Weekend at Bernie's

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Weekend at Bernie's

PG-13

1989

1h 37m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

52%

Tomatometer

27 Reviews

57%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Fun-loving salesmen Richard (Jonathan Silverman) and Larry (Andrew McCarthy) are invited by their boss, Bernie (Terry Kiser), to stay the weekend at his posh beach house. Little do they know that Bernie is the perpetrator of a fraud they've uncovered and is arranging to have them killed. When the plan backfires and Bernie is killed instead, the buddies decide not to let a little death spoil their vacation. They pretend Bernie is still alive, leading to hijinks and corpse desecration galore.

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Critics Consensus

Weekend at Bernie's wrings a surprising amount of laughs out of its corpse-driven slapstick premise, but one joke can only carry a film so far.

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Duane Byrge

The Hollywood Reporter

Bernie's is good old, knock-down slapstick with just the right dose of cruelty thrown in.

Jul 5, 2017

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Nell Minow

Movie Mom

A classic of the dumb, hit-on-the-head comedy genre!

Rated: 4/5

Nov 24, 2002

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Weekend at Bernie's makes two mistakes: It gives us a joke that isn't very funny, and it expects the joke to carry an entire movie.

Rated: 1/4

Jan 1, 2000

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Joshua Mooney

Movieline

The film lacks the biting wit that would have made it substantial.

Sep 16, 2025

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Mike Ryan

Uproxx

Weekend at Bernie's does a pretty good job of meticulously setting up why two numbskulls hang out with a dead body.

Sep 14, 2022

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Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

Weekend at Bernie's is a suffocating, repeating, offensive funeral [Full review in Spanish].

Jul 11, 2022

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Danny O.

Just one of the best sleepers of the late 80's. On par with cocktail.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/17/25

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David D

It’s got everything but it’s like too little butter smeared over to much bread. Unsure what to do next, as one character says, ‘what are you doing?.’…answer…’I don’t know’.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

10/10/25

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RJThePro T

Weekend at Bernie’s is definitely a comedy. The hilarious situation the boys find themselves in is a genius plot for a Hollywood film. There are certainly some laugh out loud moments. The acting wasn’t bad, and there weren’t any redundant characters or plots. The movie does take a little while until it starts to become great, but the rest of the film is good enough to keep people entertained. The movie also didn’t age horribly, which is impressive for a film made in the 1980s. I would certainly recommend comedy enthusiasts to watch this.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/13/25

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Mike V

Bernie may be dead, but he's still the life of the party! Weekend at Bernie's is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff 🍿 It’s good 🙂 Worth a watch. I’d recommend it if you like this genre 👍🏼 Lot so of funny moments with slapstick old-style humour… D Two young insurance corporation employees try to pretend that their murdered employer is alive by puppeteering his dead body, leading a hitman to attempt to track him down to finish him off.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

06/22/25

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Erin M

Hilarious movie…so funny even after watching many times over!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/23/25

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Haley L

This is a cute fun silly movie. It's a favorite of mine from childhood. Still cute and funny watching it now. Gorgeous scenery and a fun soundtrack. I watch this movie every summer. A fun beach movie to watch during the summertime.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/10/25

Full Review

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Ted Kotcheff

Director

Andrew McCarthy

Larry Wilson

Jonathan Silverman

Richard Parker

Terry Kiser

Bernie Lomax

Catherine Mary Stewart

Gwen Saunders

Don Calfa

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Synopsis

Fun-loving salesmen Richard (Jonathan Silverman) and Larry (Andrew McCarthy) are invited by their boss, Bernie (Terry Kiser), to stay the weekend at his posh beach house. Little do they know that Bernie is the perpetrator of a fraud they've uncovered and is arranging to have them killed. When the plan backfires and Bernie is killed instead, the buddies decide not to let a little death spoil their vacation. They pretend Bernie is still alive, leading to hijinks and corpse desecration galore.

Director: Ted Kotcheff
Producer: Victor Drai, Bruce McNall
Screenwriter: Robert Klane
Production Co: Gladden Entertainment
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 9, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $29.4M
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: Surround

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