Film

Weekend at Bernie's

Name: Weekend at Bernie's
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Released: 1989
Cast: Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart, Terry Kiser, Don Calfa

The blueprint for every 'let's pretend the dead guy is fine' comedy that followed: two put-upon underlings prop up their murdered boss for one more beach weekend, and the corpse becomes the most reliable member of the cast. It's dumb in the most committed way possible, built around slapstick with a body that can't complain. Good for a hungover Sunday, bad if you need your comedy to make sense.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy broad, slapstick farce where the joke is a straight-faced premise pushed absurdly far, and you don't mind a plot that exists mainly to hang gags on.

Skip it if you want sharp, plausible dialogue or a story that builds tension; the humour is physical and repetitive, and the characters rarely rise above their setups.

What it asks of you: About ninety minutes of undemanding attention, with a brisk pace and no real darkness beneath the silliness. You just go along with it and let the gags land.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Throw Momma from the Train1987

Same dark-comedy DNA—two hapless guys, a murder plot gone sideways, and a body count treated as a punchline. Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito make the farce sing without ever losing their nerve.

But The plot is more tangled than Bernie's ever bothers to be, and the tone occasionally dips into something almost tender.

Very Bad Things1998

Takes the 'hide the body, keep the party going' premise and drags it somewhere genuinely nasty—bachelor-party guilt spiraling into escalating cover-ups with none of Bernie's sunny detachment.

But It's mean-spirited and bleak where Bernie's stays breezy; if you wanted the fun without the consequences, this punishes you for wanting that.

Ruthless People1986

Same '80s wardrobe, same gleeful amorality—Bette Midler and Danny DeVito trade a corpse for a kidnapping, but the farce engine runs identically hot and dumb in the best way.

But It's talkier and more plot-dependent than Bernie's; if you came for physical comedy with a body, this is mostly people yelling.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Weekend at Bernie's

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Trouble with Harry1955

Same premise stripped to its purest form—a corpse nobody will properly deal with, dragged around and hidden by people more worried about appearances than the dead man himself—but Hitchcock plays it as pastoral whimsy three decades before Bernie's played it as party comedy.

Hitchcock's sweetest, strangest comedy: a small Vermont town keeps burying and unburying the same dead man because nobody can agree whose problem he is. Gorgeous autumn light, absolutely deadpan.

But It's slow, whimsical, and very British-Hitchcock in temperament—closer to a gentle short story than a farce, with none of the physical comedy Bernie's runs on.

Death at a Funeral2007

British farce that treats a corpse as pure slapstick opportunity—coffins tip, secrets spill, everyone loses their dignity in a single afternoon. Same commitment to indignity, tighter script.

But It's an ensemble family comedy rather than a buddy movie, so the specific Bernie's-and-his-guys chemistry isn't really replicated.

Clue1985

A house full of bodies, a cast that refuses to play it straight, and comic momentum that never lets the mystery slow the jokes down. Endlessly quotable, endlessly rewatchable.

But It's a mystery-farce hybrid, not a hangout comedy, so the vibe is more frantic ensemble than two guys and a corpse at the beach.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid1982

Steve Martin spliced into old noir footage for a gag that's as gleefully dumb as anything in Bernie's—a whole movie built on a bit that shouldn't work but does.

But The joke is one-note and stretched thin over ninety minutes; if you don't love the central gimmick, there's not much else here.

Weekend at Bernie's II1993

The direct sequel, for the diehards: same energy, a voodoo twist, more of Bernie upright and unbothered. If you just want more of exactly this, it delivers exactly that.

But It's a noticeably lesser movie—thinner jokes, a sillier plot device, and none of the original's surprise factor.

Arsenic and Old Lace1944

The granddaddy of the 'what do we do with all these bodies' farce—Cary Grant losing his mind in a house that keeps quietly filling up with corpses.

But It's stage-bound and very much of its era; the pace and manners are gentler than anything Bernie's attempts.

Fatal Instinct1993

A gleeful spoof of the era's noir and erotic thrillers, packed with dumb visual gags and zero self-seriousness—if Bernie's made you laugh at the wrong things, this will too.

But It's scattershot and dated even by parody standards; not every joke lands, and the targets it spoofs have faded from memory.

Re-Animator1985

Both movies get their laughs from a body that keeps getting propped up and paraded around against its wishes—Bernie's does it with sunglasses and denial, Re-Animator does it with a syringe and viscera, but it's the same engine wearing a much bloodier costume.

Takes 'the dead guy who won't stay down' and detonates it into gleeful splatstick horror—a mad-scientist reanimation serum, gore played entirely for laughs, and a corpse with genuine opinions.

But It's far gorier and grosser than Bernie's ever gets; the comedy comes wrapped in body horror that isn't for the squeamish.

The Farewell2019

Strip away the farce and Bernie's is really about people maintaining a fiction that someone is fine when he isn't, for reasons that start selfish; The Farewell tells almost the same story with the motive flipped to love, and the register flipped from slapstick to grief.

A family conspires to hide a terminal diagnosis from the grandmother who has it, sustaining a loving lie for her sake as long as they possibly can. Funny, aching, quietly devastating.

But It's a tender, slow drama about mortality and family duty—if you want jokes and slapstick, this will feel like a different genre entirely.