Weekend at Bernie's II

Andrew McCarthy must die. But then we'd probably be seeing Weekend at Andy's, and the whole pathetic mess would continue on and on, like some hellish Mobius Strip. Better to let him live and suffer his crimes on The Late Show. McCarthy reprises his soulless, curiously reptilian role as goofball junior exec Larry from Weekend No. 1, along with co-star Jonathan Silverman as his pal Richard, and Terry Kiser as the pair's recently deceased boss, the titular Bernie. This time out, the inept trio pack themselves off to St. Thomas, in search of the $2 million Bernie embezzled prior to his death. Along the way, the corpse is half-heartedly resurrected by means of Virgin Islands-style voodoo, but – get this – he can only move around when there's conga music on the soundtrack (Ha!). McCarthy manages to play his bit as the scheming, misogynistic, insouciant Larry even broader than before, leaving one with the nervous feeling that this is not acting at all, but instead, McCarthy as McCarthy. Yikes. Only Kiser really pulls off his role (that of a dead man), staggering about with a carefree smirk and an eternally cocked eyebrow as if to say, “sure, I may be dead, but I still get the girls” (shades of Jorg Buttgereit's Nekromantik). Which brings me to another odd point: for a movie so obviously trapped in the teen-comedy formulaics of the early-to-mid-Eighties, Weekend at Bernie's II has surprisingly few nude blonde women. It is, after all, set in St. Thomas, but even this sure-fire, lowbrow interest-booster is ignored in favor of McCarthy's smarmy mug. Good lord, man, where are Golan and Globus when we need them? I could go on, but why bother? Let's just hope that this projected series of films (and I use the term loosely) dies a quiet, unremarked-upon death unlike that of its title character.