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Better Off Dead
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Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301802321
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 6301802322
Label: 20th Century Fox
Languages: English (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: May 23, 2000
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: October 11, 1985
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Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Da bomb
This classic is finally available for home viewing. My family bought 5 copies (4 siblings and Dad).
Rating:  - Another run down 80's memory lane.
Better off Dead was one of those 80's movies that still bring back good memories.
Typical 80's humor, what more can I say
Too funny!!!
Probably not a movie for today's kids, they'd probably just roll their eyes and ask why there aren't any guns in the movie.
Still, for children of the 80's, if you haven't seen this then you owe yourself a rental.
Rating: - Loved This Movie
This is one of my most favorite films of all time. Yeah, it's silly. But I could watch it once a month and still laugh. The soundtrack is great as well.
I was at a soccer game recently and someone mentioned "Better Off Dead." Only about half the crowd gathered around had seen it, but their eyes lit up and immediately we all started spouting quotes: "Gee, I'm sorry your Mom blew up, Ricky." It's classic!
Rating: - Classic movie
I enjoyed this movie years ago when it came out and I still laugh today when I watch it. I have passed it on to my daughter and nieces and nephews to enjoy.
Rating: - Excellent 80s humor
Lane Myer must work at becoming an expert skier in order to win back his old flame all while warding off a 2 dollar obsessed paperboy. During this time, he meets and falls in love with a french exchange student. Lane must make a choice between popularity and being true to his feelings. Worth it for the secondary characters: 2 chinese racing brothers, a technology obsessed brother who hits it with the girls, a best friend who wants to sell snow for profit, and Lane's imagination, which oddly seems ... Read More
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