Review of Weekend at Bernie's II

It doesn't feel like overkill like a lot of critics has said about this sequel, to 1989's Weekend at Bernie. I love both the Bernie films. You really have to turn off your brain to enjoy them. They are really stupid and silly, but lots of fun. The film actually got a lot of quite loud laughs from me. Directed by Robert Klane, the movie leaves off from the events of the last movie. After returning from vacation with their recent deceased boss, Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser); Larry Wilson (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard Parker (Jonathan Silverman) find themselves blamed for Bernie's theft of two million dollars and fired. They investigate even more and discover that the money is somewhere in St Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a voodoo witch doctor Mobu (Novella Nelson) is hired by mobsters to find the money Bernie stole as well. She sends two idiotic henchmen– Henry (Steve James) and Charles (Tom Wright) – to go to New York, get Bernie's body so they can use a voodoo ceremony to reanimate him, as an attempt to get Bernie to show them, where he hid the money. Unfortunately they mess up and Bernie can only move when he hears music, and they lost the body to Larry and Richard. Unbeknownst to Richard and Larry, a company security officer, Arthur Hummel (Barry Bostwick) who believe Larry and Richard knows where the money is, is also on their trail. Now it's a rat race to the hidden treasure, as the three groups try to outsmart each other, and claim the prize in the end. A lot of people thought, a sequel to an unlikely comedy would be impossible to make, without it, feeling old. Surprising, the producers actually pulled it off, and it is funnier that the original. Yes, the dark humor is tasteless and plot is ridiculous as hell, but still, it's funny as hell to watch. The slapstick humor is some of the best. I love the whole carriage scene. I was laughing my head, off. I love the cartoon opening to the film. It really establish, how cartoony the film will be. Too bad, it was kinda half-assed made. The animated studio that did it, didn't even bother to animate the crew's production titles. This creates for a really bad effect where the names are animated but the production titles are obviously added in. It's really off-putting. Like an old school cartoon, Bernie's body is never gory after all the violent acts that his body takes throughout the film. In many ways, you have to suspense your disbelief, to buy into the fact that Bernie doesn't rot away or fall apart in this film. After all, the film is full of dumb moments. It's funny, how much the movie tries to get away with logic. Good examples of theses, are how Bernie's body able to be flew to St. Thomas in the first place or how Bernie able to hear music through a normal Walkman in deep underwater. Others things like the whole voodoo curses are just weird. Why does a blood of a virgin stop a man from dying? How does a pigeon cause a dead man to dance? The movie makes little to no sense. Maybe, I'm looking too much into it, but the movie could be a metaphor for itself. The voodoo ritual represents the producers trying to bring the idea back to life. The movie theater where the ritual is performed represents the movie theater where the audience is sitting, because it's where the producers are trying to recapture the 'magic' of the first film. The people who fight over Bernie's corpse so they can find the hidden millions are representative of all the people trying to cash in on the success of the first movie. The beatings that Bernie receives are probably supposed to be reminiscent of 'beating a dead horse,' which has obvious significance. The acting in the film is mediocre at best. It's not the worst, but clearly, could had been better. The music score is pretty catchy. I love how the movie influence a dance movement. Inspired by the movement of the movie's namesake, a style of dance was created called "Movin' Like Bernie". Homemade movies went viral on the internet, from children to soldiers serving overseas. Even professional athletes began performing the dance. Overall: I have complicated feelings about this movie. The movie is not yet dead. It's still watchable. Check it out, if you want to.