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Better Off Dead

  • Rated PG
  • 1hr 37m
  • 51

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Videos & Photos

  • Official Trailer

Movie Info & Cast

Director:

Savage Steve Holland

Producer:

Michael Jaffe

Release Date:

Jan 1, 1985

Runtime:

1hr 37m

Synopsis

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.

Cast

  • John Cusack
  • David Ogden Stiers
  • Kim Darby
  • Demian Slade
  • Scooter Stevens
  • Diane Franklin
  • Laura Waterbury
  • Dan Schneider
  • Yuji Okumoto
  • Brian Imada

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Metacritic

51
metacritic
Based on 7 Critics
6.9

USER SCORE (20)

Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Reviews
67

What it has in its favor is affability—some owed to Cusack’s gawky young charisma, some to Holland’s goofy tone and lightly surreal sense of humor, and still more to a cast where even the villains are mostly likeable...To paraphrase the opening narration in The Big Lebowski, Better Off Dead is the movie for its time and place. It fits right in there.

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Metacritic review by Scott Tobias
Scott Tobias
The A.V. Club
60

Some of the gags in Better Off Dead have a lot more cleverness than the material - just another silly story about a lovesick high school boy and the cute, annoying habits of his friends and family - might warrant.

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Metacritic review by Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
The New York Times
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