He may be dead, but he’s the life of the party! Weekend at Bernie’s is the 80’s comedy that crosses the line of decency but has a lot of fun doing it. I was about 12 years old when I saw Weekend at Bernie’s and I remember loving every minute of it and I was looking forward to seeing it again twenty years later.
After finishing the movie it’s surprising how well the film has held up, it’s by no means a classic comedy with some awful acting and jokes, it’s more of a cult film due to its original taboo concept and an outstanding performance from Terry Kiser as a dead man who out performs everyone else put together which is why it’s such a well loved film.
Larry Wilson (Andrew McCarthy) is a skiver and Richard Parker (Jonathan Silverman) is hard working and both work for Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser). When Richard and Larry identify that someone has stolen $2 million from Bernie’s company they quickly report their findings and Bernie rewards the two by inviting them to his millionaires seaside bachelor pad to party. What Larry and Richard don’t know is that Bernie is the one who’s been stealing from his company and he plans on having them killed by a mob hit-man that backfires when the hit is put on him. When the two arrive they find Bernie dead apparently due to an overdose leaving Richard and Larry minus a host.
It’s when a party invades Bernie’s house and no one notices his demise that the pair have the bright idea to use his dead body pretending him to be alive to ensure their innocence and to have a good time in the process but when the mob come back to finish the job on a reportedly still partying Bernie, they realise there lives are in danger too.
The film is a one joke premise stretched over 97 minutes that does hit and miss but has its charms and raises many a laugh despite the average and rather unlikeable performances from McCarthy and Silverman who never offer anything to identify with and if they were killed off you never would have cared. The main problem I had is that you have to except that everyone who comes across the dead Bernie is ignorant and idiotic enough to notice to make the gags work which wears thin but some jokes do work especially when Bernie’s girlfriend turns up and vanishes for 15 minutes in his room to reappear claiming “he was never better” and that we don’t see what happened makes it work wonderfully well but that concept is sadly underused.
Weekend at Bernie’s is saved a certain death by Terry Kiser who puts on a display of dead acting that is nothing short of perfect, his brilliant smirking expression never changes throughout and his lifeless body is put through some of the best jokes of the film and still he shows no sign of life despite having his face hoovered and his body dragged all over the place and I doubt anyone could have performed the role as well, He should have got an Oscar.
Overall an enjoyable no brainer revisit to a cult movie and one that is well worth 97 minutes of your time, whether you care to spend around £10 on the Blu-Ray is completely up to you. The Blu-Ray transfer is pretty decent, clear and looked great on my 42″ TV but little can be said for the extras which go no further than a trailer and six TV Spots.
Weekend at Bernie’s is released on Blu-Ray on 5th July.
