I am a fan of both "Weekend At Bernie's" movies. Yes, you read that right!
I don't know why, I but I think they are both funny and entertaining for various different reasons. Both movies have different directors, writers, and producers, but they both follow a common theme. That being, a dead guy doing all sorts of crazy and ridiculous things!
Film critic Richard Roeper has listed the first "Bernie's" as "one of the forty worst movies I've ever seen", and he had this to say about it - "Corpse comedy is D.O.A."
Well, that's his opinion. I've certainly seen far worse. "Battlefield Earth", anyone? And how about the so-called "Underground Comedy Movie", brought to us by the same guy who was hawking ShamWows and Slap Chops, before he got arrested for soliciting and assaulting a hooker. Apparently he has crawled back to obscurity as a result!
Trust me, DO NOT waste your time or money with the aforementioned "comedy movie". In my opinion, it is neither!
Anyway, back to the two Bernie flicks. The first came out in 1989, and starred Andrew McCarthy as Larry and Jonathan Silverman as Richard. A very attractive young Canadian actress named Catherine Mary Stuart was Gwen, the romantic interest for Silverman's character. And Terry Kiser was Bernie. Silverman and McCarthy played young executives at an insurance firm who discover attempted fraud in the company's records. Their boss, Bernie is the one who stole the money, and in order to cover the fact that he had embezzled from the company, asks his criminal cohorts to kill Larry and Richard. Instead, the head mobster orders his hitman to "take care of Bernie" instead, as he has become both greedy and careless, plus, he is having an affair with the head mobster's girlfriend on the side. I think you know about the rest. The hitman takes Bernie by surprise and kills him, and Larry and Richard arrive at the beach house and discover Bernie dead. The rest of the movie consists of Larry and Richard's misadventures as they are avoiding the hitman who is out to kill them for being witnesses to Bernie's death.
Not the most intelligent comedy ever, but it was still, like I said before, funny and entertaining.
Now for the sequel. It was filmed two years later in 1991, but "sat on the shelf" for two years and was not released until the summer of 1993. I actually remember the TV ads for Bernie's II.
Richard and Larry are back, as apparently this movie takes place where the first left off, after they have returned to New York with Bernie's body. To complicate matters, a voodoo priestess has been hired by the mob Bernie was working with. Her plan is to use a magic spell to resurrect Bernie so he can show her where he hid the cartel's money (the $2 million he stole from the company in the first movie.)
Much of this film takes place on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The first film was actually shot on the coast of Virginia, but claimed to be on Hampton Island, which is fictional, and is not to be confused with "the Hamptons", an affluent region on Long Island.
Anyway, the scenery is beautiful, and that, along with the music, are two ways the sequel is better than the original. The first film had some good score (like the music during Richard and Gwen's nighttime walk and romantic interlude on the beach) but it had only one decent song in it, "Some Like It Hot", the main theme accompanying the opening and ending credits. However, the second had a lot of great music. Both the instrumental score and the original songs were really good to dance to.
Needless to say, Bernie's II did very poorly at the box office. It was made fun of in an episode of "Seinfeld", and many critics felt there had been no need for a Bernie's sequel. Also, Catherine Mary Stuart did not return. That was a real shame!
So that's my take on the two Bernie movies. Take from it what you will
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