Better Off Dead (PG, 1985)

Lane (John Cusack) is a typical teenager in a typically weird suburban northern California household (younger brother is a mad-scientist type; mom's atrocious kitchen techniques are right out of the the Addams Family, best friend is a crazed goofball). Lane adores his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss), a fellow student he's been dating for six months. Straightaway she dumps him for the handsome, popular varsity ski-team champ, and Lane goes into a bad-luck tailspin. His car radio plays nothing but breakup songs, and he finds himself repeatedly humiliated in front of Beth, in and out of school. Other dudes (even a famous cartoon character!) tell him they're going to ask Beth out. The tormented Lane repeatedly tries to kill himself, but finds a promising new relationship with the proverbial girl next door -- a French-exchange student being amorously pursued by the fat "dork" son in her host family.

BETTER OFF DEAD graduated to theaters with a homeroomful of D-grade locker-room comedies (many inspired by Porky's, whose title character cameos here) fixated on teen lust, teen drugs, and teen feuds/revenge/payback. While some critics failed it from the outset, Better Off Dead turned out to be a notch more upscale than most of its classmates and gained a "cult" reputation for its clever gags (even if some haven't aged too well; anyone for a Howard Cosell parody?) and zany blend of animation and live-action. Some individual bits are fall-down hilarious, if pretty much throwaways in a severely disjointed plotline.

A young John Cusack would have more multidimensional roles to play later in his career, and the absurdist approach to life from a bewildered adolescent's POV would be done in remarkably similar style -- but with more heart -- by TV's Malcolm in the Middle. Still, a generation of parents who grew up in the 1980s cherish Better Off Dead and might want to give it a spin again with their own offspring to see whether the humor holds up. That's if the cavalier treatment of suicide as a running joke isn't a dealbreaker.

Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Director: Savage Steve Holland
Cast: Curtis Armstrong, David Ogden Stiers, John Cusack, Kim Darby
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 98 minutes
Theatrical release: October 11, 1985
DVD release: July 16, 2002
MPAA Rating: PG