FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Better Off Dead [DVD] [1985]

Better Off Dead [DVD] [1985]
enlarge	Director: Savage Steve Holland Actors: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Demian Slade, Scooter Stevens Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK) Category: DVD List Price: ~~£15.99~~ Buy New: £2.19 as of 23/11/2009 00:01 GMT details You Save: £13.80 (86%) New (15) Used (3) from £2.19 Seller: fastdvd2006 Rating: 11 reviews Sales Rank: 7630 Format: PAL Language: English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 93 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5014437838438 ASIN: B0000C88KA Theatrical Release Date: October 11, 1985 Release Date: February 2, 2004 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review In IBetter off Dead/I, 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. p 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, IHarold and Maude/I but just as funny, the film is more a collection of screwball sketches than a narrative. Holland enlivens the high jinks with surrealistic fantasy touches, including Jell-O that crawls, a hamburger that sings Van Halen, drawings that mock its creator, and a psychotic paperboy seeking blood over a missing two dollars. Cusack puts the whole thing on his shoulders and carries the insanity with another one of his touching, obsessively romantic performances, which along with ISay Anything/I, IThe Sure Thing/I and IOne Crazy Summer/I, made him the quintessential (and appealing) personification of lovestruck adolescence and suffering. --IDave McCoy/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 11 1 2 3 Next » Cracking... January 23, 2004 14 out of 15 found this review helpful Long out of print and unavailable, this film seems to have recently popped up on Region 1 DVD, and it's worth getting a multi-region player for! Other reviewers have told you about the plot and some of the gags, but BUY THIS now and watch out for the little brother, the postman (one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed on screen is that quick shot of postie approaching the front door), the classroom scenes with the overeager students and, of course, the evil paperboy who 'wants his two dollars'. It is gag driven, highly visual, truly funny and an underrated classic cult film, deftly played and directed. It's Ferris Bueller with a touch of surrealism and more belly laughs than cerebral. Love it as I have since I first saw it on video in the '80s. Cult Classic - not best Seller December 3, 2003 6 out of 8 found this review helpful This is a classic. A must watch. If you enjoy doing stupid things like playing pranks on people or playing hide and seek on a drunken night out - this is the film for you. John Cusack stars as the loved up teenager who get dumped for the local pro skier. To win her back he decides to conquer the toughest ski run on the piste....with hilarious consequences. There are loads of funny moments throughout this film including the two Asian guys who have learnt to speak English from watching sports channels to his mother who's food quite literally crawls off the table. Believe me, this film will have your friends saying "I don't want to watch this"...but once they have ...you will gone down as the finder of a truly great film...a must buy....a cult classic. Teen-age angst at its funniest December 17, 2004 bernie (Arlington, Texas) 2 out of 3 found this review helpful Lane Meyer (Cusack) has the entire standard (only if they are yours not so standard) problems and people to put up with. He has a car (if he puts it together.) He has a mother that makes boiled bacon and many other delicacies. The standard mix of schoolmates and a love problem. Naturally everything is going down hill until the neighbors bring in a female French exchange student. Will she be able to get him out of his slump or cause more anguish so that he would be "Better Off Dead"? br /It is all the little things that you can relate to and the fantasy scenes that make the movie. They are to numerous to mention here but many people after watching this movie have a tendency to look at each other and say, "I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!" br / an oldie but a goodie February 1, 2009 Mrs. G. Bedford (Hastings, England) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful i like john cusack so thought i would give this dvd a whirl. ordered and paid, it came through the post very quickly in exactly the condition described, well packed and new condition, the film is one of his earlier ones but well worth watching as it's very funny Feel better after watching! February 23, 2009 Jean O'Connor (near Stirling, Scotland) Never misses a comedy beat as it romps through a series of scenarios in the life of lovelorn teenager Layne Myer (John Cussack). Dumped by his girlfriend, the film follows him the through comic and sometimes comic tragic scenes involving food, music, cars and did I mention, skiing? The skiing scenes are brilliant. br /David Ogden Stiers (Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III, for those of you old enough to remember MASH) as his Dad needs a dictionary to communicate with his son. Charles de Mar (Curtis Armstrong) lends great support as his top hat wearing, snow snorting friend and the paper boy is a real star! br /A quirky comedy and one which you'll want to watch over and over. br / Showing reviews 1-5 of 11 1 2 3 Next »

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