"Weekend at Bernie's" faces off against "Sleeping with the Enemy" in the final round of Wilmington Movie Madness voting.
By John Staton
John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com
Published: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 10:23 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 10:23 a.m.
When it comes to the history of Wilmington film, there aren't many, if any, locally made movies that more people have seen than Weekend at Bernie's and Sleeping with the Enemy.
So it's not a huge surprise, then, that those two movies have run the gauntlet to meet in the final match-up of the Wilmington Movie Madness bracket buster contest.
Honestly, it hasn't even been close. Aside from a semi-close call against Blue Velvet in round two for Bernie's, both films have taken at least 60 percent of the vote in each round.
The contest started Feb. 9. Here's how it works: To create seedings, StarNews reporter Ben Steelman, community engagement editor Jeff Hidek, correspondent/movie buff Brian Tucker and myself ranked our 32 best and eight worst Wilmington-made movies. StarNews readers picked the winners and in the case of Super Mario Bros., which last week was voted worst movie ever made in Wilmington, the losers.
Voting is conducted online at www.StarNewsOnline.com/MovieMadness (see 6D to see the filled-in brackets and how each film progressed). You have until 5 p.m. Friday to vote in the final round.
Each week of the contest, we randomly select one entrant to win a pair of movie passes to Mayfaire 16 cinemas in Wilmington and a gift card to the Fuzzy Peach Frozen Yogurt Bar. (This week's winner is Chris Holland. Congrats, Chris!)
At the end of the contest, we'll randomly select one entrant to win a movie-themed prize pack containing four movie passes to Mayfaire; a copy of the StarNews Wilm on Film book recounting Wilmington's movie history; a $20 gift certificate to Zoë's Kitchen in Mayfaire; and a copy of Wilmington-made classic Blue Velvet on BluRay.
Here's a preview of the Wilmington Movie Madness championship.
WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S' v. SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY'
Two movies from the early days of Wilmington's film industry still resonate with folks, it would seem.
Weekend at Bernie's came out in 1989 and Sleeping with the Enemy hit theaters in 1991. Both had decent box offices, but their longevity really comes from endless cable reruns for the past 20 years.
On the surface, the Bernie's/Enemy match-up could be seen as a dumb guy movie against the ultimate chick revenge flick. But the movies' appeal (I'm not sure I can bring myself to call them films) runs deeper than that.
Bernie's is the broadest of broad comedies. Its sitcom-style setup has Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman tooling around on a rich folks' beach playground (represented locally by Bald Head Island) with their dead boss (Terry Kiser), who was whacked by the mob, in tow. They take him to ****tail parties and on water-skiing outings with none of the clueless partiers the wiser as to his recent demise. What would be truly horrifying in real life somehow became light-hearted slapstick fun on the big screen.
In similar fashion, Sleeping with the Enemy, which filmed some scenes on Wrightsville Beach, depicted a situation that would be terrifying in real life a woman, played by Julia Roberts, is stalked by her psycho ex (Patrick Bergin) and made it thrilling on screen. (The fact that lots of women have psycho exes of varying degree probably helped the film's appeal.)
But while Bernie's merely spawned an ill-advised sequel, 1993's Weekend at Bernie's II, Sleeping with the Enemy helped cement the star status of Roberts, whose previous films included Mystic Pizza (1988), Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman (1990).
In the end, while Bernie's may have knocked the competition dead so far, look for the star power of Roberts and Sleeping with the Enemy which vanquished not one but two movies starring Sandra Bullock, 28 Days and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, on its way to the Wilmington Movie Madness final to end the run of Bernie's and claim the title of StarNews readers' favorite made-in-Wilmington movie.
Then again, I've been wrong before. Maybe Bernie's really can't be killed. Go vote.
