Rent Better Off Dead (1985)

Two Dollars and a 4K Upgrade - Better Off Dead review by griggs

The new 4K release makes Better Off Dead look far glossier than its reputation. It’s still very much an oddball teen comedy, somwhere between John Hughes and Looney Tunes shorts. Lane’s heartbreak spirals into cartoonish duels, crooning hamburgers, and a paperboy who treats debt collection like trench warfare.

Not every gag survives the upgrade—some creak, some evaporate mid-scene—but the film has a scrappy energy that keeps it moving. You get the sense the filmmakers were making it up as they went, and sometimes that looseness works better than polish would.

What’s left is a strange, lopsided charm: too uneven to be a classic, too bizarre to forget. The mainstream jokes fade, but the weird shines brighter. Watching it now, you see a film that shouldn’t hold together, and somehow does—just about.

Very Silly...And Unfunny Teen Comedy - Better Off Dead review by GI

It may have allegedly achieved some kind of cult status but this is simply a silly and puerile 80s teen comedy that is so overloaded with slapstick jokes that it becomes increasingly tiresome. It's as if the director, Savage Steve Holland, thought that was what a comedy needed. There's no sense of subtlety or even any well written comedic set pieces, it's just an onslaught of utter childishness. John Cusack is Lane, a high school student who becomes depressed when his girlfriend dumps him for the school hunk. He has some suicidal thoughts as he tries to deal with the rejection until he meets Monique (Diane Franklin), the French student staying with his awful neighbours. There's not even any attempt and anchoring the issue of teenage love and loss within the comedy. It's a complete load of tosh.