"Weekend at Bernie's" is one of those classic 80's movies that has a fan following. This is an instance where a viewer has to suspend belief when it comes to the plot, but if you can do that, you will find that the movie is funny.
Richard Parker and Larry Wilson are two young employees for an insurance company who discover an embezzlement scheme while reviewing financial data. The duo immediately go to their boss, Bernie Lomax, and inform him of their findings. As a result, Bernie praises their work, and invites Richard and Larry to his beach house for the weekend.
It turns out that Bernie is the one who has conducted the embezzlement, and he wants his gangster friends to get rid of Richard and Larry. A plan is formed to kill them. However, the leader of the gang changes everything after Bernie leaves and informs one of his hit men to take out Bernie instead.
Richard and Larry get to the beach and find their way to Bernie's house. Bernie is there, but has already been killed by the hit-man. Once they realize he is no longer alive, Richard and Larry panic, not sure of what to do. After this, a floating party invades Bernie's house, and the two do all that they can to make Bernie seem he is alive, and at the same time try to figure out what to do after the party leaves the house.
Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy were perfectly cast as Richard and Larry, respectively. The script is lowbrow, but does have many funny lines. Don Calfa deserves mention as the hit-man who kills Bernie. He plays the role very well and also garners laughs. And of course, Terry Kiser does a great job portraying Bernie, and he creates his share of laughs throughout the film.
"Weekend at Bernie's" is one of those films that can be watched over and over and still make someone laugh. As previously mentioned, you must suspend belief, and if you do that, you can enjoy this movie. I definitely recommend it.
Weekend at Bernie's
1989
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Crime
Weekend at Bernie's
1989
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Crime
Plot summary
Two young insurance corporation employees try to pretend that their murdered employer is alive by puppeteering his dead body, leading a hitman to attempt to track him down to finish him off.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
February 20, 2020 at 04:22 PM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
An enjoyable comedy
silly fun
Lotta fun with McCarthy and Silverman as two guys who uncover a scam in the office. They present the info to their boss who's so grateful he invites them to his kick ass house for Labor Day weekend. When they show up they find him dead and decide it would benefit both of them to let the parties go on with everyone thinking Kiser is still kickin'. Contrary to what most say, the core of this film is not the dead body antics. The real attraction here is the rappor between McCarthy and Silverman, who play very well off each other because their characters are such opposites. And occasionally Kiser is thrown into the mix and the three make one of the more odder comdey teams. When they do drag him along, its pretty good stuff, with them trying to fake everyone out that hes walking or waving. And then the battering of the body, which is hard to not laugh at. When Bernies being dragged or bounced or dropped its perfectly silly. Even before the main action starts, theres some good stuff in the beginning dealing with Silvermans love life and McCarthys constant annoyance of him about it. So at almost every point in the film theres usually something to laugh at.
feel the Bern
This absurd comedy elicits no shortage of laughs. "Weekend at Bernie's" is one of those movies where a mishap snowballs. I laughed to think of how the main characters were feeling as they had to make it look as if their dead boss was alive. The whole thing is low humor, but anyone with a sense of humor is bound to enjoy it. At the very least, guys are bound to enjoy seeing so many women in bikinis (Gwen is one of the ultimate hotties).
Ted Kotcheff also directed "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz", "North Dallas Forty", "First Blood" and the original "Fun with Dick and Jane". Co-star Don Calfa also co-starred in "Foul Play" and "Return of the Living Dead".