Better Off Dead is the perfect quirky comedy for everyone who loves John Cusack. The plot is typical for a classic 80s teen comedy... boy gets dumped and wants to win girl back. While this itself is rather cliche and shallow, the side characters and subplots make the movie memorable.
Early in the film, Lane Meyer (Cusack) gets dumped by the "love of his life," Beth, because she believes that she can date someone more popular than him, namely Roy Stalin, the captain of the ski team. Lane spends the remainder of the movie attempting to ski the K-12, the most dangerous ski slope in the area.
Lane's family is comedically quirky. Any time his mother (Kim Darby) is on camera, especially if she is concocting something in the kitchen, she steels the scene. The same can be said for Lane's brother, Badger (Scooter Stevens). He spends the entire movie collecting proof of purchases from half eaten cereal boxes to send away for novelty items such as books on how to pick up women and a kit that will make a household vacuum cleaner into a space ship. Oddly enough, all these gadgets work.
Like most 80s films, the main character learns a valuable lesson. He rises to the challenge, takes responsibility for himself, stands up to the bully, dumps the superficial bimbo, and falls in love with the girl next door. If you're looking for any deep meaning or complex plot twists, this is not the movie for you. However, it is just perfect for those days that you want laugh and lose yourself in something mindless.
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