No Nutritional Value: Weekend at Bernie's

[trinityvixen]

Because Netflix threatened to remove it from my Watch It Now queue today, I watched Weekend at Bernie's last night.

Why, other than the fact it's expiring on my queue, would I watch this? Well, curiosity for one thing--Weekend at Bernie's seems to be a movie that lots of people reference but few have actually seen. Also, 1980s screwball comedies are just...they're a genre unto themselves, you know? They're frequently not laugh-out-loud funny, and although the better ones (Coming to America, Better Off Dead) have some memorable lines, it's really all about the absurdity of the set up in a way that modern comedies...aren't. Modern comedies want you to laugh at a sight gag or a punchline. 1980s comedies expect you to go along for the ride and get your amusement out of going, "Why? Why would anybody react to this situation like this???"

And that's what I got out of Weekend at Bernie's. Instead of immediately calling the police upon discovering a corpse, the two dudes decide to fake like the guy's alive and hope they'll get away with it long enough to figure something else out to do with it when it stops being a passable prop. Because it's a 1980s screwball comedy, the straight man drops the call-the-police plan every time the girl of his dreams walks into the room. What follows is an hour of antics with a corpse, many of which are less funny than the fact that the murderer is in fits because he thinks he keeps failing to kill the dead guy. Who behaves this way!?

Another thing: some of these comedies wait an awful long time to deliver on the premise that seems to be their sole source of amusement. "Antics with a dead guy" would seem to be the whole point of the movie, but Bernie's still alive 40 minutes into a 100-minute movie. That kind of build up is nowhere in comedies today, possibly for the better, seeing as 40 minutes of Andrew McCarthy's "acting" outside of the screwball setup is worthless.

Weekend at Bernie's is ultimately fluff--nothing you need to see to get the aforementioned references but nothing that it harms you to see either. Unless 80s fashions hurt you--there was a shot of men in business suits where the pants were shorts, gro-oss--it's harmless.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Now you have to watch Weekend at Bernie's II!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I almost would, again out of curiosity, since I can't work out for the life of me how they managed to sell that as a possibility. Instead, I will just read Wikipedia and laugh at it. A lot.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

My old stat prof Andrew Gelman discussed Objects of the Weekend at Bernies class. These are low-quality, unsuccessful cultural artifacts with well-known themes or storylines. Zelig is another example, along with Dude, Where's My Car? (although the latter is kind of cheating, cuz the "storyline" is in the damn title) and I'd probably add The Most Dangerous Game.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting question--the popularity issue is a little difficult to quantify, though, because popularity is so transient. So many things that satisfy his condition 3 were popular once, but 10 years later and the population that had seen it shrunk. Otherwise, I'd nominate something like The Crying Game, which everybody knows the twist of but few people seem to have seen. Perhaps Soylent Green? It's never been acknowledged as being particularly high quality or popular, and the story line is generally known.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Ah, Coming to America--with the greatest series of trademark-related humor in any movie.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not why I like it, though I can see why that would appeal to you. :P

[cbreakr.livejournal.com]

Wait, did Netflix strike this from instant watch? I've had it in my queue for a while, waiting for the perfect moment of insobriety to watch it. Now I'll never have my chance because I'll forget about it completely by tomorrow!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

According to Netflix, it's off the Watch It Now as of today. I think you can still catch it if you watch today. I'm also sure it will be back. It may not even expire. Some things in my queue say they're going to expire and then they get extended.

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

They are remaking Weekend at Bernie's.

My friend and I once had a great time expounding on his idea for a Weekend at Bernie's 3 in which the characters were snowed into a log cabin, and everyone surrounding Andrew McCarthy and the other guy whose name escapes me were aware that Bernie was dead. Believing the pair to be insane serial killers, they all try to escape and end up dying equally by accident, while the main characters continue their morbid charade with an increasing number of bodies.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

They're remaking it!? BUT EVERYBODY ALREADY KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED WHETHER THEY SAW THE MOVIE OR NOT.

Man, every time I think they've taken this remake/reboot/reinvisioning thing too far, something else pops up...

Maybe Andrew McCarthy will play Bernie. He's pretty much the walking dead to the movie industry these days.

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

Also Mannequin! It's the year of McCarthy in Hollywood!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

But but but...WHY??? ::cries::

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

Because it has a plot that can be explained in a single sentence, and is apparently marketable since it already exists.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

::cries moar:: You're so, so right. That's why I despair for humanity.