Rating: 
Summary: You must watch this movie
Review: BETTER OFF DEAD is a cult classic movie. There are so many lines in here that cannot be forgotten including, "I want my TWO DOLLARS" and "I'm sorry your mother blew up, Ricky." The girl in this movie is a cutie! Excellent movie to drink heavily during!
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Unbelievable, Lane Myer - Cusack Classic!!!!
Review: John Cusack has done some campy flicks One Crazy Summer and Better Off Dead. This one far exceeds the first. There are so many funny scenes I don't know where to begin. The soundtrack although disappointing on the CD will not disappoint on the DVD. Too bad no additional footage or goodies like that. To me this was John Cusacks best movie.Favorite Moments (Close your eyes and remember) 1) CHRISTMAS! DO THEY HAVE CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE? CHRISSSSMASSS! Opens picture of Ricky and goes outside and laughs for about 5 minutes on the front step. 2) TWO DOLLARS, PLUS TIP! I don't think there can ever be a more evident line for a movie than this. All you have to say to someone is "TWO DOLLARS!" Chances are if they saw this flick they will say "BETTER OFF DEAD". 3) "DUDE, RIGHT NOW I CAN BE MAKING SOME KILLER EGGNOG FROM LIGHTER FLUID!" "CHICKS WILL GET STERILE JUST LOOKING AT YOU" "BUCK UP LITTLE TROOPER" Charles Demar or Booger as you may have come to know him steals the scene on several occassions.
The funny thing is he teams up with Cusack again in One Crazy Summer. 4) BARNEY RUBBLE ASKING LANE TO GO OUT WITH BETH. Need I say more. 5) IT'S GOT RAISINS IN IT, YOU LIKE RAISINS - With that the green slime crawls off of its plate and across the table. I could go on for hours, do yourself a favor and buy this movie! If you want to remember the eighties all over again this will bring it all back home. A great cast, script and many, many laughs. Also check out One Crazy Summer, along the same lines. TWO DOLLARS!
Rating: 
Summary: ALMOST A CLASSIC!
Review: Better off dead is pretty typical of 1980's teen comedies but rises above most of them to achieve near classic status. Great comedies often give us memorable lines that become part of our everyday vernacular. Better off Dead gives us a couple of such memorable lines. First of course there is the homicidal paperboy who stalks Lane Myer (john Cusack) demanding "I want my two dollar!" Then, when Lane in a failed suicide attempt falls into a truck full of garbage, a black man comments "Now that's a shame, when white folks be throwing away a perfectly good white boy" Classic.
Anyway, Lane is on the verge of suicide because his girlfriend Beth decides she wants to break up with him to go out with someone who is better looking and more popular. Subtle she is not! She ends up dating Roy, the captain of the ski team. To make things worse, Lane's got a wacko mother (Kim Darby) whose dinner experiments come out looking like something already eaten and a father (David Ogden Stiers) who basicallt just wants him to get rid of the junk heap of a car parked in the driveway.
Virtually everyone seems to have it out for poor Lane, including a pair of Orientals, who want to challenge him to a drag race all the time and who do their best Howard Cosell impression over a ous speaker, egging Lane on.
Better off Dead really skewers so many of the conventions of high school life: relationships, popularity, nerds, drugs...all the things than anyone who grew up during that time period are so familiar with. The movie has a coy sense of humor and you can watch it repeatedly and find little bits that you missed before.
The movie was written and directed by Savage Steve Holland who went onto work on so many kids and teen shows such as Lizzie McGuire, Even Stevens, Phil of the Future and more. He really knows his audience. Truly a near classic of the 1980's!
Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorites of All-Time!
Review: This movie is probably in my Top 10 all-time favorite movies. It's an absolute classic. I crack up so much when I watch "Better Off Dead". Booger from "Revenge of the Nerds" plays a friend of Lane's (Cusack) and is hilarious!! The scenes with Booger on the snowy mountain with Lane are classic. Other characters in the movie that crack me up are the Chinese guy who talks like Howard Cosell, Lane's crazy little brother, his neighbor Ricky ("RICCKKKKYYYY!!"), and the paper boy ("Two dollars! I want my 2 dollars!"). Lane's Mom is a horrible cook and makes up some rather nasty food (i.e. the jello-like thingie that crawls across his plate). I often find myself quoting lines from "Better Off Dead". A must-see movie!!
Rating:
Summary: It's all about expectations
Review: John Cusack plays an everyman loser who struggles with a variety of problems while trying to win back the girl of his dreams. He ultimately triumphs by beating his arch-nemesis in a skiing contest and choosing, not his ex-girlfriend, but a French foreign exchange student with whom he's found true love. When this movie came out, I loved it, and when I saw it again after ten years or so, I hated it, recognizing too many of the jokes as too broad and silly. But, after this viewing, I can say that I've made my peace with this film. It's not the amazing end-of-all comedies that I remembered from my youth, but it is both clever and evocative, and didn't deserve the mental drubbing I've been giving it for the last two years or so.
The movie does a terrific job of melding the surreal experience without compromising the feeling of reality that permeates Lane's life. Almost everything is ridiculously over the top, from a dinner that slides itself off the plate to a couple of asian drag racers, one of whom learned English from watching ESPN and therefore talks like Howard Cosell. Nevertheless, we sympathize with Lane, and really feel his pain when he is the target of derision from his ex-girlfriend, and the high school bullies who make his life miserable. His eccentric best friend (the same actor who played Booger in Revenge of the Nerds) still cracks me up when he responds to a bully's taunts by laughing hysterically ad nauseum, thereby robbing the bully of his fun.
Rating:
Summary: Don't upset mother! Buy this movie!
Review: This movie was without a doubt one of the funniest I have ever seen. The first film by a young Savage Steve Holland (famous for many of my generation for "Eek! the Cat") fresh out of college, with $2,000,000 from a company that was sort-of interested in the storyline...what the viewing audience got in return was comedy gold.
The real nice thing about this movie is that like other great comedies like "Airplane!" or "Dead Alive" it doesn't take itself seriously for one second, making the entire viewing fun. I mean come on - rock 'n roll hamburgers, a cooking pot with tentacles coming out, rabid basketball players, and a rabid newspaper boy determined to get his $2 (and "not a dime" less)...how can you NOT love this movie?
I would definately suggest at least watching it. I just watched it with my screenwriting class, and my only complaint is my jaw hurts from laughing so much.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Comedies Ever!
Review: This movie was surprising to watch for the first time, since reviews only gave it okay marks. It was hilarious then and it still is.
Rating:
Summary: Where is my $2?!
Review: When it comes to teen comedies, the '80s came out with the best teen comedies. There was nothing shocking or vulgar about films like "The Breakfast Club", "Pretty in Pink" or "Better Off Dead". There is such an innocence to the films that is sorely lacking in today's brand of teen comedies. "Better Off Dead" is one of the funniest movies I have ever had the pleasure of watching as a teenager. John Cusack plays Lane Myer who ends up getting dumped by his highschool sweetheart Beth for the captain of the ski team. After getting dumped, Lane becomes suicidal and attempts to off himself but every time he tries to he fails. His family is totally oblivious to Lane's attempts at suicide. The mother is the funniest member of Lane's family as she cooks up such horrible food. His father is totally oblivious. And Lane's brother is too busy building rockets. If she wasn't hilarious enough, there is Lane's best friend who will just about snort up anything from jello to snow through a straw. Eventually Lane meets the French foreign exchange student who is living with this fat nerd and his obsessive mother. With her help, Lane comes out of his deep funk. One of my personal favorite moments in the film is when Lane daydreams at his job that the fast food he cooks comes to life. I also loved it when Lane sticks q-tips in every orifice on his face. And who can forget about the psychotic paper boy who chases after Lane throughout the entire movie? The characters in this film are all hysterically funny and unforgettable. "Better Off Dead" may not have been a box office hit but it sure was a hit with me. I can still laugh through out the entire movie.
Rating:
Summary: ...You See...My Grandma Dropped Acid And Hijacked A Bus.....
Review: Many, MANY classic moments fused together with a typical, yet charming story line make up the fabric that is Better Off Dead. If you haven't picked up this flick then you're crazy. If you haven't seen it yet than you really need to buy it.... or you're crazy. There's absolutely nothing out there that can compare to this movie... "I dont know whats worse, someone who doesn't speak at all, or someone who only speaks Howard Cossell."
Rating:
Summary: The funniest movie I have ever seen. Period.
Review: If you are between the ages of 25 and 35, then I would suggest taking a trip down memory lane with this film, "Better off Dead". It's John Cusack at his youngest and best, though I'm sure some of you would like his more recent films (eg Grosse Point Blank).
As Lane (Cusack) deals with the void left by his former girlfriend, he thinks he is better off dead. His tryin-hard-to-be-hip-but-failing-miserably Dad, can't-cook-to-save-her-life-and-might-kill-someone-if-she-tried Mum, silent-genius-who-loves-trashy-women kid brother, I-can't-even-get-real-drugs-in-this-town best friend and neighbours who defy logic are just some of the hilarious cast that make this a thoroughly enjoyable and very off-beat/qwerky film. If you don't like films with subtle and strange humour, don't buy this. If you watch it, take into account it was done in the 80s! Add to that the fact that this is, after all, a love story and it's one you can watch with your girl or boy. :)
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