Weekend at Bernie's

Two young men at an insurance company uncover their boss Bernie Lomax's fraud and report it to him. Bernie invites them to his house in the Hamptons. When they arrive he is dead, from a heroin dose ordered by the mob. To avoid suspicion the pair decide to keep up the impression that he is alive. Ted Kotcheff directed. Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman star, with Terry Kiser as the corpse. Catherine Mary Stewart plays the character who eventually works it out. On a 15 million dollar budget it grossed 30.2 million. Reviews split. Roger Ebert gave it one star and put his reason briefly: it gives us a joke that isn't very funny, and it expects the joke to carry an entire movie. The audience grade was a B, and cable repeats made it permanent. The title entered the language as a metaphor for hiding someone's decline in public. Who it is for: viewers who like crude eighties comedy. Who it is not for: anyone worried the idea will be stretched. The worry is justified; the film runs one visual gag for ninety minutes.