Weekend at Bernie's movie review - Aussieboyreviews
IS WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S A FUNNY DEAD-BODY COMEDY FOR FAMILIES?
This funny 80s comedy is great for families, but for families with older kids and teens. Surprisingly, Weekend at Bernie’s is very enjoyable and adventurous.
Storyline
Two salesmen are invited by their boss to come along to a party and spend the weekend at his gorgeous beach house. But when they turn up to find their boss murdered, they pretend he’s still alive to keep away from suspicion.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Cast: Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart, Terry Kiser, Don Calfa
Writer: Robert Klane
Release Date (Australia): 23 November 1989
Runtime: 97 minutes/1h 37m
Genre: Comedy, Adventure
Country: USA
Language: English
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
Thematic content includes a character being assassinated by a hitman and his corpse being frequently depicted throughout the film.
The film contains scenes of mild slapstick violence, including shootings, punches and men being hit over the head with objects.
The film contains uses of “s**t”, “ass” and “damn”.
A man implicitly snorts cocaine.
None.
The film contains scenes of sexual seduction that are mild in impact and features multiple verbal and visual sexual references.
mpaa rating
PG-13 (for an unknown reasoning)
Aussie boy's thoughts
Weekend at Bernie’s is a very funny movie and definitely a very 80s movie, but it wouldn’t be as much fun without the eventful aspect. This comedy is easily the kind of film you could describe as having a morbid sense of humour, obviously since most of it revolves around slapstick actions and events with a corpse. This movie is really only about two buddies carrying their boss’s dead body around pretending he’s still alive and walking.
Again, this movie would be so much less likeable if it didn’t have it’s sense of adventure. The entire plot is not set in just one house, it floats on the water and walks around in public, with the corpse. Sometimes the areas where the witty characters fool around in fall a bit bland, but that’s usually when it begins moving around again. The concept is underrated and is undoubtedly worth checking out by those who appeal to it.
And if it weren’t obvious from the start, this is a slapstick comedy. However, it’s a fairly more violent slapstick comedy with verbal and visual jokes that actually work. The characters are quirky and fun, McCarthy and Silverman being in the spotlight, but the clueless hitman who runs around throughout the plot is stupidly hysterical. It’s also hard to see how Weekend at Bernie’s could craft a decent sequel, which happened not too long afterwards.
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