For some strange reason this film seems to just keep on appearing in Modern pop-culture. In fact, I have no idea how many times I have heard off the cuff references to it over the years, though I have to admit I can't quite remember the context of these references. Anyway, I had somehow heard about it again which made me want to go an watch it, and fortunately I found it available for free on one of the streaming services, so I watched it.
The thing about this film that sets it apart from, well, pretty much every other comedy that I can think of is that it is about this guy who has been killed, but nobody actually realises that he is dead - they just think that he is passed out on drugs. In fact, he will make a number of movements that a corpse (or should I say mannequin) would make, and people will simply assume that he is still alive. Actually, I suspect half the reason is because all of his friends simply assume that he is always on drugs.
So, the story goes that a couple of employees at Bernie's company have discovered that there are some discrepancies with some of the payouts, so they bring it to his attention. It turns out that the person who is responsible for the discrepancies is Bernie himself, so he approaches his mob friends to arrange for them to be killed. It turns out that Bernie has upset the mob, so instead of killing the two kids, they decide to kill Bernie instead.
I won't necessarily say that the film is outright hilarious, but what I will say is that it is certainly original, and unique. The odd thing is that I wouldn't necessarily consider it a cult movie, or at least it isn't listed on Wikipedia's list of cult films, however apparently it did get a high rotation of the television networks, which is probably why this film has somehow entered into the collective conscience of out society. Oh, and also because there is such a uniqueness about it that nobody seems to have replicated.
The thing about this film that sets it apart from, well, pretty much every other comedy that I can think of is that it is about this guy who has been killed, but nobody actually realises that he is dead - they just think that he is passed out on drugs. In fact, he will make a number of movements that a corpse (or should I say mannequin) would make, and people will simply assume that he is still alive. Actually, I suspect half the reason is because all of his friends simply assume that he is always on drugs.
So, the story goes that a couple of employees at Bernie's company have discovered that there are some discrepancies with some of the payouts, so they bring it to his attention. It turns out that the person who is responsible for the discrepancies is Bernie himself, so he approaches his mob friends to arrange for them to be killed. It turns out that Bernie has upset the mob, so instead of killing the two kids, they decide to kill Bernie instead.
I won't necessarily say that the film is outright hilarious, but what I will say is that it is certainly original, and unique. The odd thing is that I wouldn't necessarily consider it a cult movie, or at least it isn't listed on Wikipedia's list of cult films, however apparently it did get a high rotation of the television networks, which is probably why this film has somehow entered into the collective conscience of out society. Oh, and also because there is such a uniqueness about it that nobody seems to have replicated.