History Film / WeekendAtBernies

-->'''Richard:''' Larr... we're outta gas.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: When Bernie's actuaries Larry and Richard discovered insurance fraud and told them they were planning to expose it with the hopes of getting promoted in doing so, Bernie (who was behind the fraud) begs his boss Vito to assassinate the two. Vito decides Bernie is getting too greedy with power and money and offs ''him'' instead.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When the boys find the letter Bernie wrote up explaining their deaths as suicide because Larry got a sex change only for Richard to fall out of love with him, Larry is distraught. ...because what will this say about him if word gets out he got a sex change? It's Richard who has to remind him that (A) this letter hasn't been released to the public and (B) nobody is going to have a sex change operation in the first place.

* HopeSpot: Afer missing the ferry, Larry realizes that they have another way off the island: Bernie's motorboat. After a few calamities, including Bernie water skiing, they make their way out of the channel and away from the island. And then...

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Bernie is popular with everyone at the resort, and even the protagonists think he's a pretty NiceGuy before finding out about his corruption.

-->'''Pauley:''' YOU KICKED ME YOU BASTARD! ''[shoots corpse, '''again''']'' Shit! Out of bullets!

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The island's Chief of Police is a friendly and reasonable guy. When Hummel claims he saw Bernie, he checks in with the New York authorities and confirms his death. He then walks him out, encourages him to relax and enjoy his time on the island. After the third time he got arrested for endangering the passengers of a tourist submarine (he freaks out after seeing Bernie underwater), he (reasonably) decides to deport him. When he actually sees Bernie for himself, he closes in on the Mubu and places her and her gun-toting clients under arrest and lets Hummel go.

-->>'''Vito:''' ''(to Paulie)'' Forget the accident with the two guys. Take care of Lomax. He's gotten too careless, too greedy... and besides... he's screwing my girlfriend.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When the boys find the letter Bernie wrote up explaining their deaths as suicide because Larry got a sex change only for Richard to fall out of love with him, Larry is distraught. ...because what will this say about him if word gets out he got a sex change? It's Richard who has to remind him that (A) this letter hasn't been released to the public and (B) nobody even got a sex change in the first place.

* HopeSpot: Larry realizes that they have another way off the island: Bernie's motorboat. After a few calamities, they make their way out of the channel and away from the island. And then...

--> YOU KICKED ME YOU... ''[shoots corpse, '''again''']''

%%* NaughtyUnderTheTable:

* IrishmanAndAJew: While there is no indication from their Anglo-Saxon surnames "Wilson" and "Parker", the protagonists conform to some extent to these stereotypes- Larry is a confident, outgoing, booze-swilling and not-too-bright merrymaker (who takes to praying the "Hail Mary" under duress and is outright confirmed as Catholic in the sequel), whilst Richard is neurotic and constantly aghast at the horrible things happening around him. Larry's aggressive pursuit of the fairer sex seems like it is in contradiction to the usual stereotype of the prudish Irishman, but he bemoans that "(Bernie) gets laid more dead than I do alive" and in the sequel admits he's a virgin. He just feels it's [[AManIsNotAVirgin a blow to his manly pride to admit it]].

* ItsAllAboutMe: The CentralTheme, PlayedForLaughs. [[IdiotPlot EVERY ONE]] of [[SlobsVersusSnobs Bernie's snob neighbors]] is so self-absorbed they fail to realize that him being oddly limp, quiet, and unresponsive means he is ''dead.'' [[OnlySaneMan Richard]] figures it out almost ''immediately'', as do the two beat cops who find him on the subway in the second movie. Larry's first reaction - [[NotSoDifferent who hopes to somehow climb to Bernie's social standing]] - is to complain about how his weekend has now been ruined.

%%* BeachBury: "Mister, can I bury you?"

%%* TheCatCameBack

* CreatorInJoke: The film's director Ted Kotcheff makes a couple of nods towards his involvement in the ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' franchise, name-dropping the eponymous hero, and with the guy playing Lomax's gardener, who was also the main villain in the second Rambo film, wearing a very similar outfit.

%%* DoggedNiceGuy: Silverman's character.

%%* HollywoodVoodoo: Cock-a-doodle-do.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Bernie ends up a VoodieZombie. Sort of. The two bad guys screwed up the ritual that was supposed to fully revive him, so now he can only move when music is playing.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Bernie ends up a Type V. Sort of. The two bad guys screwed up the ritual that was supposed to fully revive him, so now he can only move when music is playing.

A 1989 comedy film directed by Creator/TedKotcheff, in which junior actuaries Larry Wilson (Creator/AndrewMcCarthy) and Richard Parker (Creator/JonathanSilverman) get duplicitously invited by their scheming boss Bernie Lomax (Creator/TerryKiser) to his fancy Long Island beach home for the weekend. HilarityEnsues when Bernie is murdered (by someone else) and circumstances force the hapless duo to lug his corpse around, pretending he is still alive.

A sequel was released in 1993 (tag-line: "Bernie's back ... and he's still dead!"), which is ''even more'' ridiculous than the original thanks to the addition of voodoo and dancing corpses.

* DeathAsComedy: The whole plot of the movie, two guys dragging their boss' dead body around so as to try to not get caught.

* ForeignCussWord: Just before Paulie shoots Bernie, he says "cornuto", an Italian insult that implies the other person is a cuckold - and that the primary reason the hit was called in the first place was that Bernie was sleeping with a mobster's girlfriend.

--> YOU KICKED ME YOU... ''[shoots corpse - '''again''']''

* ILoveTheDead: Things turned ''really strange'' when Tina, one of Bernie's lovers came to argue with him, and ended up having sex with him. And she claimed it was the best they'd ever had. And he was ''dead''.

*** Naturally, this becomes a CallBack in the second film, since it turned out Larry doesn't get laid at all.

** Oh, and it also indirectly proved that ''every single one'' of Bernie's friends was a shallow asshole. Especially his girlfriend(s), one of whom has a whale of a time (unknowingly) screwing ''his dead body.''
** Not that Larry was much better; he was focusing on all the luxuries in Bernie's house. [[OnlySaneMan Richard]] was the only person in the ''entire movie'' (besides ''the guy who killed him'') to figure it out without having it shoved in his face.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Why Vito has Paulie kill Bernie instead of killing Richard and Larry; Bernie was getting too greedy, got sloppy as a result - hence him getting caught by two losers. Oh, and he was also sleeping with Vito's girlfriend Tina.

A sequel was made in 1993 (tag-line: "Bernie's back ... and he's still dead!"), which is ''even more'' ridiculous than the first thanks to the addition of voodoo and dancing corpses.

* TheDeadCanDance: Bernie, in the sequel ... which inspired the whole "Moving like Bernie" dance craze.

* AccidentalPervert: Bernie, while getting dragged across the beach by a parasail rope, grabs two girls bikini tops and leaves them on Hummel.

* TheDeadCanDance: But only when there's music playing, due to an ImperfectRitual.

* UnexpectedVirgin: In the end, they need the blood of a virgin to save Richard's life. Everyone looks around nervously, and [[DoomedDefeatist Richard thinks he's finished]]...until Larry puts his arm out.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Both Larry and Richard, and Charles and Henry drag Bernie around in a busy road and no one seems to notice or care.

* TheDeadCanDance: Bernie, in the sequel.

A sequel was made in 1993, which is even ''more'' ridiculous than the first thanks to the addition of voodoo and dancing corpses.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Shortly after Bernie's death, a young, blonde, busty woman comes into his house wearing a [[BarelyThereSwimwear teeny bikini]] and asks the two male protagonists if they've seen Bernie. (She wants to know if the beach party is still on.) She has no idea that they - and the audience, most likely - are staring at her. (They clearly aren't used to beachgoers who dress like that.)

* ImperfectRitual: The two bad guys were given instructions on how to re-animate Bernie so he could lead them to a buried treasure. However, they performed the ritual in a public bathroom, and a key element - a live chicken - escaped(and was implied to have been... appropriated... by a man in an adult theatre), so [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXNxIwH6yG0 they used the pigeon when they should have used the chicken...]]

* UnexpectedVirgin: In the end, they need the blood of a virgin to save Richard's life. Everyone looks around nervously, and [[DoomedDefeatist Richard thinks he’s finished]]...until Larry puts his arm out.