Weekend at Bernie's (1989)

Two losers try to pretend that their murdered employer is really alive, leading the hitman to attempt to track him down to finish him off.

Director:

Ted Kotcheff

Writer:

Robert Klane

Stars:

Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Andrew McCarthy	...	Larry Wilson
Jonathan Silverman	...	Richard Parker
Catherine Mary Stewart	...	Gwen Saunders
Terry Kiser	...	Bernie Lomax
Don Calfa	...	Paulie, Vito's Hit Man
Catherine Parks	...	Tina, Vito's Girl
Eloise DeJoria	...	Tawny (as Eloise Broady)
Gregory Salata	...	Marty, Vito's Assistant
Louis Giambalvo	...	Vito
Ted Kotcheff	...	Jack Parker, Richard's Dad
Margaret Hall	...	Lomax's Secretary
Timothy Perez	...	Central Park Mugger
Mark Kenneth Smaltz	...	Harris, Security Oficer
Anthony Mannino	...	Superintendant
Polly Segal	...	Woman in Elevator

Storyline

Two young men are trying to make their way in a corporation. One on charm, the other on hard work. When they go to the president (Bernie) with a serious financial error on a printout, he pretends to be thrilled and invites them to his beach house for the weekend. He actually plans on having them killed. Bernie is also fooling around with the girlfriend of his mafia partner. When the partner has Bernie killed, the boys end up having to pretend Bernie is still alive as the frustrated hit man tries time and time again to complete the job.

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Plot Keywords:

character name in title | boss | weekend | beach | beach house | 

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Taglines:

The drop dead comedy of the year!

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 July 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hot and Cold

Filming Locations:

Figure Eight Island, Harnett, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$30,218,387

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gladden Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After Richard knocks out the man that Bernie fired, he informs Larry "You can come out now Rambo." First Blood (1982), the first Rambo movie, was also directed by Ted Kotcheff. The gardener in the film (George Kee Cheung) wears a costume similar to the one in Rambo: First Blood Part II; he was the film's villain.

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Goofs

When Larry and Richard are in the empty office on Saturday, you can see that the computers on the desks are missing their power cords.

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Quotes

[Richard and Larry are trying to back Bernie's speedboat out of its dock space and crash into several other boats]
Man at the Marina: That's illegal! What you're doing is illegal!

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Alternate Versions

The stapling of Bernie's toupee to the head was edited out of the German TV-version.

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Connections

Referenced in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: The Harriet Dinner: Part II (2007)

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Soundtracks

Night on Bald Mountain
by Modest Mussorgsky
Arranged by Randy Waldman

User Reviews

This movie is really funny

This movie killed McCarthy's career, but I don't know why. He was great as the slick, wise-cracking Larry Wilson, and Silverman works really well as his more grounded parter. One lives with his parents, and one lives in his own apartment, but it has "wall-to-wall cockroaches".

Bernie steals the movie as the dead guy, because kids, dead people, and occasionally animals, always steal movies. But this movie is a classic. If you haven't seen it, see it.