Brian Doyle-Murray Movies
American actor/writer Brian Doyle-Murray began his professional performing career at Chicago's Second City comedy troupe. Once established, Brian was instrumental in bringing his younger brother Bill into Second City. While Bill Murray's star ascended, Brian stayed busy as a writer and comic character actor. He co-wrote the 1980 comedy hit Caddyshack and had choice supporting roles in such films as Modern Problems (1981), Club Paradise (1986) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). Brian has also appeared to excellent effect in several of his brother Bill's starring features, most recently in the hilarious role of the lugubrious mayor of Punxsutawney in Groundhog Day (1993). One of the staff writers of the earliest years of Saturday Night Live, Brian Doyle-Murray has remained active on television as a guest actor, as a regular on the 1991 sitcom Good Sports, and in such made for TV movies as Babe Ruth (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The first film in the Vacation comedy franchise stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, an ad exec who becomes consumed with taking his family cross-country to Wally World, a California amusement park. Less a vacation than a descent into a peculiarly American kind of hell, the Griswolds suffer through an endless series of catastrophes, culminating in a run-in with the law. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
- 1983
Fashion designer Linda Dobbins (Karen Valentine) smells a rat when her salesman husband dies in a highly suspicous airplane explosion during a European business trip. To get some answers, Linda retraces her husband's sales route, only to discover that there was a lot she didn't know about her late spouse's activities. As if that revelation wasn't enough, her life is now in danger as well. Clearly inspired by the theatrical feature Charade (not to mention every other woman-in-jeopardy yarn ever filmed), the made-for-TV Illusions was first aired by CBS on January 18, 1983. (Incidentally, if France looks a lot like Quebec in the film, there's a good reason for it.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An air-traffic controller (Chevy Chase) is having the worst luck: first his girlfriend leaves him, and then he experiences a nuclear disaster. His life begins to pick up after he realizes that the radiation fallout has given him magical telekinetic powers. He decides to settle a few scores with his new-found power. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Patti D'Arbanville, (more)
- 1980
- R
In this animated Tarzan spoof, Tarzoon of the Jungle travels through his tropical home in the company of his friend, June. This film features the voices of "Saturday Night Live" stars Bill Murray and John Belushi. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Belushi, Brian Doyle-Murray, (more)
The smash success Caddyshack became a prototype for countless other wacky T&A-tinged teen comedies of the early 1980s. At an exclusive country club for WASPish snobs, an ambitious young caddy (Michael O'Keefe) from an overpopulated home eagerly pursues a caddy scholarship in hopes of attending college and, in turn, avoiding a job at the lumber yard. In order to succeed, he must first win the favor of the elitist Judge Smails (Ted Knight), then the caddy golf tournament which the good judge sponsors. Of course, there are love interests as well -- one good, one naughty -- not to mention several foes he must vanquish along the way. The story itself serves to string along a series of slapstick scenes involving an obnoxious nouveau riche land developer (Rodney Dangerfield) who wants to turn the site into a condominium community; an oddball, Zen-quoting, millionaire slacker/golf ace (Chevy Chase); and a psychotic groundskeeper (Bill Murray) with a gopher-fixation. Caddyshack was a bona fide hit; throughout the '80s and '90s, director Harold Ramis would continue to create such hits as Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, (more)
- 198z
Gallows humor abounds in this satirical compilation of skits. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Although season two of SCTV appears to be higher-budgeted than season one, the series' strong suit is not its production polish but instead the brilliant ensemble work of John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, and Dave Thomas (Harold Ramis is largely absent this season). The hilarity begins with "In Concert with Lola Heatherton, featuring Catherine O'Hara as the squeaky-voiced, immensely undertalented Lola. In the next episode, horror star Dr. Tongue (John Candy) gives us a few frights in 3-D. Soon afterward, a zany story arc commences as the dreaded Leutonian Liberation Front kidnaps station manager Moe Green (Harold Ramis), prompting a lachrymose "Solid Gold Telethon" with an all-star lineup including Sammy Maudlin (played "in all seriousness" by Joe Flaherty) and funnyman Bobby Bittman (played by Eugene Levy: "Howareyaaaa?"). Ultimately, the appropriately named Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) emerges as the new manager. Subsequent season two highlights include "The Writers Strike," "1978 Melonville Municipal Elections," "Triple Feature Movie" (three pictures, one plot), "Chinese Fairy Tale" (with host Lin Ye Tang [Dave Thomas] having to apologize for program content before the show even begins); "SCTV's 30th Anniversary" (Don't miss that vintage clip of Kirk Douglas guesting on "What's My Shoe Size?"), "Sid Dithers, Private Eye," "Tax Advice With Liberace," and "The Flaming Turkey Ballet." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, (more)
- 1976
The Canadian-based sketch comedy series SCTV wastes no time in setting its devastatingly satirical tone as it enters its first season. The opening episode begins with Dave Thomas' sidesplitting commercial for the "Laser-Matic Camera," then segues into the first session of "Johnny LaRue Exercise," featuring John Candy. Later on, newscaster Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) arrogantly upstages co-anchor Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) on "SCTV A.M. News Today"; and the broadcast day concludes with "Masterpiece Theater's" dramatization of the life of Sigmund Freud. ("Smoking that phallic symbol again, eh?") Subsequent first season episodes include such classic bits as "The Leutonian Hour," hosted by the fabulous Schmenge Brothers ("Ve arrre? The happy vanderers!"); the first broadcast of "The Sammy Maudlin Show"; the cautionary children's fable (not suitable for children) "Beauty and the Beets"; the sensitive French film masterpiece "Therese et Joe" ("Ah, oui? je comprends"); "Leave it to Beaver 25th Anniversary" (almost as depressing as the genuine Beaver retrospectives of the 1980s); and all four parts in one of Ben Hur, a bargain-basement Biblical epic apparently starring Curly of the Three Stooges. And let's not forget "Paul's Workshop With Paul Fistinyourface," "The Man Who Would Be King of the Popes" (starring Richard Harris, Richard Burton, and Victor Spinetti -- sort of), and the poignant "Lust for Paint," filmed somewhere near the "Louuuuv-ruh." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, (more)
Fuzz treads the line between raucous comedy and gut-churning melodrama. Based on an "87th Precinct" novel by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter), the film stars Burt Reynolds and Jack Weston as, respectively, detectives Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer. Their current assignment is to bring in Deaf Man (Yul Brynner), a mad bomber who has been targeting politicians. A subplot concerning a couple of punks who get their kicks by setting fire to sleeping winos is dramatically justified by the main storyline, but it was this element that caused a lot of trouble for the producers of Fuzz when a pair of real-life teenagers decided to imitate the film. On a lighter note, Raquel Welch co-stars as Detective Eileen McHenry, who is obliged to go undercover -- and under covers -- with fellow officer Bert Kling (Tom Skerritt). And as a bonus, viewers are treated to Burt Reynolds' first "drag" scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, (more)
- PG
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Ghostbusters
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their government grants run out, the former three go into business as The Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and nerdish Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious sendup of every Godzilla movie ever made-and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City? When the script for Ghostbusters was forged by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, John Belushi was slated to play the Bill Murray role; Belushi's death in 1982 not only necessitated the hiring of Murray, but also an extensive rewrite. The most expensive comedy made up to 1984, Ghostbusters made money hand over fist, spawning not only a 1989 sequel but also two animated TV series (one of them partially based on an earlier live-action TV weekly, titled The Ghost Busters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Ghostbusters 2
Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their government grants run out, the former three go into business as The Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and nerdish Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious sendup of every Godzilla movie ever made-and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City? When the script for Ghostbusters was forged by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, John Belushi was slated to play the Bill Murray role; Belushi's death in 1982 not only necessitated the hiring of Murray, but also an extensive rewrite. The most expensive comedy made up to 1984, Ghostbusters made money hand over fist, spawning not only a 1989 sequel but also two animated TV series (one of them partially based on an earlier live-action TV weekly, titled The Ghost Busters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Ghostbusters 2
Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
