Weekend at Bernie's (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Animation Gallery-Photo Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	94:55 (Case: 99)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ted Kotcheff
Studio Distributor	MRA Entertainment	Starring	Andrew McCarthy Jonathan Silverman Catherine Mary Stewart Terry Kiser
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Andy Summers

    The plot, such as it is, revolves around two complete losers - Larry Wilson (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard Parker (Jonathan Silverman), who both work for what appears to be an accounting firm. Both of them are occupied with things like trying to advance up the corporate ladder or charm a woman named Gwen Saunders (Catherine Mary Stewart). However, when their boss, Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser) invites them to a beach party at his house after they uncover a rather large mistake in the company's accounts, they think they're about to become winners. Unfortunately for them, they have uncovered a plot involving the embezzlement of money from the company's accounts, and the man responsible, Vito (Louis Giambalvo), decides to have Bernie whacked for numerous reasons.

    So when our two losers show up to Bernie's place in order to have a good time, they soon discover Bernie's corpse sitting in front of a desk. However, the fun really begins when they decide to act as though the man is still alive, and nobody seems to notice the difference, including a hit man by the name of Paulie (Don Calfa). I find it hard to believe that a man can lie dead in his home for so long without anyone noticing, but that's an aside which is necessary to enjoy the film.

    Okay, so it's not the most riveting film you'll ever watch, but it is a fairly typical example of the 1980s house party comedy. If you enjoy such films as Police Academy or Short Circuit, then this is worth taking a look at.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced. The loss of picture information from the sides is only occasionally evident, but that's all it takes for me. The original theatrical aspect ratio was 1.85:1.

    This transfer is reasonably sharp, but it isn't going to knock your socks off. It is certainly not the best that DVD Video is capable of, although it is a few steps above VHS. The shadow detail is adequate, although there really isn't much need for it in this film, and I did not detect any serious problems with low-level noise.

    The colours in this film are pretty typical of a house party comedy that is set on a beach, with plenty of bright yellows and blues on display. Sadly, this does not translate all that well into the transfer, with the colours having an overstated, pasty look that verges on the very edge of bleeding a lot of the time.

    MPEG artefacts were not noticed in this transfer. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of constant, and often very distracting, aliasing. The worst example I noticed was at 73:28 on a jetty, but there are also numerous shots during the party where patrons look as if their striped clothing is dancing independently of them! I cannot recall a single sequence that was free of this artefact, even when it should have been - the subtle telecine wobble that was also apparent kept objects which should have no sign of this artefact shimmering quite happily. Film artefacts were also occasionally noticed, being somewhat sizeable in form a lot of the time.

    There are no subtitles at all on this disc, so viewers with hearing impairments are out of luck.

    This disc does not have a second layer on it, yet there were two noticeable pauses at 27:06 and 59:17. Upon further investigation, I noticed the Title number on my player's display changing at these points. Given that there is no timing information on this disc, I can only come to the conclusion that the feature has been spread across multiple titles during authoring for some unfathomable reason.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one soundtrack on this DVD: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 448 kilobits per second.

    The dialogue is pretty clear and easy to understand at all times, and there are no discernable problems with audio sync.

    The music in this film is credited to Andy Summers. Like the audio transfer, it is completely unremarkable.

    The surround channels had the night off during this feature, as did the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Photo Gallery

Theatrical Trailer

• Widescreen 1.85:1 transfer
• Production Notes
• Cast & Crew Biographies

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Photo Gallery

    The Region 1 version of this DVD is the version of choice by virtue of being widescreen instead of pan & scan.

    The video transfer is mediocre.

    The audio transfer is quite plain, although it does have the advantage of clarity.

    The extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall