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Easily one of the most refreshing teen comedies ever committed to film, Better Off Dead features John Cusack as Lane Myer, a jilted, angst-ridden high schooler whose multiple suicide attempts fail miserably, to great comic effect. This decidedly black angle, in the cheery years of Ronald Reagan's second term (1985), gave this conventionally plotted flick a patina of post-punk nihilism and may have scared some ticket buyers away. But those who have come to love it from repeated TV and video airings know that this film, writer-director "Savage" Steve Holland's first, is sweet and genuine despite its darker trappings. Cusack, an awkward 18-year-old when this was filmed, embodies the Everyteen -- surrounded by idiots, unable to catch a break, and utterly devastated when his girlfriend, Beth (Amand Wyss), dumps him in favor of the far more handsome and popular ski team captain, Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier). When she explains her decision to hook up with Stalin without mincing words (oh, and she says his car's nicer, too), you're ready to follow poor Lane right over the brink. Holland surrounds Lane with hilarious caricatures while punctuating the action with dream/fantasy sequences that underscore his hapless lot, but he affords a glimmer of hope in the cute French exchange student living across the street from Lane. Yes, Better Off Dead slips back into teen-movie conventions with the inevitable Stalin-Myer downhill ski race in the last reel, but for 85 or so minutes it's a breakneck run that you'll want to try again. Greg Fagan

All Movie Guide

Most animation aficionados of the 1990s know "Savage Steve Holland" as the cocreator (with Bill Kopp) of the all-stops-out TV cartoon series Eek! The Cat. But Holland had been exercising his own peculiar brand of deviltry on live characters long before Eek! came into being. In Holland's Better Off Dead, John Cusack plays a lovestruck teenager, hopelessly enamored with Amanda Wyss. When she dumps him in favor of a more popular high-schooler, the boy's entire day quickly goes to Hell. In the words of Hamlet, all occasions do inform against Cusack: he is bullied, tormented and torn apart by everyone from the paperboy (who seemingly turns up everywhere) to the disembodied voice of a radio deejay. Cusack attempts suicide, but his efforts are just as unsuccessful-and amusing-as Bud Cort's in Harold and Maude. Meanwhile, French exchange student Diane Franklin, held a virtual prisoner by her host family, develops a long-distance crush on Cusack. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 097368719149
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:37:00
• Sales Rank: 7,652

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