HAROLD RAMIS

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BB

USA, 1980.  Orion Pictures.  Screenplay by Brian Doyle-Murray, Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney.  Cinematography by Stevan Larner.  Produced by Douglas Kenney.  Music by Johnny Mandel.  Production Design by Stan Jolley.  Costume Design by Eric Seelig.  Film Editing by William C. Carruth.  

Old money and new money collide at an exclusive golf course when crass millionaire Rodney Dangerfield gains entrance and infuriates Ted Knight, who wants to keep things traditional.

Young Michael O’Keefe longs to go to college and knows that his only chance is to kiss up to Knight and hope to get scholarship support from him. Bill Murray is the course’s groundskeeper whose hatred for one particular, pesky gopher occupies him throughout the film in his attempts to eliminate the rodent once and for all. These strands and more (including Chevy Chase as a helpful golfer who feels protective of O’Keefe and his future) oversee the whining plot of this film as Dangerfield makes plans to convert the course into a new property development while Knight fights back with old school snobbery.

It’s possible that it was fresh and funny when it first came out (it was popular enough to spawn a terrible sequel), but today the jokes are mostly flat and the film is a long drawn-out collection of skits.