An Overlooked Bill Murray Movie Is Blowing Up On Netflix
The Bill Murray film holds a solid rating on Rotten Tomatoes where audiences have given it a score of 78% and critics 77%.
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When someone says “Bill Murray comedy”, a lot of movies likely come to mind. He’s been the star of many Wes Anderson movies, like Rushmore and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. He’s been Peter Venkman in the Ghostbusters movies. He made a memorable and comedic appearance in Zombieland. One of his more overlooked films, St. Vincent, is now being rediscovered on streaming on Netflix.
St. Vincent was first released in movie theaters in 2014. The movie co-stars Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts. Bill Murray plays Vincent, a war veteran and a generally grumpy guy. Melissa McCarthy plays Maggie, a recently divorced mother who moves into the house next door to Vincent. Even though Vincent generally likes to avoid people, he decides to take on the role of babysitter for Maggie’s son for $11 an hour. The two share many misadventures at places babysitters don’t normally take children, like race tracks.
Meanwhile, Maggie’s son is attending a religious school and learning about saints. He takes these lessons into his time with Bill Murray’s Vincent. For Maggie’s son, the story is a coming-of-age tale about his parents’ divorce and the lessons he learned from school and his grumpy neighbor. For the audience, it’s a funny movie with some heart to it.
The Bill Murray film holds a solid rating on Rotten Tomatoes where audiences have given it a score of 78% and critics 77%. Those who enjoy the story say that they liked the comedic aspects and enjoyed the heartwarming moments along the way. Those who didn’t enjoy the movie felt that it veered too far into the sentimental parts of the story, where the young boy comes to see Vincent as a dedicated man who made sacrifices in his life for the greater good.
In 2014, the comedy did quite well at the box office. While it wasn’t a Marvel blockbuster, comedies don’t expect to be. St. Vincent was made on a budget of $13 million and brought in over $54 million worldwide, earning back more than three times its budget. Even with those solid numbers, St. Vincent isn’t one of Murray’s or McCarthy’s well-known films, and fans are now discovering this unexpected movie on Netflix, where it’s stayed steadily in the top ten most watched movies in recent weeks.
For a look at a very grumpy Bill Murray in St. Vincent, watch the trailer below.
St. Vincent came out in 2014, a busy year in Bill Murray’s career. The year also saw the release of The Monuments Men. The film was written and directed by George Clooney, who also starred in the project alongside Murray and Matt Damon. The ensemble cast made the movie stand out, but unfortunately, it didn’t do particularly well at the box office or with audiences, only pulling in a 44% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The year also saw Bill Murray star in another Wes Anderson movie. The Grand Budapest Hotel has remained a hit with audiences. The story holds an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The actor probably knew this one was going to be well-received as his projects with Wes Anderson often are, but it was likely a relief in his year full of hits and misses. His final film that year was a role in Jim Carrey’s Dumb And Dumber To, a movie that helped Jim Carrey decide to swear off sequels altogether.
What’s next for Bill Murray? It seems that he is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Ant-Man 3. This casting was approached with some skepticism at first, because early reports came about after Bill Murray appeared to make a bit of a slip up during an interview. Marvel likes to keep their casting choices secret. Murray told an interviewer that he was working on an upcoming project with Peyton Reed. The media immediately honed in on the fact that Peyton Reed’s upcoming project is Ant-Man 3. Since then, Bill Murray has been fairly tight-lipped about the situation. He tried to backtrack. Now, it’s more well known that the actor seems to have a role as a villain in the Marvel movie, but he’s determined to not talk about it anymore.
For now, it’s enough to know that Bill Murray is still around and making more exciting films for fans. Audiences who want to see some of his popular work from the past can check out St. Vincent streaming on Netflix.
