Better Off Dead |  | Director: Savage Steve Holland
Actors: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Demian Slade, Scooter Stevens
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $6.68
as of 2/10/2010 02:27 EST details
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New (38) Used (20) Collectible (2) from $6.68
Seller: scifiguy24
Rating:  230 reviews
Sales Rank: 1897
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: PARD871914D
ISBN: 0792178963
UPC: 097368719149
EAN: 9780792178965
ASIN: B00005JKFA
Theatrical Release Date: 1985
Release Date: July 16, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
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
Product Description
Lane Myer's (John Cusack) dreams are shattered when his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss) decides she prefers the company of a sleazy ski jock over his own. This disheartening news leads Lane to attempt to take his own life in various ways--all of which never seem to work out. But if he can beat Beth's new boyfriend in a ski run down the treacherous K-12, he may be able to win her back. Along the way, Lane also encounters a beautiful French exchange student, a nasal spray-snorting neighbor, a rabid newspaper boy, and dancing hamburgers. "Savage" Steve Holland (ONE CRAZY SUMMER) directs this 1985 cult favorite.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 230
 One of the best February 6, 2010
Shell (OH, USA)
I watch my old teenage favorites with my kids. They are often in love with my old favorites right away. This one is one of their favorites along with "The Breakfast Club", "Sixteen Candles", "Some Kind Of Wonderful", and "The Lost Boys"
classic 80's film January 4, 2010
T. Martin (texas)
savage steve holland garnered the teenage viewers like john hughes never could. i love my hughes' films but you cannot beat a claymation of a burger/frankenstein dancing to van halen. oh, oh and the classic line, "gimme my two dollars!!!" my old supervisor and i bonded over that one. and don't forget mom's themed dinners, the green stuff....that moved ewwwww.
i have my teenage daughter hooked on 80s' films. i tore her away from twilight watching john cusack films. she doesn't even care that he's my age now. hi john!
i loved all the 80's movies, even the schlock, and these were nowhere near that level. it's fun and entertaining. it's what a family grouping should include (so my family is different from yours). what better movie to watch with your hormonal teenager than something about another teenager trying to kill himself(and failing miserably at) and finding his happy ending.
Hilarious December 23, 2009
Bodhi (Texas, USA)
John Cusack just represents the typical teenage High Schooler in this movie. When getting dumped it seems like it is the end of the world. Then he meets someone new and the troubles from the first fade away and dont matter any longer. Also- he has a nice classic car!
I want my $2!! A classic December 1, 2009
T. Johnson (Portland, OR)
To all appearances this is just another dumb teenage movie. But for some reason I love it. It's just one of those classics that you always watch again if you happen to see it on TV somewhere. The surreal bits of humor just crack me up every time. Over the years I can't count the number of times quotes from the movie pop back into my head (especially "Two dollars! I want my two dollars!").
A Classic in Teen Comedies November 19, 2009
Brian L. Montgomery (Colorado)
This is one of my all-time favorite movies! I love the whacky, off-the-wall vibe of this film. John Cusack is great, as is the underrated Curtis Armstrong. This is the story of Lane Meyer (Cusack) whose girlfriend has left him for the captain of the ski team. Lane then tries to find ways to kill himself. But a new love interest inspires him to challenge for the top spot on the ski team. My favorite line is from Charles DeMarr (Armstrong) who says, "Lane, I've been going to this high school for seven and a half years. I'm no dummy." Enjoy this movie!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 230
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