement

9 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Groundhog Day (1993)

Bill Murray | Murray's most self-examining role is in Harold Ramis's existential comedy, which has grown richer and more complex in the decades since its release. Not manyÂ…
Credit: Louis Goldman

Murray's most self-examining role is in Harold Ramis's existential comedy, which has grown richer and more complex in the decades since its release. Not many dramas—let alone comedies—raise as many weighty existential issues about the fears we all have of doing the same thing for every day of our lives.

9 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Kingpin (1996)

Bill Murray | His raccoon's hide of a toupee is merely the tip of the lunacy in this Woody Harrelson-led bowling farce by the Farrelly brothers. Murray isÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

His raccoon's hide of a toupee is merely the tip of the lunacy in this Woody Harrelson-led bowling farce by the Farrelly brothers. Murray is only onscreen for about 20 minutes, but he owns every over-the-top second as his own. In a pricelessly sick TV commercial in the movie, he offers his services as a dad to fatherless children...with very bosomy mothers.

10 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Rushmore (1998)

Bill Murray | Murray wasn't well-tuned to dramatic roles when he tried one in 1984's The Razor's Edge . Fourteen years later, Wes Anderson offered him the roleÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

Murray wasn't well-tuned to dramatic roles when he tried one in 1984's The Razor's Edge. Fourteen years later, Wes Anderson offered him the role of Herman Blume, the depressed millionaire at the heart of Rushmore, and Murray delivered a serious performance that still seemed right in his wheelhouse. ''Take dead aim on the rich boys,'' he says in his first scene. ''Just remember they can buy anything. But they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it. Thank you.''

11 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lost in Translation (2003)

Bill Murray | Happiness, levity, melancholy, yearning—emotions that all dance in Murray's eyes during a tender, unironic karaoke rendition of Roxy Music's ''More Than This.'' Like Wes AndersonÂ…
Credit: Yoshio Sato

Happiness, levity, melancholy, yearning—emotions that all dance in Murray's eyes during a tender, unironic karaoke rendition of Roxy Music's ''More Than This.'' Like Wes Anderson five years earlier, Sofia Coppola understood how to use Murray's droll melancholy as the character framework for a successful man starved for passion in midlife.

12 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

13 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)

Bill Murray | Murray has appeared in every Wes Anderson movie since Rushmore . His only leading role is also his best, as a grief-stricken oceanographer hunting forÂ…
Credit: Philippe Antonello

Murray has appeared in every Wes Anderson movie since Rushmore. His only leading role is also his best, as a grief-stricken oceanographer hunting for the shark that ate his best friend. In the film's most moving scene, he finally comes face to face with the beast and says, with that unmistakable Murray resignation in his voice, ''I wonder if it remembers me.''

13 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

14 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Broken Flowers (2005)

Bill Murray | The quietest performance of his career is in this philosophical road movie by Jim Jarmusch. Murray plays an ex?ladies' man who catches wind of aÂ…
Credit: David Lee

The quietest performance of his career is in this philosophical road movie by Jim Jarmusch. Murray plays an ex?ladies' man who catches wind of a long-lost son and revisits his old flames, leading to beautiful scenes of remembering things past with Jessica Lange and Sharon Stone.

14 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement

15 of 15

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Stolen Scenes Worth Mentioning

Bill Murray | The guy is great even with little screen time, such as his hysterical five-minute cameo as himself in 2009's Zombieland (shown)...or his giddy part inÂ…

The guy is great even with little screen time, such as his hysterical five-minute cameo as himself in 2009's Zombieland (shown)...or his giddy part in 1986's Little Shop of Horrors (in a role originated by Jack Nicholson) as a masochist who becomes aroused in the presence of Steve Martin's deranged dentist...or his neckbrace-wearing lawyer in 1998's overlooked Wild Things...or as the doomed buffoon Polonius in a modern-day 2000 remake of Hamlet...as another lawyer, this time a stop-motion badger, in 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox....as a transgender actor in 1994's Ed Wood?. The list goes on...

15 of 15

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Joe McGovern

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 15 Meatballs (1979)
    2 of 15 Caddyshack (1980)
    3 of 15 Stripes (1981)
    4 of 15 Tootsie (1982)
    5 of 15 Ghostbusters (1984)
    6 of 15 Scrooged (1988)
    7 of 15 Quick Change (1990)
    8 of 15 What About Bob? (1991)
    9 of 15 Groundhog Day (1993)
    10 of 15 Kingpin (1996)
    11 of 15 Rushmore (1998)
    12 of 15 Lost in Translation (2003)
    13 of 15 The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
    14 of 15 Broken Flowers (2005)
    15 of 15 Stolen Scenes Worth Mentioning

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    Bill Murray Movie Binge? Try 14 Essentials and a Few Bonus Picks
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.