Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
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Two employees must pretend their dead boss is still alive to avoid being implicated in his murder during a weekend in the Hamptons.
The story
Larry Wilson and Richard Parker, two low-level financial employees at an insurance company in New York City, discover a series of suspicious payments. They bring their findings to the company's CEO, the wealthy and hedonistic Bernie Lomax. Bernie invites them to his beach house in The Hamptons for the Labor Day weekend. However, unbeknownst to the pair, Bernie is behind the fraud and has arranged for them to be killed. After Bernie is murdered by a hitman, the two employees find his body but must maintain the illusion that he is still alive to avoid suspicion from arriving guests and the mob.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Larry and Richard, two insurance employees, are invited to Bernie Lomax's Hamptons home after uncovering fraud. Bernie, who is actually the fraudster, is murdered by a hitman named Paulie. When the pair finds his body, they decide to pretend he is alive to avoid being targeted by the mob. They face various complications, including a mobster's girlfriend who has sex with the corpse and a hitman who repeatedly tries to kill them. They eventually use the body as a shield while trying to escape. The film ends with the police arresting the hitman, and the body being dumped on a beach where a young boy finds it.
- Original title
- Heat Wave
- First release year
- 1989
- Runtime (minutes)
- 97
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Ted Kotcheff
- Writers
- Robert Klane · writer
- Cast and characters
- Andrew McCarthy · Larry Wilson; Jonathan Silverman · Richard Parker; Catherine Mary Stewart · Gwen Saunders; Terry Kiser · unknown
- Genres
- dark comedy; buddy comedy; crime comedy
- Themes
- deception; hidden conditions
- Tone and mood
- dark comedy; slapstick
- Premise and plot tags
- buddy comedy; crime; fraud; mob
- Franchise connections
- Weekend at Bernie's
- Content notes
- necrophilia
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews but was successful at the box office and became popular on cable television.
- Reported review scores
- CinemaScore · score: B · scale: A+ to F
- Production trivia
- The film was originally titled Heat Wave and then Hot and Cold.; Jon Cryer was originally cast but was replaced by Andrew McCarthy.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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