Rating: 
Summary: It's so good I wanna curse
Review: This movie is the best ever!!!!!! If you have not seen this movie, WATCH IT, it is GREAT. Lane Mayer is the best and his family and friends are soo funny!! I love it!
Rating:
Summary: Better O ff Dead
Review: This movie came out when I was in high school. I found it to be easy to relate to and funny. If your looking for something to make you laugh, Better Off Dead is a good choice.
Rating:
Summary: ...This movie rocks!!!
Review: ...When the two asian kids pull up next to Lane and the one kid sounds like Howard Cosell because he obviously learned english from TV it is hilarious!! When the family is eating with the French exchange student and Lane's wacky mom says the have Freunch Fries and ....Peru (while she shows a bottle of Perrier) I FOTFL. Okay, there are some dull spots, but what movies don't.
Rating: 
Summary: no DVD, but one of the great movies of the 80's
Review: One of John Cusak's best movies. He plays a kid named Lane, a senior who gets dumped, bullied, and depressed. I find this a great movie because it's so surreal; his life is just going so downhill, and he's surrounded by crazy weirdos. He meets a foreign exchange student, falls in love, and tries to win a huge ski competition. It's a great time for any person in high school to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Come back, Savage Steve!
Review: As the years go by, I find myself growing more and more convinced that the '80s were the last true golden age for that often-maligned genre, the teen sex comedy. Whereas now Hollywood shells out a small fortune to finance a Britney Spears soundtrack for films starring young men who make Frankie Avalon look complex (and featuring actresses who seem to have copied Annette Funnicello's bust but none of her own admitedly simple charm), the '80s were usually made with low budgets, up-and-coming young actors who at least seemed to be having fun, scripts that were too joyfully crude to ever be considered truly offensive, and directors who seem to have vanished at the decade's in. My own personal favorite amongst these directors was "Savage" Steve Holland (Is that a perfect '80s name or what?) who defined the entire decade with just two films -- One Crazy Summer and especially Better Off Dead. Both of these films display Holland's crazed, gloriously strange wit, his penchant for casting Curtis Armstrong as a high school students (despite the fact that Armstrong appeared to be in his 30s at the time), his fondness for the random nonsensical cartoon, and especially his early foresight to make John Cusack his favored star. In Better Off Dead, Cusack plays a likeable but nerdy high school schlub. Of course, all teen films claim to be about likeable schlubs but Cusack was one of the few actors who was actually believable as being both likeable and socially unpopular. He's dumped by his girlfriend, decides to beat her new boyfriend in a ski competition, attempts suicide a few times -- in a bit that everyone seems to hold as their personal favorite -- has to deal with a homicidal paper boy who wants his two dollars. Its a crazed plot and Holland doesn't waste much time trying to make it all coherent. Instead, he uses the plot as an excuse to pile on more and more strange sight gags and bizarre characters. In short, rather than pretending his story is some sort of grand artistic statement (like the current crop of youth films), Holland creates his own demented world -- a world where high school students are sent into almost religious ecstacy when their math teacer assigns them 200 pages of homework (their sincerely joyful reaction is my own personal favorite of the film's many out-there moments) and even a cartoon comes to life and asks permission to date Cusack's ex. Its a world where one of my favorite, unjustly unknown actresses of that era -- the sweetly pretty Diana Franklin -- shows up as a French exchange student who offers Cusack a chance at true romance if only he can survive a "fencing" match with an even more nerdy suitor. Its a world where a Japanese exchange student does a perfect imitation of Howard Cosell. In short, its a world that could only have been created in the freedom-loving days of the 1980s and John Cusack becomes the perfect everyman to lead us through that world. There are so many hilarious lines in Better off Dead and it seems everyone has their own personal favorite ("Its a shame people be throwing out a perfectly good white boy like that" comes up a lot though Armstrong shouting "Can you imagine the street value of this" as he snorts up a line of white snow is my own choice). What is truly amazing is that for a film that was dismissed when it originally opened, Better off Dead seems to have become the personal "cult" film of just about everyone who went to high school during the 1980s. Cusack is one of the best actors working today but, for many of his long-time fans, his recent work has been a bit disappointing. Since renouncing the whole teen film thing, some of Cusack's performances have -- on occasion -- seemed to be a case of an actor taking himself too seriously. Even if the films did little for his career, Cusack seemed to, at least, be having fun in films like Better off Dead -- a quality that sometimes appears to missing from his "mature" work. Of course, everyone in Better Off Dead seems to be having fun. Its a fun, genuinely goon natured film and this is why -- despite being dismissed by snobs over the years -- it retains such a strong following. Whenever I see a commercial for yet another film featuring Freddie Prinze, Jr. doing his "soulful" thing while the Backstreet Boys parade in the background, I think of Better Off Dead and its missing director. Come back, Savage Steve and -- whatever you have to do -- bring John Cusack with you. We all deserve to have a little fun again.
Rating:
Summary: Great 80's movie
Review: This movie is one of the most hilarious comedies of all times. If you understand the humor. If you kinda slow witted I don't think this film is for you.
Rating:
Summary: I WANT MY BETTER OFF DEAD ON DVD... AND MY TWO DOLLARS!
Review: This is one of the greatest films ever made! Directed by visionairy Savage Steve Holland and staring the very talented "John Cussak" this movie quite simply ROCKS! The humour was way ahead of it's time and the delivery and acting was perfect. I wouldn't have a problem reccomending this movie to anybody! I just can't wait for the lazy studios to get there act together and release it on DVD...a few special features would't be a bad thing either!
Rating:
Summary: Classic Cusack antihero..
Review: Imagine every frustration possible in high school encompassed within a single film. Dumped by a girlfriend, annoying parents, car trouble, forgotten homework..poor Lane Myer can't buy a break. It's no wonder he resorts to hysterical suicide attempts in this gem of an 80's flick. Don't expect anything too deep, but it rises high above the current standards of teen nonsense.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Comedy
Review: This movie is great. A friend talked me into seeing it - I wasn't to keen on seing a movie from the mid-80's. And I'm glad she did talk me into watching it.
It is a true comedy without the supid batroom jokes that we have to endure in many of today's movies.
Sorry to say this gem of a comedy would not probably be produce today. But it is well worth buying so that you can see it again and again. This is now one of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Unrealistic, unbelievable . . . and hilarious.
Review: This is a good film from the 80's. It's my favorite John Cusack film. I viewed it recently and enjoyed it almost as much as I did when I first saw it. Some of the story is unrealistic and unbelievable, but it's so funny from start to finish, you won't care. I loved the 80's music, too.
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