Starring Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, Terry Kiser, Catherine Mary Stewart
Written By: Robert Klane
Directed By: Ted Kotcheff
Studio: MGM
Buy on Amazon.com link

Weekend at Bernie’s is considered one of the wackiest comedies of the late 80’s, with quite a silly plot and good laughs. Starring Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, and Terry Kiser as Bernie, Weekend at Bernie’s still holds up as one of my favorite beach movies. If you are feeling down in the dumps and want a fun summer movie, than this is it.

Larry and Richard were just two lowly clerks at a New York insurance company. They worked weekends just to work their way up the corporate ladder, until one very hot Sunday when Richard and Larry stumble upon a $2 million dollar fraud account with company. The next morning, they report it to Bernie (Kiser) in hopes this will bump them up in the ranks, and Bernie appears to be real happy with their findings. He then invites them out to his Hampton Island beach house for the weekend, a way of showing his appreciation. As it turns out, Bernie is the one conducting fraudulent activities with the company and has dealings with the mob, in which whom he asks to kill Larry and Richard. The real silliness starts when the mob guys want Bernie dead because he’s a liability to their group, and plus he is having sex with the mob boss’ girlfriend. When Richard and Larry arrive they find Bernie a little too relaxed in his office and turns out he was killed with a lethal syringe. Both of the guys freak out, and they are disappointed Bernie couldn’t have died after their promised fun filled weekend. In any other situation, a normal person would get the cops involved immediately, but these lunatics want to see how long the pompous, self absorbed snobs of Hampton Island can go without noticing Bernie is dead. Hey, who wouldn’t want to enjoy a huge beach front mansion, and suffer a little with a dead guy with a smile on his face. I mean, the weekend could have been spent with them filling out paperwork in a hot police station, but that wouldn’t have been such a great movie now, would it?

I think this was Andrew McCarthy’s last movie until he vanished into movie obscurity, and Jonathan Silverman hasn’t done much besides a short run TV show on NBC. Hell, Terry Kiser hasn’t done anything besides Bernie as far as I’m concerned. I think the guy still gets noticed just for his role as Bernie. Well I guess you can’t forget the sequel to Weekend at Bernie’s, which really wasn’t a weekend at Bernie’s at all, but in the Caribbean. Yeah, that movie wasn’t that good but hey, there might be a sequel to that one as well! Haha. Maybe they’ll dig up his body and have him going to Alaska this time.

You really have suspend disbelief as you watch Weekend at Bernie’s because it’s so silly and it just wouldn’t happen. It’s great to see the guys strap and tie Bernie to themselves as they try to walk down the boat dock to escape and get away from the angry mob guys. The mob still think Bernie is not dead, even after several successful attempts on his life. McCarthy is great as Larry, the care free guy who just wants to enjoy his weekend and try and meet some ladies and Richard is more the conservative type who wants to call the police but is dragged into all the messes with Larry. Both make a great team and with a dead Bernie around, it makes for a great screwball comedy. The movie is cheesy and but loads of fun. A summer isn’t complete without me watching this movie once. I’m glad MGM/Sony re-released this movie on DVD because the previous versions didn’t look so hot and I believe it was only in standard format. Now you can have the option of Standard or widescreen, which of course I watch in widescreen. So the movie is worth getting on DVD if you don’t feel like trying to find it on cable. Plus the quality is a little better.

Features:
-Widescreen (16×9- 1.85:1) and Full Screen Versions
-Theatrical Trailer

Audio:

Video:

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Arrival at Hampton Island, Sex with a dead guy, Boat ride with Bernie.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 97 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: