Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Shawn Watson 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.

ctyankee1 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.

tomgillespie2002 Time has the knack of breathing fresh new life into a former piece of crap. Nostalgia sets in with the fashions and the music of its era, and familiar faces re-appear after we have seen their careers gradually collapse. Unfortunately for Ted Kotcheff's Weekend at Bernie's, it is the same cringe-inducing, one-joke farce it was 24 years ago. There was a real chance for some dark comedy here, given that the set up isn't a bad idea if you have the correct writers behind it. However, Norman Mailer did not write Weekend at Bernie's, Robert Klane did, and he was responsible for such classics as National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), Folks! (1992), and, most unforgivably, Weekend at Bernie's II (1993).Larry (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard (Jonathan Silverman) are two young, eager lower-level employees at a New York insurance firm. When Richard discovers that an employee has stolen 2 million dollars from the company, he and Larry think they're on their way to a promotion and take the findings to their boss, Bernie (Terry Kiser). As a reward, Bernie invites them to stay at his island beach-house, but secretly, Bernie is behind the theft and has hired a mob hit-man to take them both out. However, Bernie himself is assassinated for sleeping with the mob boss' wife, and with party-seeking friends quickly turning up at the beach- house, Larry and Richard must maintain the illusion that Bernie is still alive and well if they want to party.It seems strange that their has never been (to my mind) a decent comedy involving a dead body. Perhaps the presence of a cadaver is too macabre a subject to raise any laughs, or, as with Weekend at Bernie's, there's not much you can do with it apart from move its limbs and head in an attempt to squeeze out some laughs. And that pretty much sums up this film, raising the question of how moronic can these people be to not realise Bernie is dead? Perhaps it's because, inexplicably, rigor mortis fails to set in at any point and his bowels do not drop. This may even be forgiven if we had anyone to root for, but, as hard as McCarthy and Silverman try, their characters are nothing more than incompetent goofballs chasing that ever-so-80's dream of climbing the corporate ladder. 100 minutes of pure pain.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Martin Onassis 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.