Better Off Dead

Better Off Dead is a 1985 American teen romantic comedy film starring John Cusack and written and directed by Savage Steve Holland. It tells the story of high school student Lane Myer who is suicidal after his girlfriend breaks up with him.

Plot
Lane Meyer is a depressed teen who loses his girlfriend Beth. Her given reason for breaking up is: "Lane, I think it'd be in my best interest if I dated somebody more popular. Better looking. Drives a nicer car." Anyway, poor Lane is left alone and thinks up treacherous ways of killing himself. He finally meets a French beauty called Monique and falls for her. Simultaneously, he must endure his mother's terrible cooking which literally slides off the table and his disgusting next door neighbour Ricky (and his mum) while he prepares for the skiing race of his life - to get his old girlfriend back!

Trivia
The voice of Yuji Okumoto doing Howard Cosell was dubbed by impressionist Rich Little. Lane's little brother, Badger, has no lines in the entire film. People protested the film's original tagline, "Sometimes...you're Better Off Dead," so it was changed to "Relax...you're never Better Off Dead." During the Christmas presents scene at Lane's house we see a large toy robot. It is Twiki from the TV show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. When Beth (Amanda Wyss) shows up at the high school dance, the person standing behind her is wearing Freddy Krueger's sweater. Wyss played Krueger's first victim in A Nightmare on Elm Street. In the grocery store scene, Nintendo's arcade game Punch Out can be seen up front. When Lane gets home from the dance, he opens his brother's door to find lovely ladies in his room, the camera angle is a classic scene from The Graduate - the lady's legs are spread so we can see the boy in the doorway admiring her. Savage Steve Holland stated in an interview that John Cusack hated that movie. This wasn't the first time Diane Franklin used a French accent in a film. For part of Second Time Lucky she played a French nurse in World War I. According to Savage Steve Holland, the film is mostly autobiographical. Holland really was suicidal when his high school girlfriend left him for captain of the ski team. Also, he really did have a paperboy named Johnny Gasparini who would harass him for two dollars. According to Holland, when the film came out, the ex-girlfriend contacted him to apologize. Clint Howard was considered for the part of Ricky Smith.

Box office
The movie grossed $10,297,601 worldwide.

Henry's copy
Henry has the 1996 VHS of this movie from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It has a promo for 20th Century Fox Selections.