Thursday, March 23, 2017

Better Off Dead... rated PG for mild language and brief sexuality



A friend showed this picture to me after I revealed that I hadn't heard of it much less seen it.  The first time that I watched it I thought that it had some cute quirkiness to it but I didn't love it enough to own it.  After watching it again, it started to grow on me enough to warrant purchasing it and so I did.
Lane Meyer (played by a very young-looking John Cusack) feels pretty good about life mostly because he has a girlfriend that he absolutely adores named Beth Truss (played by Amanda Wyss).  Sure he doesn't have a car, his parents don't understand him, he doesn't have many friends, and he isn't on the ski team yet.  But everything is fine as long as he has Beth.  Or so he thinks.
Lane is dismayed when Beth breaks up with him to be with the smarmy captain of the ski team Roy Stalin (played by Aaron Dozier).  To make things worse, he can't seem to ski the K-12 to make it on the ski team.  His father starts to give him a hard time about everything it seems.  Lane keeps crashing the family car while trying to race two brothers Yee Sook Ree (played by Yuji Okumoto) and Chen Ree (played by Brian Imada).  Everyone seems to be asking him if it's ok for them to date Beth.  On top of all of that, Lane also has to work hard to try to avoid the Paperboy (played by Sebastian Dungan) who just wants his "Two..dollars!"
Fortunately, Lane's friend Charles De Mar (played by Curtis Armstrong) is actively trying encourage Lane in his endeavor to ski the K 12.  Charles is also comically trying to get high by snorting everything but actual drugs.  The other person who tries to encourage Lane both with the skiing and romantically is the French foreign exchange student Monique Junot (played by Diane Franklin) who is living with the Smiths across the street.
Poor Monique is struggling to keep Ricky Smith (played by Daniel Schneider) at bay while  Mrs Smith (played by Laura Waterbury) keeps encouraging Ricky to pursue Monique.
This is a classic movie that I recommend particularly for fans of 80s movies and/or John Cusack.  It's a cute romantic comedy with memorable characters.  There is some cheese to this picture but it's great.


No comments:

Post a Comment