First of all, most people don’t realize Weekend at Bernie’s shares a director, Ted Kotcheff, with that of the movie that first introduced us to Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo, First Blood*. So, yes, the director who brought us Rambo for the first time also gave us Bernie Lomax. This is mentioned because Weekend at Bernie’s is, surprisingly, a competent film that has an actual plot. This is something I’m always reminded of when I watch Weekend at Bernie’s (which I just did this past Friday because it’s set the weekend before Labor Day through Labor Day weekend) in a sort of, “Wait, why am I enjoying this more than I should?” kind of way followed by, “You know, this movie is actually pretty good,” kind of way.
*First Blood is another movie that is, now, kind of hard to get people to watch because it gets lumped in with all the other, more over-the-top sort of dumb Rambo movies. If you’ve never seen First Blood, it is not what you think it is.
When my partner and I host movie nights – in 2019, I turned our small Manhattan second bedroom into a movie room with a 95-inch screen, a projector, and 7.1 sound … that we never used; then in late March of 2020 we started using it a lot – the rule is “fun canon movies that the guest or guests have never seen.” And Weekend at Bernie’s, surprisingly, gets brought up a lot. But usually as a throwaway, “I’m joking but wouldn’t it be funny if we watched this punchline of a movie,” to which I have to say with a straight face, “It’s actually a lot better than you think it is,” and then after we watch it I’m told I’m right.
The movie is a punchline because the concept is ridiculous and the sequel is terrible. But what’s interesting about the concept of “two guys hang out with a dead body” is that doesn’t happen until about halfway through the movie. And Weekend at Bernie’s does a pretty good job of meticulously setting up why two numbskulls hang out with a dead body.
A thing people forget is the entire first act of Weekend at Bernie’s takes place the week before Labor Day in New York City. It’s very hot out. So hot that when a criminal tries to mug Larry and Richard (Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) in Central Park, the criminal is told it’s too hot for that and the criminal kind of shrugs and agrees. Larry is lazy and Richard is ambitious, but the two spend their pre-Labor Day weekend on top of a Manhattan walk-up building trying to keep cool in a kiddie pool. (Not only is it set during Labor Day, it’s also a good “working stiff” Labor Day movie.)
Richard discovers an egregious accounting error at the insurance company they both work at and the duo think this is their big ticket toward advancement at their company. They bring it directly to the CEO, Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser, who is (a) still alive today and (b) gives an actual masterclass is physical comedy in this movie), but Bernie is embezzling money and now needs these two idiots out of the picture. Bernie meets with the mob (at this point, our friend who watched it with us this past Friday exclaimed, “holy shit, this is a mob movie?! Yes!”) and asks them to off both Richard and Larry at his house in the Hamptons. After Bernie leaves, the mob decides it’s best to just get rid of Bernie and they kill him at his beach house with an overdose of heroin.
So our two idiot heroes find Bernie dead, and eventually figure out Bernie wanted them killed and the instructions were to do it when Bernie wasn’t around. So, Larry and Richard take Bernie’s dead body everywhere in an effort not to be killed by the mob. In reality, Bernie was killed, but now his hitman thinks he failed so Larry and Richard actually are being trailed by a hitman, but only because they have a seemingly alive Bernie Lomax always with them. This is an actual good comedic setup! It’s funny! And it kind of/sort of makes sense why two morons are hanging out with a dead body for half the movie. (I also want to point out there’s a really funny throwaway scene where Larry and Richard are running for a ferry and both jump for it over the water, crashing and tumbling onto the ferry, only to find out the ferry is docking.)
Originally I wanted to declare Weekend at Bernie’s the best movie set during Labor Day weekend, because off the top of my head there aren’t a whole lot of movies set during Labor Day. Then looking at a number of “Best Labor Day Movies” lists, they are all about working. But I knew there had to be something I wasn’t remembering, and then did remember Stand By Me is set over Labor Day weekend and I quickly withdrew my hyperbole. But! If you haven’t seen Weekend at Bernie’s – I am more and more learning a lot of people even in their 30s have not seen Weekend at Bernie’s – or haven’t seen Weekend at Bernie’s in a long time and are looking for a pretty solid comedy set during Labor Day weekend to end your summer.
Am I supposed to write something like, “Well, Weekend at Bernies’s is the movie for you!” or something like that here? It should be pretty clear by now what movie we’ve been discussing. Although I will point out that you shouldn’t watch the sequel. It’s truly terrible. You’re welcome!
You can stream ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ via Hulu. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
