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Better Off DeadRating:
Release Date: 16 July, 2002 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $9.88 You SAVE: $5.10! Cast: Complete Cast (9 total) |
Better Off Dead Reviews
A Comedy Classic
Being mid-through my teens now I could be a professional on all the weird teen comedies that have come out recently. My friends love them, I hate them. It's almost impossible these days to find a decent comedy that's enjoyable for both teens and adults. But I must say this movie is absolutely brilliant. It does have a basic plotline, guy loves girl, girl dumps guy, and the story follows the bloke afterwards. But what makes this movie such a gem is how the director blends this solid plotline with the most brilliant humor you'll ever see. This movie is not centered on comedy per se, but it is hands down the funniest film I have ever watched. I was literally on the floor laughing hysterically. My best friend was there and it got to the point that I was laughing so hard that I'm sure she was worried that I was going to hemorrhage internally. I love that the comedy is well balanced with the story, and however absurd some instances become the film never gives off the feel of being slapstick. And greater still the story centers on a poor soul that many people will have no problem identifying with. From his crazy family ranging from the bird brained mother who's notorious for serving food that oozes and crawls off the plate, to the father who's in a ceaseless war with the local paper boy who I'm sure will grow up to be some sort of serial killer. The math teacher who talks out math problems like not even Einstein could with everyone in the class understanding him except Lane (main character). And through all this Lane's bizarre suicide attempts that never go to plan and are often are comically interrupted. Don't worry though, It has a really cute sweet ending. This movie will continue to be one of my favorite films, which is saying a lot- I'm at the theater usually around four times a week and practically live at blockbuster.
"There's...something...following them."
Better Off Dead is an unabashedly wacky, sometimes dark teen comedy which contains loony animated passages and other similarly implausible scenes. But thru all the juvenile sight gags and goofy plot contrivances, there is a standard romantic storyline cleaving to the film. Lane Myer (John Cusack) is a teenage loser who regularly undergoes excruciatingly embarrasing moments in high school. Losing his lovely girl Beth (Amanda Wyss) to Roy, the popular but arrogant school ski captain, seems par for the course. Everyone wants to go out with Beth, from the local mailman, to Lane's teacher, to even one of Lane's cartoon creations. Lane decides to kill himself in a series of hilarious not-to-be-taken-serious segments. Things kind of turn around for him when Monique, a sexy French exchange student, comes to stay with his weird neighbors. Lane, with Monique's help, tries to win Beth back by ski racing Roy down the daunting slopes of the K-12.
John Cusack is SO the man! There's just something about him. Two of my favorite teen movies of the '80s star Cusack (The Sure Thing and Say Anything). And, somehow, his charm and sympathetic average guy sensibilities hold this zany picture together. Diane Franklin (who?) is very winsome as the foreign exchange student Monique Junot. The movie's antagonists - Roy Stalin and Ricky Smith - are despicable and annoying enough that the viewer feels a justified sense of euphoria when they, at last, meet their comeuppance.
This film has an energetic, almost manic, pulse. Some of the zany gags are realized thru Lane's wild imagination and daydreams. The rest, however, is warped director Savage Steve Holland asking us to take the lunacy in stride, and because of the good humor inherent in the film, we do. My preferred scenes of dippiness are the flashbacks of when Lane and Beth were together, all the moments with the beautiful and daring Monique, and whenever that murderous newspaper boy is persecuting Lane, all for the sake of "two dollars."
The film's outrageous tone is abetted by the cast of oddball characters. Lane's best friend Charles (Curtis Armstrong, aka Booger from the Revenge of the Nerds films), who snorts everything in sight, has been attending the same high school for 7 and a half years (but, hey, he's no dummy). Naturally, the grim, relentlessly single-minded newspaper boy who stalks Lane throughout the film is a full out riot. Then there's Lane's precocious younger brother, who likes to party with older women and tinker with science fiction gadgetry (seems like an innocent hobby til the kid zooms away in his own space shuttle). Other notables are the two Japanese teens who street race with Lane, one of whom doesn't speak a syllable of English, the other who perfectly mimics Howard Cosell.
I've seen Better Off Dead quite a few times, and I like and enjoy it now as much as I ever did. Yes, it's zany and maybe a tad surreal and very much over the top. But, largely because of John Cusack, it's got massive heart and charisma. Recommended for the young at heart.
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