Better Off Dead...

This one's hilarious! My family have borrowed several lines from this film and use them as inside jokes. John Cusak stars in this film about a teenager whose girlfriend dumps him for the Captain of the ski team. The film has enough skiing in it to satisfy most ski buffs, but it's not really about skiing. It's about relationships more than anything and the results are absolutely hilarious. This is destined to be a classic and it's a permanent part of my film library.

BETTER OFF DEAD is an impressively energetic debut feature for writer/director Savage Steve Holland. First time director Holland is conspicuously the new kid on the block as he saturates his film with so many ideas, a clear giveaway that he is yet to trust himself enough to release the reigns enough to let his movies breath. The results are spectacularly manic but it really works. Amidst the zany comedy and plentiful sight gags (the cereal boxes with all the giveaways cut out, for example), Holland throws in some amusing cel animation, a stop-motion fantasy sequence, and a cameo from Barney Rubble. Yet despite all the mania, the film's comedy has a level of discipline and restraint that ensures all the jokes land and humorous plot points established early on are satisfyingly resolved.

One of my favourite characters in the film is super-enthusiastic maths teacher Mr Kerber, played by late-great character actor Vincent Schiavelli. Telling maths formula jokes to his spellbound class, Schiavelli spins comedy gold using that discomfortingly warm tone that made him such a sought-after talent. His is one of several casting choices that are pitch perfect: John Cusak as the self-involved teen who wants to end it all when his vapid girlfriend (Amanda Wyss) dumps him for someone more popular; Laura Waterbury as the odious loud-mouthed neighbour and gas guzzling mother of shy bullish nerd Ricky Smith (perfectly played by Dan Schneider); Kim Derby as the timid clueless stay-at-home mom who makes slime-ridden meals that seem somehow sentient and slide off the plate by themselves (her "Frawnch" dinner party host is unforgettable); Curtis Armstrong ostensibly reprising his role from REVENGE OF THE NERDS gets the lion's share of one-liners and he delivers them with so much aplomb; Chuck Mitchell reprising his PORKY'S role is perfect as bad-tempered burger baron Rocko; Diane Franklin as the hapless frustrated French exchange student who is both a fairy godmother and the surprise love interest; monster child Scooter Stevens who wields newspapers as weapons and to whom two dollars means the world; and the super talented David Ogden Stiers as the priggish father attempting to bridge the generation gap with his checked-out son.

BETTER OFF DEAD is not for everyone and the film is most likely best enjoyed by those who lived through the 80s and understand its cultural peccadilloes, but if you have watched your fair share of 80s comedies like SCREWBALLS, 16 CANDLES, BACHELOR PARTY, PORKY'S, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION, REAL GENIUS, ZAPPED, or POLICE ACADEMY, you might wanna give BETTER OF DEAD a chance. Who knows, after seeing how everybody wants some, you may just want some too!

I've seen "Better Off Dead..." in late 2017. I have a tendency to avoid teen comedies or coming-of-age films once I passed into adulthood. To my defense, most teen films done lately are atrocities, to say the least, with dumb down characters, playing on stereotypes and modern social issues in the wrong way. Not ten minutes in and I instantly regretted not seeing this movie earlier. It has such a wacky take on teenage days in the 80's, with a hint of surreal and supernatural.

"Better Off Dead..." is about a high school student, played by boy-wonder John Cusack, who gets dumped by his girlfriend, leaving him with suicidal inclinations while trying to win her back by extreme measures. The characters are simply excellent, just mildly stereotyping the teen genre, with a memorable newspaper boy and his eternal yell "I want my two dollars!"

Savage Steve Holland's debut film would assure him as a cult director, but sadly once the 90's emerged, he would fall into an abyss of mediocraty.

"Better Off Dead..." is a unique teen movie that captures the vibe of the 80's and is an essential watch in a period where the "brat-pack" ruled.

Better Off Dead is a childhood favorite that I still enjoy as an adult. Yes, the filmmaking is a little amateurish, but that's part of the charm. This movie has so many quotable quotes ("I want my two dollars!" "Gee, I'm really sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.") and moments that make me smirk. I don't think they'd ever make a movie like this these days, so I'm glad they did in the 80s.

Savage Steve Holland, who went on to create the insanely wonderful Saturday morning cartoon series Eek! the Cat, combined two 80s genres - John Hughes romantic comedies and gag-a-second movies like Airplane! to create one of the more unusual teen comedies of the 80s.

The movie stars John Cusack as a jilted teen pining for his ex while oblivious to the absurdly perfect girl across the street, the two girls falling into the classic 80s stereotypes of the cold blonde and the magical, quirky brunette.

Cusack is more emotionally unstable than a Hughes protagonist, spending much of the movie in inept attempts to kill himself.

He also has to deal with living in an insane world. His mom makes weird gloppy dishes that crawl away on their own power, a newspaper boy seems to be the beta version of the Terminator, Cusack's best friend snorts all his food. The movie is frequently hilarious, resulting in a minor classic.