After his girlfriend ditches him for a boorish ski jock, Lane decides that suicide is the only answer. However, his increasingly inept attempts bring him only more agony and embarrassment. Filled with the wildest teen nightmares.
The teenager Lane Meyer has a crush on his girlfriend Beth Truss. When Beth dumps him to stay with the successful skier Roy Stalin, Lane is depressed and decides to commit suicide. However he gives up and tries to improve his skill of skier to ski the dangerous K12 slope to impress Beth. Meanwhile his neighbor Mrs. Smith receives the exchange French student Monique Junot and her fat son Ricky Smith considers Monique his girlfriend; however, Monique has an unrequited crush on Lane that does not note her. When Lane stumbles upon Monique in a high-school party, he befriends her. The upset Lane challenges Roy in a competition on the K12 slope but then he regrets. However Monique is a great mechanic and skier, and fix Lane's Camaro and teaches him how to ski the K12 slope. What will happen to Lane?Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
You've blown up your neighbor's mom. Your seven-year-old brother has better luck with women than you do. Your girlfriend has a new boyfriend. Relax, you're never... See more »
Savage Steve Holland stated in an interview that John Cusack hated this movie and walked out of the film after twenty minutes during a special screening prior to the star of production on One Crazy Summer (1986). Holland said: "The next morning [Cusack] basically walked up to me and was like, 'You know, you tricked me. 'Better Off Dead...' was the worst thing I have ever seen. I will never trust you as a director ever again, so don't speak to me' . . . He was just really upset. And I said, 'What happened?! What's wrong?!' And he just said that I sucked, and it was the worst thing he had ever seen, and that I had used him, and made a fool out of him, and all this other stuff . . . It was so out of left field that it just floored me." Cusack completed principal photography on "One Crazy Summer" due to contractual obligations but if it had it not been for this, Cusack likely would have not done the second film with Holland. See more »
The opening credits feature a cartoon - the animation style is the same that Lane draws in the cafeteria later on. John Cusack's character in Savage Steve Holland's One Crazy Summer is also an aspiring cartoonist who draws in the same style. See more »
Alternate Versions
Network TV/HBO versions include two additional shots at the end of the film, one being a wide angle shot of the baseball stadium, and the other being a close up shot of Monique and Lane kissing together. Because of the deletion of these shots, the music and sound effects on the current video release are not synchronized with the picture. See more »
The teenager Lane Meyer (John Cusack) has a crush on his girlfriend Beth Truss (Amanda Wyss). When Beth dumps him to stay with the successful skier Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier), Lane is depressed and decides to commit suicide. However he gives up and tries to improve his skill of skier to ski the dangerous K12 slope to impress Beth. Meanwhile his neighbor Mrs. Smith (Laura Waterbury) receives the exchange French student Monique Junot (Diane Franklin) and her fat son Ricky Smith (Daniel Schneider) considers Monique his girlfriend; however, Monique has an unrequited crush on Lane that does not note her. When Lane stumbles upon Monique in a high-school party, he befriends her. The upset Lane challenges Roy in a competition on the K12 slope but then he regrets. However Monique is a great mechanic and skier, and fix Lane's Camaro and teaches him how to ski the K12 slope. What will happen to Lane?
"Better off Dead" is a cute romantic comedy even thirty-one years later. The story is funny and there are hilarious situations. Further this film has not aged and entertains. Maybe the greatest difference is that in the viewer that enjoyed this cult-movie in 1985 now is able to understand much more Lane's father attitudes. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Minha Vida é um Desastre" ("My Life Is a Disaster")
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The teenager Lane Meyer (John Cusack) has a crush on his girlfriend Beth Truss (Amanda Wyss). When Beth dumps him to stay with the successful skier Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier), Lane is depressed and decides to commit suicide. However he gives up and tries to improve his skill of skier to ski the dangerous K12 slope to impress Beth. Meanwhile his neighbor Mrs. Smith (Laura Waterbury) receives the exchange French student Monique Junot (Diane Franklin) and her fat son Ricky Smith (Daniel Schneider) considers Monique his girlfriend; however, Monique has an unrequited crush on Lane that does not note her. When Lane stumbles upon Monique in a high-school party, he befriends her. The upset Lane challenges Roy in a competition on the K12 slope but then he regrets. However Monique is a great mechanic and skier, and fix Lane's Camaro and teaches him how to ski the K12 slope. What will happen to Lane?
"Better off Dead" is a cute romantic comedy even thirty-one years later. The story is funny and there are hilarious situations. Further this film has not aged and entertains. Maybe the greatest difference is that in the viewer that enjoyed this cult-movie in 1985 now is able to understand much more Lane's father attitudes. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Minha Vida é um Desastre" ("My Life Is a Disaster")