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Better Off Dead [DVD] [1985] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

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Better Off Dead [DVD] [1985] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

DVD ~ John Cusack

4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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6 new from �5.48 2 used from �2.95

Region 1 encoding (requires a North American or multi-region DVD player and NTSC compatible TV. More about DVD formats.)

Note: you may purchase only one copy of this product. New Region 1 DVDs are dispatched from the USA or Canada and you may be required to pay import duties and taxes on them (click here for details). Please expect a delivery time of 5-7 days.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	82% buy the item featured on this page: Better Off Dead [DVD] [1985] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] 4.1 out of 5 stars (11)
	7% buy Say Anything [1989] [DVD] 4.6 out of 5 stars (8) �3.88
	4% buy High Fidelity [DVD] [2000] 4.2 out of 5 stars (37) �3.98
	4% buy The Sure Thing [DVD] [1985] 4.3 out of 5 stars (12) �4.48

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Product details

Actors: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Demian Slade, Scooter Stevens
Directors: Savage Steve Holland
Writers: Savage Steve Holland
Producers: Andrew Meyer, Gil Friesen, Michael Jaffe, William Strom
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 1
Classification: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: 16 July 2002
Run Time: 97 minutes

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

ASIN: B00005JKFA
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 107,044 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

In Better off Dead, 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.

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, Harold and Maude 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 Say Anything, The Sure Thing and One Crazy Summer, made him the quintessential (and appealing) personification of lovestruck adolescence and suffering. --Dave McCoy

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

4.1 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cracking..., 23 Jan 2004

By A Customer

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.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars nostalgia, 16 Jan 2004

By	"cscory_90" - See all my reviews

a classic early performance from one of hollywoods leading actors, cusack plays a heartbroken disfunctional teenager after he is dumped by his girlfriend for the more popular captain of the ski team.after many failed comedic suicide attempts he starts to take notice of his new neighbour a french foreign exchange student and soon realises there is more to life than his ex and soon starts to fall for his neighbour, during the movie you find out why so disfunctional due to his strange homelife, his mother possibly the worlds worst cook is intent on actually making somethig edible, his brother who at 10 years old seems to have a firmer grasp on reality and the ways of the world and his father a traditional kind of guy concerned with the well being of his garage windows. in all a greatly enjoyable movie with plenty of fun and feel good factors from meeting the chinese duo always trying to street race cusack to the grand finale the race down the steepest most life threatening slope in town, over all well worh spending 90 minutes of your life on.

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cult Classic - not best Seller, 3 Dec 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Better Off Dead [DVD] [1985] (DVD)

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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of my life!
Long since deleted film, this is just how I saw myself at 16 when I first saw it. Maybe not an all singing all dancing film like some, but a real cult classic and worth a watch.

Published 6 months ago by J. Mcgarry

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff...
Funny, a good laugh, worth watching. John Cusack is his fab charming 80's self. Item arrived quickly, on the day it was expected.

Published 8 months ago by PunkRocker182

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst 80's teen movie - no doubt.
I'm a big fan of the genre - but I'm sorry to say that Better Off Dead is utter garbage. The story is pathetic, the acting desperately poor and the jokes never come close to... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Rolo Talmasi

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!
I loved this film when I was in my teens and was so happy to be able to find it on DVD. It is looking a little dated but I still love it! The music is fab too.

Published 11 months ago by J. M. Lamont

5.0 out of 5 stars Feel better after watching!
Never misses a comedy beat as it romps through a series of scenarios in the life of lovelorn teenager Layne Myer (John Cussack). Read more

Published 11 months ago by Jean O'Connor

5.0 out of 5 stars an oldie but a goodie
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... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Mrs. G. Bedford

1.0 out of 5 stars Better off ... not watching it!
Truely awful wooden tripe. I honestly don't know what other reviewers saw in this. The only device that seems to work is the demented paper boy - everything else is forced and... Read more

Published 17 months ago by C. Longton

5.0 out of 5 stars Teen-age angst at its funniest
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. Read more

Published on 16 Dec 2004 by bernie

› See all 11 customer reviews...

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