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Lane Myer (John Cusack) is stuck in a personal hell. A compulsive, adolescent Everyman growing up in Suburbia, USA, not only does he fail to make the prestigious high school ski team (again), but his beloved sweetheart, Beth, also leaves him for Roy, the team's popular, arrogant captain. If this isn't bad enough, he's stuck with a mother who frighteningly experiments--rather than cooks--with food, a brother who builds rockets out of models, and a best friend so desperate for drugs that he settles for snorting powdered snow. Faced with these prospects, Lane opts to end it all ... until he comes up with a ridiculous plan to gain acceptance and win Beth back. Director Savage Steve Holland warps this simple, clichéd premise, letting his wacky imagination twist it into a fairly original, slightly dark, and completely hilarious '80s teen comedy. Not as serious a "suicide-attempt" movie as, say, Harold and Maude but just as funny, the film's more a collection of screwball sketches than a narrative. Holland livens the high jinks with surrealistic fantasy touches, including Jell-O that crawls, a hamburger that sings Van Halen, drawings that mock its creator, Japanese race-car drivers who only speak Howard Cosell, and a psychotic paperboy seeking blood over a missing $2. Cusack puts the whole thing on his shoulders and carries the insanity with another one of his touching, obsessively romantic performances, which, along with Say Anything, The Sure Thing, and One Crazy Summer, made him the quintessential (and appealing) personification of lovestruck adolescence and suffering. --Dave McCoy
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Blast from the Past!,
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This review is from: Better Off Dead (VHS Tape)
Comedy seldom stands the test of time, such is the case with this early Cusack vehicle. I remember seeing this film when it was first released and fondly reminiscing about how funny it was. Sad to say, memories are usually funnier than fact. Don't get me wrong though, I can see why I liked the film for it's time. It doesn't lack charm, but some of the gags seem dated by any of today's standards. Very few comedic offerings hold up through multiple generations. I remember what a huge hit Beverly Hills Cop was with Eddie Murphy in 1984. Watch it now and you'd be bored to tears waiting for a laugh. These films are usually remembered in fondness by the people who saw them at the time, and they are best preserved as memories only.
4.0 out of 5 stars
classic Cusack,
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This review is from: Better Off Dead (Widescreen) (DVD)
For the two Asians (one of which has learned all the English he knows from Howard Cosell on Wide World of Sports) who constantly drag race Cusack, this flick is worth the price of the video.Of course, it's dumb and stupid, but it's also got so many classic bits the blow-dried '80s hairstyles can be overlooked.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie with John Cusak the way he should be,
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This review is from: Better Off Dead (DVD)
One of my favorite movies from my teens. Worth every minute. He should be in comedy to this day.
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