Weekend at Bernie's (1989)

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Brilliant!

A different way of telling a story

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I saw part of this movie and it was funny. Then about 10 minutes into the video the bad language started.The two stars are on the roof doing work that they are supposed to do in the office. The are pretending that they are on the beach and the scene is funny.The are sitting on beach chairs and one of them goes into a small kids pool filled with water as they discuss business.During their discussion Richard uses the word "Christ" in a offensive way. Then the word "god damn" is used.I won't listen to words that are used to offend my God. I did not watch the rest.Now I am watching Weekend at Bernie's 2, 1993 with the same people. The word "bitch" is used but I am going to watch it unless it is like the 1989 one that I stopped watching.

Weekend at Bernie'sRealistically, if you are going to be walking around with a corpse, it's best to do so in a cold climate.However, the friends gallivanting around with a carcass in this comedy aren't interested in retarding its putrefaction.After co-workers and friends, Larry (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard (Jonathan Silverman) uncover insurance fraud at their investment firm, they take their findings to their boss, Bernie (Terry Kiser), who invites them up to his Hamptons home to discuss the matter.But when Bernie's assassinated, the dimwits decide to act as if nothing has happened, pretending that their host is still alive.Through elaborate means, the duo manage to deter the would-be killer, if only for a short time.While its ludicrous plot deteriorates faster than Bernie's flesh, this outlandish comedy, however, does find ingenious ways of keeping the titular character animated.Furthermore, a stiff at the beach makes an ideal paddleboard. (Yellow Light)vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Weekend at Bernie's is easily one of the most underrated and truly funny comedies of the eighties. It has a sort of cult level to it, but nothing respectable like some eighties films. It's unsung, much like License to Drive. It managed to spawn a sequel four years later and sort of has its own dark side equipped with certain levels of humor. It's hard to explain.Before I get into the plot and the positives, let's talk about one small thing; some points in this film are hard to believe. Some scenes where the boys desperately struggle to pass Bernie off as alive is definitely fake. It is hard to work with a plot where you have to pretend a character is alert and active very smoothly. McCarthy and Silverman do only a fair job as they try to work with the script they were handed trying to make a dead guy seem living.Sometimes, it is just not believably that guy is alive. When Larry is "playing" Monopoly with the corpse, maybe at a distance Bernie can seem alive and well. But when his wife goes to have sex with him, it is hard to believe Bernie has an active sex life when he is dead. Certain points were not executed as well as they could've been. But it was good and not a total letdown.The plot: Two time insurance clerks named Richard and Larry (McCarthy and Silverman) find a flaw in the companies' receipts suggesting someone could be stealing money from the company. They report the problem to their boss Bernie Lomax (Kiser) in hopes to acquire a certain reward for their findings.Bernie says he wants them to come down to his Hampton Island beach house to spend the weekend to celebrate what they did for the company. Richard and Larry don't know that Bernie plans to have them both killed. Bernie, ironically, is then killed by one of his buddies named Paulie who then shoved heroin in his pocket to make it look like an accidental overdose. Upon Richard and Larry's arrival they find the dead Bernie and contemplate what to do with him.They decide on pretending he is alive so they do not need to spend a weekend answering questions they don't know at the police station. Incredibly self indulgent, but understandable to a degree. Not like they killed him.The comedy is slapstick, but people do not understand that slapstick can be done well. All you need is a serious situation, done right. Nobody wants to watch a comedy where the characters are having a good time. Like Grown Ups. If you watch a comedy where the characters are trying to have be serious, but nothing but comical things come in their path, then that is funny. Black Sheep and Death at a Funeral are prime examples of good slapstick movies.What also helps any slapstick formula are two people that work well together. Most likely, you'd get a serious guy and a silly guy. Andrew McCarthy and Johnathan Silverman are a good duo and sort of remind me of a pre-Chris Farley and David Spade relationship. Not as funny, but a little reminiscent.Weekend at Bernie's is by no means an awful film. There are certainly worse comedies that don't even make me smile and are more like watching a bad home movie. The eighties ruled in the comedy genre. While Weekend at Bernie's is still waiting to have a blowup in popularity, it is sort of full of life in its own right.Starring: Andrew McCarthy, Johnathan Silverman, and Terry Kiser. Directed by: Ted Kotcheff.

Both McCarthy and Silverman were brat-packer b-s who never quite made it all the way. Both may be competent as a sensitive co-stars in a drama, but neither one of these guys cuts it in a comedy. The dead guy, played by Terry Kiser, never made me laugh once, although he does play dead very well, and seeing him dragged around did make me laugh. I just hated it when he started dancing - wow, was that terrible.For some reason Barry Bostwick isn't on the cast list at IMDb and he's the biggest star by far in the movie, and its only redeeming aspect other than the high production values in gorgeous Caribbean locations, plus a stunning female co-star who thankfully compliments an ethnically diverse supporting cast.I think it's incredible that a movie with such a tasteless premise got made, and says much about the wide-open blinding wealth of 80s Hollywood. Movies should be about realizing the preposterous, but ultimately, the boring lead actors and a seriously middle-school-intellect level script ultimately make this period piece from the now-worshiped 80s still nearly as bad a movie as it was when it came out.