Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious and Fun
Review: This is some of John Cusack's best. It's full of off-the-wall humor that he's so good at. He plays a highschool kid who's having a really tough time, and maybe he'd be better off dead. Of course, by the end of the movie, he gets the French-exchange student girl and wins a ski competition against one of the "snobby" clique guys. It's full of quirky, funny and very memorable characters, ex, the paper boy who torments Cusack's character for the "two dollars" Cusack's character stiffed him on.
Rating: 
Summary: Very creative comedy with a few moments...
Review: ...This 1985 comedy starring John Cusack has plenty of heart and a few very hilarious moments, but loses itself with its predictability. This is a movie with a story we've seen millions of times, but spiced up with plenty of creative sketches that, while they never add anything to the story, they sure make it a lot of fun! Cusack plays Lane, a teenager whose girlfriend has just broken up with him and he feels suicide is the only way out. Meanwhile, across the street a new foreign exchange student has moved in and is being pestered by the nerdy boy of the house. She soon takes an affection to Lane, even though she's never met him. Already, you can make assumptions on how they meet, how much English she really speaks, whether or not Lane will choose her over his ex, Beth, whether Lane will finally defeat the jock whom Beth has hooked up with. It all sounds so predictable. And for the most part it is. But there are so many other factors that make this movie great. Lane's best friend tries to get high on snow and jello; Lane's geography teacher is incredibly boring, but the students are strangely energized in the class; Lane gets a job at a local fast food place and creates a clay-animated living cheeseburger! There's tons more added to the mayhem. The movie may be easy to predict, but it sure has a lot of weird and funny stuff going on. I'd recommend it to those high-schoolers who think life just can't get any worse. In all likelihood, this will cheer you up.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute brilliance
Review: This film is one that I am so happy is finally on dvd. I continue to watch it again and again. Savage Steve Holland's direction is fantastic, as was his direction in another Cusack film, "One Crazy Summer" (equally worthy of your hard-earned...or not so hard-earned...money). But Cusack...there's a reason Cusack is one of my absolutely favorite actors, and this is one of them.Who has not been in this situation? Who has not pined for someone who wants absolutely nothing to do with you and is only after aesthetics? This film DEFINES the high-school experience, certainly as it existed when I was in high-school (i.e., around the time of this movie). It is filled with humor, sorrow, the total absurd (i.e., Cusack's mother and her creative "meals"), etc. It definitely belongs in the same class as the John Hughes films (Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles...which has another Cusack cameo, Breakfast Club, etc.) as well as the much-loved Cameron Crowe written "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Definitely get this film and laugh and cry all over again. It will give you the warm fuzzies as you recall the times of the era of the film, but also make you wonder how the heck you survived such times. Very, very enjoyable and if you're looking at this item anyway, chances are you already know that. In that case, don't hesitate and just get it!
Rating:
Summary: Classic! Funny as hell...
Review: Better Off Dead is a classic in it's own right. This is one of the funniest movies ever. I first saw this movie years ago, sometime in the 90's. I've seen it about 10 times since and it never gets old. There are many funny scenes in this movie but to me, one of the funniest is when Cusack is playing football and he makes this unbelievable catch in front of a beautiful girl and he appears macho because of the great catch, but ends up landing his feet on a family picnic. Hillarious! Laugh out loud funny! This movie belongs in everyone's collection!
Rating: 
Summary: Yet another example of "Great movie, bad DVD"
Review: Needless to say, movies in the eighties weren't a whole lot funnier than this one. I wanted it on DVD so badly, and waited nearly four months until it was finally released. But as soon as I popped it in my player, I realized something terrible: NO extras. I waited four months for the damn thing to come out and they don't put a single extra on it!? Good thing the actual film more than makes up for it. This is the story of Lane Myer, a boy whose girlfriend for six months breaks up with him in favor of the egotistical captain of the high school ski team. Though he gives suicide great consideration, he begins to take a liking to a foreign exchange student staying next door to him. Though this sounds like a pretty generic film at first, the obstacles Lane must face in everyday life add to the comedy value. A best friend who has been in high school for seven and a half years (played by Curtis Armstrong, best known for his role in the Revenge Of The Nerds films.) A paperboy who will not rest until he gets his two dollars. Two drag-racing Japanese brothers. Drawings that insult him. A younger brother who turns toy guns into weapons of mass destruction and household items into a space shuttle. These are just a few of the reasons you should view this film at least once. Due to the DVD's lack of extras, don't buy it if you already have the VHS version.
Rating:
Summary: BETTER OFF DEAD
Review: The ultimate 80's movie. Laughs all the way through this one. "Where's my two dollars", a favorite quote that still rings through my ear everytime I see a paper boy on a bike. Love the Van Halen stint by the animated Burger.
Rating:
Summary: Fronch toast, Fronch fries and to drink...Peru !!
Review: Hyperbole to the max. If you were a teenager in the mid to late 1980's you need no explanation. If you are a "Gen Y" and wondering what all the fuss is about go ask your older brother or sister what "I want my two dollars" means. John Cusak plays a lovesick Lane Meyer in a Northern California suburb. After losing his girlfriend, Beth, to the captain of the school ski team, he unsuccessfully attempts suicide several times and finally decides that his only solution is to win back Beth's affection. In the process he haplessly blows up his neighbor and befriends the foreign exchange student living there. Many side themes also add to the rythm and hilariousness of the film. David Ogden Stiers in one of his first "Post M*A*S*H" roles plays Lane's all-too-serious dad.
Rating:
Summary: It's the 80's, dude!
Review: A somewhat surreal teen love story, with an awful french accented chick and odd goings-on. Think 80's special effects. Still, pretty good.
Rating:
Summary: someone threw out a perfectly good white boy
Review: if you haven't seen this movie, then you live in a cave. Everybody knows it, everybody loves it, everybody must own it. (unless you have it on VHS...but does anybody even watch those anymore?)
Rating:
Summary: She said I'm Better Off Dead! (NFG)
Review: This movie is so funny! You must see this. This is one of the funniest movies ever made!! It's about 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. 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. This is a must see...
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