Friday, March 9, 2012

Favorite (Bill Murray) Scene Friday! Larger Than Life: The Magic Button

I can't really say that Larger Than Life – a film about Bill Murray and an elephant travelling cross country – is a bad film, because I honestly don't remember disliking it. But I was about 11 the only time I saw it, so what the hell did I know? Its Rotten Tomatoes score is also 11, so we'll just have to go ahead and say that it's not one of Murray's greatest achievements. I'll have plenty of other chances to post scenes from stellar Murray movies when it's not his month here on the blog, though.

Wikipedia
As I mentioned, I don't remember much about the film, but I do recall today's scene, and it made enough of an impression on me to stick in my mind all these years later.

In this scene, we meet up with Bill's character – motivational speaker Jack Corcoran – after he's inherited an elephant from his deceased father and decided to transport it across the U.S. Jack's rented a truck to transport the pachyderm, but he doesn't know how to drive it. Most of Murray's performance in this clip leaves a little something to be desired, but when he hits the magic button trying to adjust his seat – comedy gold. I'd like to have Bill's frightened screams as a ringtone.


Murray's deadpan expression at the end of the clip is great too. What are those, almond M&Ms? Delicious.

2 comments:

  1. Nice one! Always happy that Murray continued to work when many of his SNL alumni are no longer bankable stars. The old man has still got it.

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    1. @Markus - Murray's definitely gotta have the bets post SNL career out there. He probably should have gotten an Oscar by now. Can't wait for Moonrise Kingdom. Thanks for reading!

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