- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English
- Region: (US and Canada This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: CBS
- Release Date: Jan 22 2004
- Run Time: 97 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005JKFA
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#4,345 in DVD (See Top 100 in DVD)
- #4 in DVD > Comedy > Comedy Stars > John Cusack
- #16 in DVD > Comedy > School Days
- #23 in DVD > Comedy > Teen
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Product Description
From Amazon.com
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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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
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,
By
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Unbelievable, Lane Myer - Cusack Classic!!!!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Better Off Dead (Widescreen) (DVD)
John Cusack has done some campy flicks One Crazy Summer and Better Off Dead. This one far exceeds the first. There are so many funny scenes I don't know where to begin. The soundtrack although disappointing on the CD will not disappoint on the DVD. Too bad no additional footage or goodies like that. To me this was John Cusacks best movie.Favorite Moments (Close your eyes and remember) 1) CHRISTMAS! DO THEY HAVE CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE? CHRISSSSMASSS! Opens picture of Ricky and goes outside and laughs for about 5 minutes on the front step. 2) TWO DOLLARS, PLUS TIP! I don't think there can ever be a more evident line for a movie than this. All you have to say to someone is "TWO DOLLARS!" Chances are if they saw this flick they will say "BETTER OFF DEAD". 3) "DUDE, RIGHT NOW I CAN BE MAKING SOME KILLER EGGNOG FROM LIGHTER FLUID!" "CHICKS WILL GET STERILE JUST LOOKING AT YOU" "BUCK UP LITTLE TROOPER" Charles Demar or Booger as you may have come to know him steals the scene on several occassions. 4) BARNEY RUBBLE ASKING LANE TO GO OUT WITH BETH. Need I say more. 5) IT'S GOT RAISINS IN IT, YOU LIKE RAISINS - With that the green slime crawls off of its plate and across the table. I could go on for hours, do yourself a favor and buy this movie! If you want to remember the eighties all over again this will bring it all back home. A great cast, script and many, many laughs. Also check out One Crazy Summer, along the same lines. TWO DOLLARS!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review #143 (and that should tell you something),
By
This review is from: Better Off Dead (VHS Tape)
This is a great movie to have around for those nights when you really don't want to think about how it is, but would rather think about how it was. 143 people can't be wrong. John Cusak might be the most easily identified with actor of my generation, (with apologies to Jon Cryer, who makes a good race out of it.) The first time I saw it in the cheap local theater I almost suffered an incontinent moment when Layne (Lane?) uttered, "Gee, I'm sorry your mom blew up, Ricky." It's lines like that, scenes like David Ogden Stiers in the reindeer head coat, and the only known soundtrack appearance of Van Halen's "Everybody Wants Some" that make me go back for this one again and again.
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