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| Warner Bros. | Release Date: October 11, 1985 |
Starring:
David Ogden Stiers, John Cusack
Summary:
High schooler Lane Meyer (John Cusack) loses his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss) to the captain of the ski team, Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier). His pal Charles (Curtis Armstrong), though, has a plan for Lane to win her back: he must ski the K12, the highest peak in the local mountain range.
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What it has in its favor is affability—some owed to Cusack’s gawky young charisma, some to Holland’s goofy tone and lightly surreal sense of humor, and still more to a cast where even the villains are mostly likeable...To paraphrase the opening narration in The Big Lebowski, Better Off Dead is the movie for its time and place. It fits right in there.
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Better Off Dead has the body of a tired teen comedy but the soul of an inspired student film; it's the first movie in a long time to interrupt itself periodically with flights of animated fancy. At one point, romantic foreshadowing is accomplished by a "clay-mation" sequence featuring cheeseburgers in love. At another, a lovesick teen draws a cartoon picture of his faithless girlfriend, and the drawing tells him to get lost. [17 Oct 1985, p.B6]
BETTER OFF DEAD possesses a fairly strong cast, some good gags, and a quirky sense of humor, but it suffers from the stereotyped characters and familiar situations that plague most movies about teenagers. What is refreshing about BETTER OFF DEAD is a deemphasis on sex and drugs. Unfortunately, only about half of the many jokes and gags in the film are actually funny.
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There's nothing wrong with gag-based comedies -- that's what the Sennett comedies were, and that's what "Airplane!" was, too -- but the gags in Better Off Dead aren't all that inventive. Oh, Better Off Dead has its moments -- in particular, a Chinese drag-racing duo who learned their English from watching Howard Cosell on "Wide World of Sports" -- but it's mostly the usual gross-out fare: inhaling Jello through a straw; fat kid; girl with dental retainer; sticking Q-Tips in nose, ears, mouth. [17 Oct 1985, p.B10]
Better Off Dead, a seemingly teenage comedy that wasn't good enough to be released during the prime summer play dates, is utterly devoid of appeal. [15 Oct 1985, p.C2]
May 18, 2017
I want my two dollars! Who hears that these days and doesn't harken back to this classic 80s comedy? I would think this is a credit proof movie and one that you just have to enjoy on a lazy afternoon and laugh with. It's a product of its time and yeah it just kind of fits in there.
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Sep 24, 2022
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Dec 31, 2022
This screwball comedy punches far above its weight with its satirical parody visual gag style that echoes the many 90s shows I grew up watching on Nickelodeon. The sense of fun throughout is infectious. Casting is superb. A real taste of 80:s and 90's style of humour.
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Jul 17, 2023
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
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Aug 21, 2021
With none of the so-called ‘jokes' landing, the film very much lives up to its title and encourages the audience to commit the tragic act.
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