Weekend at Bernie's (1989)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

*****SPOILER ALERT***** I tried to recreate this with my grandpa and now I'm in prison. They need to add a disclaimer that you shouldn't try this at home! Once I serve my 40-life sentence I'm going to sue the pants off of Bernie.

I do not know what is supposed to be entertaining about this garbage. Maybe in 1989 a movie farce like this was risqué , sexy and funny. It just goes to show how movies have moved on. There are pretty girls aplenty in nice swimwear and the usual crowd of eighties guys who look like porn stars. One of the main characters was obnoxious and the other boring. Yes, its funny pretending a corpse is alive, but not as the one and only joke all the way through the movie. Morons will howl at the Keystone Cops style capers, but they are not subtle or sophisticated. The movie was directed and edited well and the camera-work divine, but what a predictable yawn.

I remember seeing TV spots for this movie in Florida in 1989 and thinking that it made for a great concept. When I eventually rented the VHS tape a few months later it really appealed to my dark sense of humor and I ended up watching it a zillion times. In the 25 years since its release it has become very dated. It's not dated BADLY, but it has aged more than other films of the period.Corporate slackers Richard and Larry (Ted Mosby prototype Jonathan Silverman and 80s person Andrew McCarthy) discover a $4,000,000 fraud hidden away in the cooked books. Their attempt to impress their boss Bernie Lomax (a lovably smug Terry Kiser) with their find leads to an invitation to his Hampton Island home for a summer weekend of babes, booze, and boats. The duo don't realize that they've stumbled on Bernie's embezzlement scam and that he intends to have them quietly killed by the Mob (the organized crime connections are never fully detailed or understood). Mob Boss Vito instead arranges for Bernie to be killed, thus washing his hands of him.Upon arriving at Bernie's lavish home Richard and Larry discover that he ain't quite breathing and most definitely has ceased living. For a variety of reasons they plot to create the illusion that Bernie is still alive, which proves to be easier done than said as his vacuous, drunken neighbors are more interested in drinking his champagne and mooching parties from him than actually being friends.Despite the dark subject matter Weekend at Bernie's plays it safe for the most part, never pushing past its PG-13 boundaries. The physicality of Kiser's performance is impressive as well as funny. You really do believe he is dead and he's brilliant at keeping a straight face (or a smirking one as he dies during a brief moment of pleasure) while being tossed and thrown around. You wouldn't think that playing a dead body would be hard but Kiser's comic timing and skill really pay off.The production design and flat photography are what date this film so much. Although Ted Kotcheff had Wake in Fright and First Blood on his resume by this point he brings very little visual flair to the film and it looks very TV-ish. The poor score by Andy Summers never seems to work with any scene (I have a feeling that his friend Stewart Copeland would have done a better job) and some of the soundtrack choices grate on the ears.What amazes me the most is that about 90% of the dialogue is (bad) ADR. I assume that the sound guy forgot to switch on the mic or something. I can accept it when it comes to dubbing over several F-bombs to keep the movie family-friendly but you'll be surprised at how often the words simply do not match the lips.Skip the sequel. Enjoy this movie for what it is, though it could have been better if it were a few shades darker. And lookout for a hilarious cameo from the director as Richard's dad/butler.

Larry Wilson (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard Parker (Jonathan Silverman) are best friends working under Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser). They discover a serious discrepancy in payouts to life insurance by the company. They don't realize that it's Bernie who's been committing the fraud. Bernie asks the mob to kill the two clueless friends but he is killed instead. When Larry and Richard find Bernie dead in his beach house, they decide to keep the illusion of him being alive to keep the party going.It's a one joke movie, and it's not that funny of a joke. Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman have some fun carrying Bernie around. They work well together. They've got good chemistry. There are some chuckles but the joke wears thin.