Weekend at Bernie's (1989)

Great Fun

This is a laugh out loud comedy about two idiots dragging around a corpse and getting deeper and deeper into trouble. One of the funniest movies ever written. The sequal Weekend at Bernies is almost as good. June 18, 2008

Excellent to have a good time

If you want to live longer you have to laugh a lot. With this motion picture you will spend more than one hour laughing, garanteed.

Amazingly histerical sitations and very good actors too.
June 11, 2008

Weekend at Bernie's - a macabre, slapstick sort of thing, but very funny.

Weekend at Bernie's - a macabre, slapstick sort of thing, but very funny. My son loved it as a teenager, so what does that tell you? However, I laughed through it as well, and I'm a woman over 50. By the way, I am NOT a 3-stooges fan. April 30, 2008

You ask why I gave this movie 5 stars?

I gave this film 5 stars because it is one of those rare movies that made me laugh out loud! This is a very dark comedy about 2 idiots who find their boss dead and convince hundreds of gullible people that he is actually alive. They walk him around a resort, go boating with his remains, have parties. They even convince the hitman who killed Bernie that he's still alive! So, you guessed it, the hitman tries and tries again to "kill" Bernie. The physical humor is absolutely the best. It's a unique concept. I guarantee that you will laugh until you hurt. It's totally 80's with a great theme song sung by Jermaine Stewart. Highly recommended. January 19, 2008

Why don't we just pretend he didn't die? Just for a bit!

Oh, WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S. I remember watching this at a prepubescent age over and over, at a time when the mere sight of someone getting hit by something was funny (so I guess there's the EPIC MOVIE and the like's audience... finally found it). Now, at a college age, I still can enjoy this movie for what it is: a moronic, implausible, yet strangely compellingly funny movie (double adverb, impressive).
The plot, as many may know, involves Larry (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard (Jonathan Silverman), two young up-and-coming insurance guys at a prestigious firm run by Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser), so rich his car is bigger than Larry's apartment. So Larry and Richard are overjoyed when they discover someone has been stealing from the company and bring this to Bernie's attention. He seems appreciative and invites the boys to his beach home for the weekend. They of course agree, and we cut to Bernie asking mobster Vito (Louis Giambalvo... had to look him up as well) to have the boys murdered. Yes, Bernie has been doing the stealing and needs the only 2 guys on his trail snuffed out. Vito decides Bernie is the one he needs out of the way and hires crony Paulie (the reliably funny Don Calfa) to dispose of ol' Bern. So Larry and Richard arrive to a beautiful beach house, beautiful women, a full stock of alcohol, and a party on the way. Oh yeah, and their dead boss, who has been all set up to appear like he has overdosed. Of course they want to call 911 (more Richard than Larry, as Larry's a bit more upset that he couldn't have waited until Monday to kill himself), but then the party starts, and no one seems to notice that Bernie's dead (here's where the critics really start puffing on their 'oh, how ludicrous' pipes), so Larry suggests they just pretend (for a bit) that he's not dead and have a little fun. This plan goes from waiting 10 minutes to waiting until the next day, when they discover Bernie's plan and also that Paulie is on their tail to finish them and Bernie (who he believes is still alive as the boys are doing a pretty nice job of keeping him seemingly animated) off. Add in the girl of Richard's dreams Gwen (Catherine Mary Stewart) to act surprised at every plot turn as Larry and Richard dodge bullets and neighbors, and you have yourself a comedy.
Yes, it's all handled quite ridiculously, but what many critics don't seem to realize is that writer Robert Klane and director Ted Kotcheff are not aiming for Shakespeare here. What the film sets out to do is make people laugh, and I cannot deny it that. Most of the laughs are due to the amazing performance by Kiser, who looks and appears dead the whole way through. Whether flying off the back of boats, over railings, and down ramps or walking with Larry and Richard around town happily, Kiser actually convinces us that he is out of the picture. McCarthy and Silverman are also very funny with their contrasting personalities, Richard the voice of reason and Larry the horndog that has more bad ideas than good ones. So don't expect a comedy classic here, but I would be hard-pressed to find someone that doesn't at least smile throughout the film. January 6, 2008

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