 |
Poor Diane Franklin, whose exchange student character is practically kept hostage by the odd host family next door to John Cusack’s character.
40 Years Later Review: ‘Better Off Dead’
By Darren Johnson
Campus News
I see “Better Off Dead,” the early John Cusack 1985 teen movie, is now in the Top 10 on HBO Max. It surely wasn’t Top 10 in 1985 and somehow flew under the radar on VHS for many years until becoming more mainstream in the digital age.
I somehow missed seeing this movie until maybe five or so years ago, though feel like I’m otherwise pretty well versed in the 1980s teen movie genre.
By 1985, though, my life had taken a turn, and I was growing up too fast, and just missed it. If it, say, came out in 1983, I would have definitely seen it. Some kids I, at the time, considered less prominent in high school owned a copy of this movie and would quote it at their section of the lunch table constantly, which actually made me want to avoid it.
I queued it up again the other night — it’s solid from beginning to end, with eccentric imagery and jokes one after the next, without any of the raunchiness of other teen movies, though that can be fun sometimes, too.
And a lot of great teen character actors from that era are in it — the guy who played “Booger” in “Revenge of the Nerds” (Curtis Armstrong) and Diane Franklin, who also played the love interest in “The Last American Virgin” this time playing a French exchange student, along with Cusack, of course, who went on to star in blockbusters.
Essentially, Cusack’s Lane Meyer character wants to off himself as his girlfriend has left him for the captain of the school ski team, but somehow the plot brings Meyer to challenge the ski captain to a race down a treacherous slope with all of the high school watching.
In one scene at the top of the snowy mountain, the Armstrong character, who also seems to have a drug problem, starts snorting the snow with a straw he’d happen to have. He says: “This is pure snow! It’s everywhere! Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is?”
Want to unwind with some wholesome nostalgic fun? Give this cult classic a watch. For what it is, it may be a perfect movie.
Facebook Comments