Better Off Dead (1985)
Not too many people know the name, Savage Steve Holland but if you happen to be a child of the 80’s and a fan of early John Cusack movies than you may be aware of the director’s work. Both Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer were two of my favorite movies growing up and they still hold up as comedy classics for me to this day. I can easily say Better Off Dead is in the top 5 best 80’s comedies. The great mix of comedy and drama, specifically romantic drama, and absurdist side-plots (the 2-dollar obsessed paperboy, the Howard Cosell speaking Asian car racers, little brother building a laser-gun) make these sublime examples of perfect, memorable and quotable comedies. I would have zero issue watching these with my kids and can’t wait to do so. I grin and chuckle just thinking about Ricky’s mom blowing up and Cusack’s character’s apology about it the next day.
This movie deserves its own review and maybe it will someday but now I want to highlight the two musical scenes, one involving the very lovable and sexy E.G. Daily who sings two songs in the movie. What school gets to have a band with a singer like E.G. Daily play for such a mediocre dance/party. It wasn’t even a prom but some mid-year little high school dance. That’s crazy! And the other scene is the infamous claymation hamburger music video for Van Halen’s spectacularly fun “Everybody Wants Some.” Yes they do.
I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!!!
Hard Ticket to Home Video 
This is pure snow!!
LikeLike
Would you mind if I…took out Beth?
LikeLike
What’s a little boy like you doing with big boy smut like this?
LikeLike
It’s got raisins in it. You like raisins.
LikeLike
I’ve never seen either of these….
LikeLike
You’re a true enigma machine. You watch some of the shittiest movies nobody’s ever heard of but you haven’t seen true classics like The Godfather or Better Off Dead.
LikeLike
It’s way funnier than the Evil Dead remake.
LikeLike
I’d rather watch Better Off Dead with a lobster clamped on my penis than watch the Evil Dead remake.
LikeLike
I seearhcd a bunch of sites and this was the best.
LikeLike
I take that as a compliment.
LikeLike
Yeah, “How to Pick Up Trashy Women” definitely is the most amazing book anyone will ever read.
LikeLike
I like the book you’re in better, “Classy Broads of North America.”
LikeLike
Oh yeah, eh. There’s a nice little write-up aboot me in the Canada section.
LikeLike
That section is just you, Rachel McAdams and Pamela Anderson.
LikeLike
Hahaha and when most people read it they think “one of these things is not like the others”.
Seriously though, Pammy and I have been trying to get a certain ho-bag removed from our section for a while now, but haven’t been successful. Only the classiest broads need apply.
LikeLike
Avril Lavigne?
LikeLike
She can be found in the “Dirt Squirrels” Appendix.
LikeLike
Go that way very fast. If something gets in your way, turn.
LikeLike
Classic! 🙂 This movie doesn’t get enough attention.
LikeLike