Weekend at Bernie'sRobert Klane is a genius. He wrote the cult classic, Weekend at Bernie's, and god help me if there's a greater comedy about a corpse that looks and acts somewhat alive for an hour and a half of non-stop FUN! The sad thing with everything that I just said, of course, is that I have no idea whether or not I'm being sarcastic. Honestly, Weekend at Bernie's is pleasant and unassuming enough to at least be mildly entertaining....even to those who didn't see it in their youth and thus weren't introduced to it's idiocy before critical discernment affected their judgment.
Terry Kiser imbues the "animated" corpse of Bernie with a credibility that few actors could. He completely convinced me that he wasn't merely PLAYING a dead guy. I'm not sure if that's a compliment, and I certainly wouldn't want that on my resume. Considering what this film did to his career, the role seemed almost tailored specifically for him. Seriously, has anyone seen this guy in anything since Weekend at Bernie's 2? Poor talented bastard.
Besides being ridiculous, which is a common and forgivable occurrence in comedy's....the film's major flaw is Jonathan Silverman. I've always hated this actor for some reason. He's not amusing, he's definitely not attractive, and there's nothing even remotely likable about him. Am I alone here? Andrew McCarthy is endearing at least. Larry is probably his most charming cinematic character because he's not strung out on cocaine or desperately trying to get into the pants of his best friend. He's just being his mildly obnoxious and carefree self, and I couldn't help but love him in this film. Heck, I'd go as far as to say that he's the life of the film...since Bernie obviously couldn't be, and the only thing Jonathan Silverman did in this movie was bother me. His romantic subplot with Gwen wasn't uninteresting, but it could've been less annoying had Richard been played by ANYONE ELSE!!
Regardless of how much disdain I have for the actor who plays Richard, I have to admit that the friendship between our leading protagonists seems genuine. Their attempt at escaping the Hampton's with Bernie in tow so as to fool the assassin who's trying to kill them is wildly entertaining, so much so that I sometimes forget how ludicrous the paper-thin plot is. But you can't really dissect a comedy of this nature, your only hope is to gleam whatever entertainment value you can from it.....hopefully without needing to be intoxicated.
For me, enjoying Weekend at Bernie's isn't difficult ...but that's probably because I'm a child of the 80's and I kinda grew up with the film. Still, I'm sure it's decidedly less fun if you're going into the film without the influence of nostalgia to ameliorate its obvious shortcomings.
Rating: B