“Weekend at Bernie's” Came Out on This Day in 1989: Was It a Perfect Summer Movie?

The slapstick comedy made $30 million on the field workplace and earned reward for star Terry Kiser’s work

premiered on July 5, 1989, and although the premise was maybe questionable — two finance guys named Richard and Larry carry their boss Bernie’s corpse round as to not be thought-about suspects in his homicide — it really introduced the laughs.

PEOPLE’s assessment learn partially, “In case anybody thought this was a Bergman movie a couple of portentous Swiss Independence Day vacation with its title mistranslated, be forewarned: The primary character is a corpse for a lot of the film, and he will get a lot of the laughs. Truth is, Terry Kiser, who performs the corpse, does an excellent job of going limp or stiff because the event calls for and manages to subtly change the frozen expression on his face from scene to scene.”

On the time, Kiser had “been round film stiffs earlier than,” PEOPLE wrote, as he’d labored on Friday the thirteenth, Half VII, along with an infinite record of films and TV reveals from the Nineteen Sixties on, notably ‘s Carol & Firm.

Now84 and most not too long ago seen in 2023’s Mutilator 2, Kiser might’ve received an Oscar “for finest appearing in slow-motion,” PEOPLE joked in its Weekend at Bernie’s assessment.

Chatting with PEOPLE concerning the half in 1993, Kiser mentioned he selected to play the titular Bernie Lomax as “humorous lifeless as an alternative of lifeless lifeless, which isn’t humorous in any respect.”

For underwater scenes, he was lowered 35 ft deep with out diving gear or respiratory equipment — the higher to get close-ups — and took turns respiratory from an air line with a totally outfitted scuba diver close by.

“We have been very cautious, consider me,” he mentioned. “If you happen to play lifeless typically sufficient, you’ve bought an excellent will to dwell.”

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Chatting with EW years after the movie dropped, costar Jonathan Silverman recalled a very delicate take.

“There’s a scene the place I’m wheeling Bernie in a bit of pink wagon, and his head is meant to bounce up towards the wooden deck,” Silverman, who performed Richard Parker alongside ‘s Larry Wilson, defined. “Terry had cracked a rib within the first weeks of capturing, so I’m doing it gingerly. It’s beginning to rain, and we’re shedding solar, and [director] Ted Kotcheff is up on high of this crane with a bullhorn screaming at me, ‘Who cares about Terry’s damaged rib?!’ “

Audiences “discovered it endearing,” Silverman added of the movie, which made greater than $30 million on the field workplace. “Terry Kiser did one thing so intelligent: He died with a smirk on his face, which let the viewers love him.”

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Sadly the 1993 sequel Weekend at Bernie’s II didn’t fare so effectively: EW gave it an F- and PEOPLE panned it, as effectively. And a New York Metropolis screening featured an unlucky second of its personal.

In response to EW, a Bernie doll that was touring the nation to advertise the film was “stripped of its $400 designer sun shades and painter’s cap,” the journal reported. “Although it might sound like a publicity stunt, TriStar reported the theft to the NYPD and continues to be grousing over the loss. ‘We’re going to should spring for one more pair of Oliver Peoples,’ mentioned a studio spokesman. ‘Although subsequent time we’re going to Krazy Glue them on.’ “

Weekend at Bernie’s on Fandango at House, Apple TV and Prime Video.

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