Better Off Dead...

8/23/19851h 37m

Theatrical (limited) Release (US)

~ Insanity doesn't run in the family, it gallops. ~

Overview:

High school student Lane Meyer sinks into suicidal depression when his girlfriend dumps him for jock Roy Stalin, the high school ski racing champion. Meanwhile, he has to deal with his eccentric family, a tenacious paperboy and an obnoxious neighbor whose mother is hosting a beautiful French exchange student named Monique.

Director:

Savage Steve Holland

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$10,297,601.00

Key words:

duck
nerd
paperboy
suicidal
teen comedy
snow skiing
aftercreditsstinger
duringcreditsstinger
skiing
hilarious
admiring
familiar

Cast

John Cusack

~ as ~

Lane Meyer

Amanda Wyss

~ as ~

Beth Truss

Diane Franklin

~ as ~

Monique Junot

Aaron Dozier

~ as ~

Roy Stalin

Curtis Armstrong

~ as ~

Charles De Mar

David Ogden Stiers

~ as ~

Al Meyer

Kim Darby

~ as ~

Jenny Meyer

Demian Slade

~ as ~

Johnny Gasparini

Laura Waterbury

~ as ~

Mrs. Smith

Dan Schneider

~ as ~

Ricky Smith

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

Filipe Manuel Neto
Written 2 year(s) ago
3
A stupid teen comedy, but still funny enough.

Teenage films are not exactly my “cup of tea”, but I confess that this little comic film pleased me: after being abandoned by his girlfriend who, deep down, didn't like him and was just trying to be the girlfriend of the most popular boy in the neighborhood, a young man decides to die. After some half-hearted and half-hearted attempts, he ends up turning the situation around in a surprising way.

It's a film that has the advantage of being funny, although it's still as stupid as any other teen film. They treat that snowy hill as if it were a Himalayan peak – they even gave it a name alluding to a real mountain in this range – and good skiing seems to be an obsession for the locals. It's the most absurd thing in the film, at least for me. We also have a bizarre and disgusting family that lives close to the protagonist and that I wouldn't want near my house: besides looking like a beautiful group of idiots, I don't know if those people take baths. There are still some additional oddities, but I won't say much about them... it's better to see.

John Cusack did a good job. Still a teenager, the actor was already showing signs of having talent and knew how to take advantage of opportunities to grow in the artistic world, and here he makes a committed and competent effort. The rest of the cast is much weaker, largely due to characters who are essentially clichés with legs. Diane Franklin escapes thanks to a better character, and competent work from the actress.