Better Off Dead [SteelBook] [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray]

Director: Savage Steve Holland Savage Steve Holland

Overview

Most animation aficionados of the 1990s know "Savage Steve Holland" as the cocreator (with Bill Kopp) of the all-stops-out TV cartoon series Eek! The Cat. But Holland had been exercising his own peculiar brand of deviltry on live characters long before Eek! came into being. In Holland's Better Off Dead, John Cusack plays a lovestruck teenager, hopelessly enamored with Amanda Wyss. When she dumps him in favor of a more popular high-schooler, the boy's entire day quickly goes to Hell. In the words of Hamlet, all occasions do inform against Cusack: he is bullied, tormented and torn apart by everyone from the paperboy (who seemingly turns up everywhere) to the disembodied voice of a radio deejay. Cusack attempts suicide, but his efforts are just as unsuccessful-and amusing-as Bud Cort's in Harold and Maude. Meanwhile, French exchange student Diane Franklin, held a virtual prisoner by her host family, develops a long-distance crush on Cusack.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/06/2022
UPC:	0191329236437
Original Release:	1985
Rating:	PG
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	1:37:00
Sales rank:	9,110

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

John Cusack	Lane Meyer
David Ogden Stiers	Al Meyer
Kim Darby	Jenny Meyer
Demian Slade	Johnny
Amanda Wyss	Beth
Curtis Armstrong	Charles De Mar
Scooter Stevens	Badger Meyer
Diane Franklin	Monique
Dan Schneider	Ricky Smith
Laura Waterbury	Mrs. Smith
Aaron Dozier	Roy Stalin
Vincent Schiavelli	Mr. Kerber
David Vaughan	3rd Jock
Taylor Negron	Mailman
Chuck Mitchell	Rocko
Yuji Okumoto	Yee Sook Ree
Tina Littlewood	Chris Cummins
Jonathan Charles Fox	Nerd
Darren Harris	Nerd
Toby Iland	Nerd
Steven Williams	Tree Trimmer
Frank Burt Avalon	Ski Buddy
J. Warren David	Ski Buddy
Peter Ellenstein	Ski Buddy
Joey Tushnet	Paperboy
Yano Anaya	Paperboy
Sebastian Dungan	Paperboy
Rima Delane	Joanne Greenwald
Sam High	Jock
David Vaughn	Jock
Randy Stoklos	Jock
Brian Imada	Chen Ree
Stuart Robinson	Tree Trimmer's Helper
Edward Mehler	Buster
Thomas Rollerson	Roller Skater
Rick Rosenthal	Smitty
Rich Little	Voices
E.G. Daily	Herself
Rupert Hine	Composer

Technical Credits

Savage Steve Holland

Savage Steve Holland	Director,Screenwriter
Roy Downey	Special Effects
Gil Friesen	Executive Producer
Michael Jaffe	Producer
Andrew Meyer	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Easily one of the most refreshing teen comedies ever committed to film, Better Off Dead features John Cusack as Lane Myer, a jilted, angst-ridden high schooler whose multiple suicide attempts fail miserably, to great comic effect. This decidedly black angle, in the cheery years of Ronald Reagan's second term (1985), gave this conventionally plotted flick a patina of post-punk nihilism and may have scared some ticket buyers away. But those who have come to love it from repeated TV and video airings know that this film, writer-director "Savage" Steve Holland's first, is sweet and genuine despite its darker trappings. Cusack, an awkward 18-year-old when this was filmed, embodies the Everyteen -- surrounded by idiots, unable to catch a break, and utterly devastated when his girlfriend, Beth (Amand Wyss), dumps him in favor of the far more handsome and popular ski team captain, Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier). When she explains her decision to hook up with Stalin without mincing words (oh, and she says his car's nicer, too), you're ready to follow poor Lane right over the brink. Holland surrounds Lane with hilarious caricatures while punctuating the action with dream/fantasy sequences that underscore his hapless lot, but he affords a glimmer of hope in the cute French exchange student living across the street from Lane. Yes, Better Off Dead slips back into teen-movie conventions with the inevitable Stalin-Myer downhill ski race in the last reel, but for 85 or so minutes it's a breakneck run that you'll want to try again.

Barnes & Noble - Greg Fagan

Cartoonist Savage Steve Holland made his directorial debut with this acid comedy about a going-nowhere hamburger flipper and his run of bad luck. Its gleefully twisted tone, exemplified by a goofy suicide attempt in a basically lighthearted film (John Cusack's character jumps off a bridge, only to land among the refuse of a passing garbage truck), made it a minor quotable classic to a generation of young anti-authoritarian filmgoers. In one of his earliest roles, Cusack wears his expression of hangdog gloom with real comic sensibility, and the succession of miserable people and events that enter his life warrant every last frown and sigh. The funniest and most memorable character set on bedeviling Cusack's Lane Myer is the determined paperboy, willing to ride his bike down a ski slope to collect his fee, whose refrain "I want my two dollars!" will resonate with audiences long after the credits roll. Curtis Armstrong and Dan Schneider also turn in quirky performances as Lane's best friend and his nemesis next-door neighbor, respectively. The set pieces, some of them punched up by Holland's own animation and offshoots thereof, make for a pleasingly outlandish little coming-of-age story that doesn't betray its own world view, even during the inevitable happier moments of the tale.

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