Customer Reviews
Flash Back to the 80's!!! 
2008-09-01
WOW!!! What a classic Cusack film! He was SO young... SO cute... SO Cusack! This hilarious tale follows the hopeless romantic on his quest for a revengeful death... or lack thereof. With timeless characters, colorful cartoons and questionable food, your eyes won't be bored with all the visual delights. Not to mention the outlandish comments and situations everyone finds themselves in. Definite knee slapper!!! ;)
"Two dollars!" - CLASSIC!!!
Hilarious and charming 80s feast 2008-08-18
Take a lovelorn teen, a crazy fast food boss, kind but goofy parents, a kid brother with a science interest, a snotty skiing champ, a rotten newsboy out for his money, lots and lots and lots of cheesy, 80s synth music, a French exchange student, leg warmers, big hair, Pat Benatar lookalikes.... put them all together and you get Better Off Dead. This is one of the better 1980s comedies featuring teens in various conflicts. Virtually no violence or swearing here, and you'd have to laugh just at the fashions. This also features a very young John Cusack, who is quite likeable in his role as the lead.
awesome! 2008-08-15
The seller was fast with the delivery and the video arrived as detailed...in great condition. Will definitely do business with this seller again.
Da bomb 2008-06-17
This classic is finally available for home viewing. My family bought 5 copies (4 siblings and Dad).
Another run down 80's memory lane. 
2008-06-13
Better off Dead was one of those 80's movies that still bring back good memories.
Typical 80's humor, what more can I say
Too funny!!!
Probably not a movie for today's kids, they'd probably just roll their eyes and ask why there aren't any guns in the movie.
Still, for children of the 80's, if you haven't seen this then you owe yourself a rental.
Teen-age angst at its funniest 2008-06-13
Lane Myer (John Cusack) is stuck in a personal hell. 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. Faced with these prospects, Lane opts to end it all ... until he comes up with a ridiculous plan to gain acceptance and win Beth back. 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. Not as serious a "suicide-attempt" movie as, say,
Harold and Maude but just as funny, the film's more a collection of screwball sketches than a narrative. Holland livens the high jinks with surrealistic fantasy touches, including Jell-O that crawls, a hamburger that sings Van Halen, drawings that mock its creator, Japanese race-car drivers who only speak Howard Cosell, and a psychotic paperboy seeking blood over a missing $2. Cusack puts the whole thing on his shoulders and carries the insanity with another one of his touching, obsessively romantic performances, which, along with
Say Anything,
The Sure Thing, and
One Crazy Summer, made him the quintessential (and appealing) personification of lovestruck adolescence and suffering.
--Dave McCoy
Loved This Movie 2008-05-29
This is one of my most favorite films of all time. Yeah, it's silly. But I could watch it once a month and still laugh. The soundtrack is great as well.
I was at a soccer game recently and someone mentioned "Better Off Dead." Only about half the crowd gathered around had seen it, but their eyes lit up and immediately we all started spouting quotes: "Gee, I'm sorry your Mom blew up, Ricky." It's classic!
Classic movie 2008-05-26
I enjoyed this movie years ago when it came out and I still laugh today when I watch it. I have passed it on to my daughter and nieces and nephews to enjoy.
Excellent 80s humor 2008-05-21
Lane Myer must work at becoming an expert skier in order to win back his old flame all while warding off a 2 dollar obsessed paperboy. During this time, he meets and falls in love with a french exchange student. Lane must make a choice between popularity and being true to his feelings. Worth it for the secondary characters: 2 chinese racing brothers, a technology obsessed brother who hits it with the girls, a best friend who wants to sell snow for profit, and Lane's imagination, which oddly seems animated and sounds like Van Halen. Great 80s humor!
Appealing Lead Character, but Too Milquetoast to Be Funny. 
2008-05-17
"Better Off Dead" rolls farce and romance into a kind of good-natured suburban nightmare as experienced by Lane Meyer (John Cusack), a high school student who is obsessed with his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss). On the day of try-outs, Lane is unjustly excluded from his school's ski team and dumped by Beth for the obnoxious jock who was responsible. Lane half-heartedly contemplates suicide while being harassed by the neighborhood paper boy, freaked out by his well-meaning parents, and humiliated at every turn. He's so caught up in winning Beth back that he doesn't at first notice Monique (Diane Franklin), a French exchange student staying next door with some trying domestic problems of her own.
This 1980s teen comedy unfortunately doesn't live up to the darkly comic promise of its title. Lane's flirtation with suicide is fleeting and accidental. His experiences are presented subjectively, not literally. We see what Lane imagines as well as what might actually be there. This sounds like a good set-up for absurdist humor, and Lane is an appealing character. But all other characters are one-dimensional caricatures whose roles in the story seem unlikely. They fall flat. Lane's rival Roy (Aaron Dozier) does nothing more than call him names. Granted, "Better Off Dead" is from Lane's point of view. But the humor is watered down and lacks the punch necessary to make good on its premise. The Paramount 2002 DVD has optional English subtitles but no bonus features.
